VARIOUS ARTISTS Triple B Recordings The History of Boston Rock “Here and Now” 16-song CD compilation If you’re not a fan of good-old-fashioned hammer-and-tongs rock, you might wish to look elsewhere, though if you are, you could do worse than Noble Rot’s anthemic rabble-rouser “Rocket Fuel Mayhem,” The New Frustrations’ classy garage-rock thumper “Changed My Mind,” The Doom Buggies’ Byrds-like “Bruce’s Lament,” and Over the Edge’s over-the-top punk raver “Invincible.” Rounding out the bill are outstanding tracks by the … Read More >>
Category Archives: CD Reviews
ANGELINE Hi-n-Dry Powered Pearls 12-song CD Emily Grogan and Linda Viens share the songwriting duties and sing lovely harmonies in Angeline. Passion is the key to this vibrant band with a country twinge. The lyrics are easy to follow—and are consistently delivered straight from the heart. Cheryl Etu adds a wonderful glow to “The Clearing” and a child-like feel in “And it’s Hard” where her vibraphone plays a dominant roll in the mix. “Happy Again” contains a lovely violin … Read More >>
BANG CAMARO Black Sword Records Bang Camaro 12-song CD Unless you live under a rock (or out of state), you know that Bang Camaro has a whole lot of lead vocalists–17 on this disc. I’d call it shtick, except too many would take that as a negative, when, in actuality, it is the main reason I keep listening to this—the gang vocals lift this above the source material. Bang Camaro plays music that is very deeply indebted to hair-metal … Read More >>
EMILY GROGAN One Way Productions At Sea 13-song CD Emily’s second CD, At Sea, has me already scratching notes for the year-end poll. No doubt the year’s most exciting release—I can count nine of the 13 songs as possible radio hits. Emily’s wonderfully expressive vocals turn from sweet to demanding within a measure while dealing with break ups, moving on, and trying to work things out. “End of The Line” rolls in with Emily’s gentle advice then kicks into … Read More >>
PETER C. JOHNSON High-N-Dry Records Yaka Yaka 11-song CD As much a literary as an exclusively musical recorded work, this concept album chronicles an impressionistic, growling antihero’s personal journey spent unspooling through a madness ignited by John Lennon’s murder. In its Spartan way, this instrumentally-backed spoken word album is a brutal miracle. As an exemplar of outsider music and of art-from-pain, it puts me in mind of Neil Young’s banned-in-Aspen LP Tonight’s The Night, or Lou Reed’s monumental bummer … Read More >>