Album Review : The Bloody Hollies : Yours Until the Bitter End

First off, I’d like to say, “Any band that’s influenced by AC/DC, the Devil Dogs and the Stooges is likely to be a friend of mine.” Still, tons of bands cite tons of cool influences. My reaction can still end up being “Meh.”

I’ll leave questions like where Bloody Holllies‘ fifth release, Yours Until the Bitter End, could be filed (Punk/Metal? Garage? Hard-drinking music?) to you. In any case, there’s little in the way of excess here, and nothing in the way of catering to trends. There’s lots in the way of digging sharpened fangs into classic forms (see filing possibilities above) for sounds that would go great with glasses being slammed back down onto bars. Blasting it while stuck in gridlock could start something dangerous.

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MP3 : The Bloody Hollies – Dirty Sec

Post by Mary Leary

The BLOODY HOLLIES TOUR DATES… (more…)

New 7″ : Mood Rings : Promise Me Eternity

The endless river of kick-ass music coming out of Atlanta these days keeps on a ‘rollin with Mood Rings, a dreamy psyche-pop group with a 7” Promise Me Eternity that sounds like it could be a long lost gem from The Association, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds or even Spanky and Our Gang. William Fussell, Tymb Gratz, Christopher Alley and Peter Cauthorn have clearly been geeking out on scrumptious, trippy pop records from the past whose emphasis centered around lazy-day, wistful yearnings and it shows. Their abundance of jangly guitars, vaporous vocals and meandering melodies would seemingly fall under a sunshine-pop category if it weren’t for a barely-there, dark and sexy underbelly that moves this atmospheric sound into the new millennium. It’s both sweetly pensive and hauntingly ethereal all at once; a heart-tugging combo if there ever was one. This 7” follow-up on the tails of their incredible debut EP Sweater Weather Forever on Double Phantom Records definitely promises of more good things to come from this Atlanta foursome.

You can catch Mood Rings currently on tour with labelmates Carnivores.

MP3 : Mood Rings – Promise Me Eternity

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MP3 : Mood Rings – Exorcized Painting

-Post by Miss Dolly Mod

Mood Rings on Tour… (more…)

Diarrhea Planet : Warm Ridin’

What is in a name? A question both for the ages and perhaps for Infinity Cat Recording’s latest label offering Diarrhea Planet. It’s hard when a band names themselves after a word I try my best to avoid uttering at all costs. Let’s face it: no one wants to hear it, conversationally or otherwise. But once you check out this band and swoon over their infectious, punky garage rock, much like you did twenty-some years ago with the Butthole Surfers, you think more about their stellar sound than the name and forget over time it’s at all…unsavory…in the first place. Also, it doesn’t hurt to secretly have the mentality of a teenage boy and happen to dig gross-out humor. With that in mind, I fully embrace Diarrhea Planet and all that goes with it. Upon hearing their latest mp3 Warm Ridin’ I can’t say they really left me a choice. Starting with an epic space-rock wash of a four-guitar (yes. four.) assault of fuzzy goodness before launching into a classic 70’s-style punk-pop blitz, this grungey Nashville sextet is churning out full-tilt, pit-soaked, garage party rock and roll. Frontman Hodan Dickie’s vocals sounding like a burlier Joey Ramone with a mouthful of novocaine, only adds to the awesomeness. That and the fact that they sound like their having more fun than the rest of us. You can find Warm Ridin’ on their debut LP Loose Jewels which drops (does everything sound poo-related in retrospect, or is that just me?) this September 20th 2011 on the JEFF the Brotherhood-owned label.  

MP3 : Diarrea – Warm Ridin’

-Miss Dolly Mod

Steve Adamyk Band : Landslide

From north of the border comes Ottawa’s Steve Adamyk Band, an unlikely moniker for a pop-infused garage-punk outfit with unfettered energy bursting from their every catchy hook. I don’t know why, but for some reason bands named after a person often seems connotative of a jazz trio, no? Well, it seems Steve Adamyk had his fill of band break-ups within former groups Million Dollar Marxists and Sedatives so he started his own side project to lay down a few of his own tunes. Thing is, the project quickly got legs and Steve soon had an album’s worth of songs and full-fledged band rarin’ to go. And by slapping his name on it, no matter what members may come and go on down the road, at least now the band name can stay the same. Smart plan. Also, smart music. A bit trashy, a bit bratty, but mostly straight-up bouncing off ‘da walls indie power-pop. In fact, MOKB is happy to debut the first MP3 Landslide off their upcoming full-length Forever Won’t Wait due out this November via Portland’s Dirtnap Records. Give it a whirl. You’ll be stoked you did.

MP3 : Steve Adamyk Band – Landslide

-Post by Miss Dolly Mod

New Cover : James Vincent McMorrow : Wicked Game (Chris Issak)

We always “ooh and aah” over James Vincent McMorrow’s work, most recently his cover of Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love,” and today is no exception. Today we were greated with another cover gem – Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”

McMorrow performed the cover last month at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland. You can buy James Vincent McMorrow’s Early In the Morning at iTunes.

MP3 : James Vincent McMorrow – Wicked Game (Chris Issak cover)

James Vincent McMorrow on tour… (more…)

MOKB Premiere : Chateau Marmont : Receive and Follow

MOKB told you about Chateau Marmont a few months back. The group, that shares members with Jamaica, started getting notice after some EPs and remixing the likes of La Roux, LadyHawke, and Röyksopp. Their sound is in the same vein of other French electro artists such as Air, Daft Punk, Ed Banger crew, etc.

Stream Receive and Follow, the first song off their as-yet untitled record, due out in January 2012.

Chateau Marmont Live in Concert w/ Revolver… (more…)

Film : 50/50 Gets Emotional

Consider this your SPOILER ALERT. You know exactly how “50/50” is going to end from the very beginning. The plot goes like this: impossibly young man gets a rare form of cancer, triumphs against his 50/50 odds and gets the girl in the end. Despite it’s predictability, there are some great moments along the way, carried largely on the back of a strong performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

It’s a pity he gets little help from his supporting cast. Anna Kendrick’s bottled up and inexperienced counselor persona is reminiscent enough of her “Up in the Air” character, I wondered if she’s playing herself. Seth Rogan plays the same role you’ve come to know him for – the witty and sarcastic, but loyal bro with a just-beneath-the-surface warm fuzziness. I could have overlooked his sameness (because he is dang good at it), if not for the cheap finding of a book that proves his true loyalty – a regurgitated trick from “Knocked Up.” It seems the easiest known vehicle to reveal his underbelly is for the object of Seth’s affections to find a book (in this case, a title about coping with a loved ones’ cancer) earmarked in his bathroom.

I will say this, it’s got a lot of laughs. But it certainly needs the qualifier. For a cancer movie. Selling it as a comedy doesn’t do the film any favors. The movie is at its best when it finally reckons with the gravity of the situation and lets the vulnerabilities of the characters develop. I confess, as much as I had a hard time with some of the script and acting, the movie got me. It took me for that lump-in-the-throat, emotional ride. It’s impossible to totally dismiss a film that can deliver me from glassy eyes to grateful for life. For that alone, it just might be worth catching.

Catch it in theaters September 30, 2011. Watch the trailer here: