Posts by WLOY Staff

Summary: Chuck Ragan made me think twice about my hatred towards country music…incredibly consistent and well-structured, Gold Country is not one to miss this year.

Punk and country music don’t have a whole lot in common, right? Chuck Ragan sets to prove that wrong with Gold Country and does a pretty damn good job of it. Former frontman of punk band Hot Water Music, Ragan didn’t have a whole lot to prove. He was already pretty acclaimed in the punk scene. So, when he decided to swap Hot Water Music for a solo country-Western album, I was a little surprised. His first solo album, Feast or Famine, was a bare-bones album that managed to showcase Ragan”s versatility. His follow-up incorporates that same simplicity, but Ragan manages to add a little extra here and there.

Just because your little sister likes it doesn’t mean it’s bad, right? I mean c’mon, Fall Out Boy may not have the same reputation as Circle Takes the Square, but who isn’t up for some upbeat power-pop every now and then, excluding metal heads, that is. Some people call the pop-punk and power-pop genres worthless and without merit. I strongly disagree. True, Bad Astronaut and Say Anything don’t have the same, deep musical compositions or technical prowess of say, progressive music or post-rock. That’s not the goal of these shallow, simplistic bands. They provide immediately gratifying, pleasurable music. This is where power-pop band End Transmission comes into play. Devour is by no means a musical masterpiece. End Transmission’s debut album is not entirely original, and I would call it a bit shallow or superficial. Now that that’s out of the way, I really liked this album. It serves the purpose nicely. Devour is chock- full with 11 enjoyable songs. 

Contrast and contradiction plague Wildlife, in a good way. Recorded in their home, located in Champaign, Illinois, the angst and confusion shows through on their latest record. Created in a short period of time and marked by band break-ups during the process, Wildlife combines beautiful, lush indie-pop with a welcome sense of variety that is so often lacking in similar sounding music. Indie-pop often falls victim to monotony and flatness, but Headlights keep things fresh.

Joel Plaskett, at 33.3 years old, entitled 3 songs on his new release with 3 repeating words, “Rolling, Rolling, Rolling,” “Rewind, Rewind, Rewind,” and “Gone, Gone, Gone.” At this point, he couldn’t stop the trend. He decided to record a triple CD release, entitled Three, with 9 songs apiece, all with their own independent styles and concepts. He may have gone a bit too far, far, far, as the last mentioned song suggests, but it’s an interesting concept, at least, even if it is borderline gimmicky. Relaxing folk ballads blended with some soft rock are at the crux of Three, but ultimately it’s Plaskett’s ability to hide “3’s” all over this record that overshadow the actual music.

Trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack are back with a not so massive attack, a 4 song EP titled Splitting the Atom. Short and pithy, Splitting the Atom is a nice snack, just enough to remind the music community that Massive Attack are still in the kitchen and brewing something, delicious or possibly disastrous. It’s definitely not a full meal, but Splitting the Atom will have trip-hop fans and non-fans alike tongues dripping with anticipation due to the illustrious line-up of Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey (Elbow), and Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio). Unfortunately, Splitting the Atom doesn’t turn out to be nearly as appetizing as it appears.

You haven’t heard this before. You may have heard sprawling soundscapes carefully executed. You may have even had the pleasure of hearing a wave, no, a tsunami of furious guitar envelope songs until all that’s left is furious riffs of gargantuan noise. Calculated and technical screamo has been done before. Maths isn’t the first band to provide listeners with caustic riffs and shrill screams that will make your hair stand on end until the next breath of fresh air, in relaxing instrumental form, grants you relaxation.  Nor is this probably the first time you’ve heard hardcore that you find yourself hopelessly lost in, with enough dips and dives to leave you disoriented and dizzy. But let’s get one thing straight here: none of those other bands were Maths. Following a split with fellow English screamo outfit, Throats, Maths gathered enough praise to garner a “who’s who” of bands on the rise by a feature in NME. The natural stage of progression would be for Maths to start touring more regularly, reap more publicity, and basically move up in the business, right? Wrong. Maths drop their label in favor of honing their sound and recording a DIY record it themselves. The result is an enticing, and quite stunning output, Descent.