I may sound old when with a few of these comments that I may utter in this post, but today’s music rarely impresses me. Sure there are solid albums released on and off by both older artists and new, but I haven’t run into an album that I simply couldn’t stop listening to in some time.
I grew up listening to punk music in an era where “punk was dead”, but it actually was in a new prime. My time was not the Ramones/Sex Pistols era, but the flourishing Epitaph years with bands putting out albums in their peak, bands like Bad Religion, Pennywise, NOFX, Rancid, even earlier Offspring. The bar is always set high for me when it came to newer punk bands, which is why I rarely find anything that impresses me. Billy Talent has always been amazing. From their earlier album “Billy Talent” along with “Billy Talent II” and “Billy Talent III”, they have mastered their sound over the years and take it a step further in their newest release, “Dead Silence”. I have not been able to go more than a few days without putting this album on at least sometime during the day and many of your lovely shirt orders I have processed while rocking out to it.
The album has a different sound then the previous albums, still blasting you with their power riffs and harmony, but adding darker elements that the previous albums didn’t have. They also changed up the harmonizing of the vocals, often at times sounding similar to the harmonizing that System of a Down used to do.
This album is great from start to finish and I highly recommend it, especially if you have thoughts about music similar to mine.
Lemonheads Coming to Buffalo!
The memory for me is still clear as day. 8th grade was the year I sort of found out what I was going to be, at least from 8th grade through high school. I sort of went from a complete awkward disaster to still being awkward but with actual friends. Looking back on it, I was sort of taken in as an intern with our school’s group of delinquent skateboarders during a time when that sort of thing wasn’t quite as accepted as it is today. It was a great time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Music played a big part in growing up for me and I remember heading to the mall with my newly made friend Taylor to pick up some new release cassette tapes. I had picked up Nirvana, “Incesticide” and The Lemonheads, “It’s a Shame About Ray”. I was familiar with Nirvana at the time, but The Lemonheads were a band I was not familiar with. To this day I still listen to that album, and for 18 years I have listened to everything this band has put out, and every ounce of solo work Evan Dando has released. The one thing missing is that I had never once been able to see them live. On January 14th. 2012 they will be playing here in Buffalo, NY for a special show to perform “It’s a Shame About Ray” and it is going to rule. Don’t miss it!