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Posts tagged pop-punk

The Early Strike – Ten Outta Ten

Mar28
2011 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Pop-punk rockers The Early Strike armed with their female and male vocal assault are here with a catchy new album called “Ten Outta Ten”. While only their sophomore release, it’s surprisingly well-written and entertaining. “Ten Outta Ten” brings back lots of memories of past pop-punk bands from the turn of the century – gosh that makes it sound old even though we’re talking ten or so years huh? Sugary sweet melodies and entertaining lyrics, producer David J. Holman (Bush, No Doubt) was able to help The Early Strike have flecks of New Found Glory, The Ataris, Saves the Day, and Something Corporate.

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Just Surrender – Phoenix

Mar05
2011 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Produced by Lou Giordano (Plain White T’s, Taking Back Sunday), “Phoenix” is another notch in Just Surrender’s belt. As a group that has explored the nuances of pop-punk and emotional hardcore over the past four years as they have toured relentlessly with two releases that have sold upwards of 40,000 copies, Just Surrender put their laser focus on crafting an album that would further expand their fanbase. With both vocalists featured throughout with perfect layering, “Phoenix” is an admittedly guilty pleasure of the type of emotional rock that now dominates the Warped Tour. While other bands seem to stall amid the clichés and mall-punk normalcy, Just Surrender seems to shrug that off.

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Chaser – The Big Picture

Jan03
2010 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Chaser - The Big Picture

Orange County may be the most Republican county (and rich, hmm coincidence?) in all of California, but Chaser is all about the Do-It-Yourself scene and have been a part of it since 2002. Playing their brand of melodic mall punk with a twist of alternative rock, Chaser drops fast rhythms and quick guitar pacing alongside melodic and somewhat nasal vocals. Think of No Use for a Name or other California, mid-to-late ‘90s pop-punk and you get the general gist. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I think “The Big Picture
” is more of a time filler between listening to really good albums than something I’d boast about to all of my friends about “being the first to be into this album”. There are some great guest spots that really augment the album though, namely Death By Stereo’s Dan Palmer and Authority Zero’s Jason Devore. As you might imagine you may have already seen them on the Vans Warped Tour (they played on it in ’08) or you may see them soon (they’re touring with Guttermouth in the early part of 2010) and they had some amount of national notoriety with their hit single “Numb America” that was out in 2006 with KROQ giving it a lot of spins.

Follow Chaser on Twitter.

Watch a live video of the group playing three songs and being interviewed courtesy of Flashrock:

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Rotten Bark – Chillin’ Out (Teenage Love Story) Part 1

Jan02
2010 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Rotten Bark – Chillin’ Out (Teenage Love Story) Part 1

Dear unsigned bands, do NOT ever send your material, unsolicited or otherwise, requiring a signature. That will just piss off whomever is in receipt of your package. And to open it up to find a plea that they need help from people just like myself, is well, hilariously ironic. But despite the aggravation of my mailman giving me warning slip after warning slip regarding signature, I promised to listen with an open-mind. Good thing I did! Polish pop-punk that is in the vein of California sunny pop-punk you’d hear at any mall or skate park. The EP is short at only three-songs but very strong nevertheless, perhaps strong enough to even get them signed to an indie label at some point soon. The single is “Chillin’ Out (Retarded Knight)” and at sub-three minutes is perfect for the attention span deficit mall punk fans out there. The recording is spot-on, sounding extremely professional, and yes they sing in English; also their harmonies are ridiculously catchy with nice foot-stomping rhythms – pretty much everything that a great pop-punk band needs in their favor. Definitely not something incredibly new by any stretch but in this genre, does it really matter?

Listen to their cover of Blink 182’s “First Date” at YouTube. Is it really a surprise that they’d cover Blink 182 (that’s a rhetorical question for those of you sucking down the cough syrup a bit too much these days).

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Artist vs. Poet – Artist vs. Poet

Jul18
2009 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

artist-vs-poet_artist-vs-poet

It truly amazes me how many bands can sound exactly like this and get away with such blatant plagiarism. Imagine if the music industry had the same zealous infatuation with catchy copycats as university’s do with college term paper-writing or hell the RIAA’s infamous prosecution of underage music pirates. That said, one can’t help but believe in such infectious melodies as Artist vs. Poet. Sure they could be on a dozen movie soundtracks starring Justin Long or Sean William Scott but who gives a damn. This is fun mall-punk rich in everything that producer Mike Green (Paramore, Danger Radio, The Higher) can pour into this quick up-tempo self-titled EP. You’ll hear way more on Fuse and see way more throughout their planned tour of the Spring of ’09.

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Energy – Invasions of the Mind

Oct04
2008 4 Comments Written by J-Sin

Boston area band Energy is not your average turn-key melodic hardcore band of disaffected youths blabbering on about how hard their suburban lives are. “Invasions of the Mind” is an experience of pure pop-punk bliss lifted with three-part vocal harmonies that are surprisingly spot-on by self-taught crooner Jason Tankerley. Tremendous melodies and hugely impacting harmonies crunch the listener with a sound that is part Saves the Day and part Bane–mainly the best parts combined for a perfect forging of melodic hardcore punk.

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Alesana – Where Myth Fades to Legend

Jun30
2008 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Screamo, it’s one of those genres you can either dig, or you just totally admonish. Oddly enough I was a pretty big fan of the sound when it was first being developed in the early ‘90’s; unfortunately it got bloated by sound-a-likes and fashionazis. But even while the genre became blander and blander, there were some bands that rose to the occasion. Forget their tender angst riddled lyrics for a second and they’re cheesy melodic croonings and focus instead on the talented hops and skips between heavy hardcore metal and pop-punk anthems. If you can accomplish that you’ll enjoy at least two or three tracks on this sophomore effort by Alesana. Otherwise it’s mall-core to the max.

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Cute is What We Aim For – Rotation

Jun21
2008 Leave a Comment Written by J-Sin

Forget the tragically angst-riddled lyrics and the even more tragic band name, “Rotation” is an array of surprisingly decent pop-punk and emo anthems wrapped in a catchy enveloping hug. But all hugs and disses aside, Cute is What We Aim For is Fueled By Ramen‘s latest mall-driven pop that features a single “Practice Makes Perfect” that soccer moms will be singing along to, despite any irony whatsoever. On, tour with Powerspace, Danger Radio, and Ace Enders, Cute is a band that will no doubt be unheard of in another couple of years but who knows, maybe they’re the second coming of Dashboard Confessional. I mean there’s flooding in Iowa that hasn’t been seen for some 500 years, anything is possible. Enjoy their new video that MTV is spewing out whenever MTV tries to remember what the “M” stands for in their acronym.

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