To kick off this week's edition of Super Saturdays, we have Brooklyn based Fat Heaven with "In My Head". While they may not be the next superstars, the band has a great classic punk sound akin to that of genre leaders in the early 90s. Power chords, gang vocals, and lots of palm muting. All you need for a punk song, and that's how I like it! While you're at it, check out their Soundcloud and listen to "Nowhere" and "Night of the Dead" as well.
The other band I chose to feature this week is Freelite, natives of Polotsk, Velarus. The band's song "Illusions" is quite a hard hitter and I think you'll agree! The song is from an EP of the same name, released last March, which includes songs about different sides of human emotions, actions, and interactions. You can hear more from the EP on their Soundcloud.
This past weekend, I traveled three hours to Brantford, Ontario, to attend the tenth anniversary of the annual Blackout Fest, a punk rock/hardcore festival held each year at Club NV. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Pauline Taylor, Casius Wray-Muto, and Nicola Sudano of female-fronted Toronto post-hardcore band The Ocean Cure to chat and ask them about their creative process, plans for tour, and more
RMP: You guys have been playing together for over a year. In that time, aside from lineup changes, what's the biggest difference between when you first started, and now?
Pauline: I think we've done a lot of growing in the past year. Anyone who has seen us perform now versus when we first formed as a full band can probably attest to that. We've really solidified our message and what we're all about. We've moved past that point of figuring out who we are as a band, to a place of confidence and conviction. It's no longer just about making music, but building a family.
RMP: Your 6-song EP, Daydreamer, was released in January. How does it feel to have something tangible that you can go out and perform for people?
P: It's so incredible. It's hard to even put into words. Before the release of our EP, we were still figuring out how to get our message across, but now we have something real to show to people- something that is a perfect representation of who we are and what we stand for. The release of Daydreamer truly feels like our dreams becoming a reality, transforming from something that only we could feel into something that we can share with the people who support us.
RMP: You haven't toured very heavily in support of Daydreamer. What are your plans for a full tour?
Casius: Once we released our EP, we decided to try to start building in our home base. Opening for bigger shows became our main focus. We do have plans to tour in 2017. How far will we be going? At least 10 different cities in Ontario, and hopefully to Quebec as well!
RMP: Pauline, as the vocalist and lyricist of The Ocean Cure, what's your songwriting process like? Where do you draw your inspiration from?
P: The process changes a lot. Sometimes, it'll start with a poem that I wrote which I then show to the guys and we turn it into a song, or other times they'll start with the instrumentals and then I'll put a vocal melody over top of it. There are many different ways to go and we like to switch it up. As for inspiration, I usually pull inspiration from my own life and my experiences as well as the experiences of friends or stories that I've heard. It's important to us to write music that people can relate to so we like to have a lot of variety to our lyrical content. That way everyone can find a song that speaks to them.
RMP: As 2017 gets closer and closer, what are your plans for The Ocean Cure in the new year?
Nicola: Well apart from touring and introducing a few new songs into the set that are in the works, we're going back to the drawing board, assessing our live set, working on new material and a popular cover song. We're gonna work harder than ever to make the new year ours. So expect big things. We're not slowing down any time soon.
Daydreamer is available on all online retailers. Follow The Ocean Cure on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Watch their debut music video for their debut single, "Waiting for You", below.
Since this is the third Triple Tuesday, does that mean it's Triple Triple Tuesdays?
Elliot the Bull, from the Central Coast of Australia, is a post rock/indie band formed in 2010. The song "Standing on the Sea" is from their latest release, Beast, which almost never happened due to a robbery. Thankfully, a crowdfunding campaign paid for their studio equipment to be replaced and the record was finished. You can hear the song's mellow mastery below and expect a new single each week!
Edison Moth is releasing their debut album, Woods, on Nov. 28th. The first single is streaming now, titled "Paranoia". It's a fairly lo-fi track, with not much new to offer but it has a catchy chorus and good vocals. The band has some pretty clear influences, including Green Day, Weezer, and other 90s acts. They are definitely to keep an eye on, though!
Another Aussie band to round things out, Perth's Sly Withers. "Nike Shoes" off of their self titled album is a great track, mixing grunge with emo lyrics to make any sadboi cry. It can also be filed under "songs to jam out to like it's the early 2000s." The full album is now streaming on the band's SoundCloud.
Let's get ready to rumble… With the low end of Metal Mondays!
Kicking things off, we have the Norwegian metalcore band Halcyon Days. Based in Oslo, the band recently released a self titled EP to follow up their first full length release, .ELEVATE. Though they are promoting the first two tracks on the EP, "Utopia" and "Echoes", my favorite is the closing track, "Clear". The song, though it has a fairly poppy riff, is quite heavy as well. I thoroughly enjoy every bit of it, and think the band have successfully created their own original blend of metalcore while not differentiating themselves to the point that it sounds like they are trying to be different. You can listen to the EP now on their Soundcloud page.
The other band for this week's installment of Metal Mondays is Pray For Sound, a five piece instrumental post-rock band that was originally a solo project. The song "I Have Seen Hell and It's White" comes from their newest record, released on September 23rd, Everything is Beautiful. The mix features tight, punchy drums with dreamy and distorted guitars, which paint an absolutely massive soundscape for the listener. The album is interesting as "I Have Seen Hell and It's White" is one of the few heavy tracks. The band shows that a mix of genres on one record can be done, and blended from song to song quite well if you ask me. In fact, most of the record isn't even metal at all. Still, this one song alone stands out as a great metal track.
I hope you're all having a great day, because it's time for Super Saturdays!
Let's get started with some Australian punk! Keggin, a self described "party band", have released their song "Night of the Living Red". The track, from their EP Fruity Lexia Makes You Sexia, features gruff vocals with a catchy, spooky, punk riff accompanied by organ lines low in the mix. The solo towards the end of the song is simple, but fun to listen to. Keggin is definitely a band to play at your next party!
Next up, the Swedish indie punk band with catchy hooks and a driving beat: Rhymes debut the song "Drama", their first single. It's a dancy, catchy indie song with pop tinges abound. The vocals sometimes stand out of the mix a bit, specifically on the "oh oh, oh oh" parts which sound a bit rough, but aside from that the sound is very well produced and sounds smooth. The simple guitar lead fits the song really well, and anything more complex would have been overkill.
From Atlanta, GA, Broken Factory Windows show that punk is still alive and kicking in the US. Their song "Polar" from the brand new EP Bright Lights, Bright Lights! is similar to what other punk/pop-punk bands such as Teenage Bottlerocket are putting out these days. Simple riffs, catchy lead vocals, big gang vocals, and singing about good times. This is easily one of the best punk songs I've heard in a while. The bass riffs don't disappoint, either.
Until the next Super Saturdays, that's all, folks!
On October 7th, 2016, Sum 41 released their first record in five years. 13 Voices, produced by frontman Deryck Whibley and mixed by legendary mix engineer Tom Lord-Alge was also the first Sum 41 record in ten years to feature original guitarist Dave “Brownsound” Baksh.
The album starts with a slow building arrangement focusing on synths and strings. After over a minute, “A Murder of Crows” begins with Whibley singing “take me away” repeatedly. The entire track maintains the building feeling, much like the calm before a storm.
Next, “Goddam I’m Dead Again” begins with a poppy clap setting the tempo for the song. The song switches between pop punk choruses, metal guitar leads, heavy riffs, and more. Many different influences can be heard in this song. One of the highlights is the over one minute long guitar solo at the end of the song.
“Fake My Own Death”, the first track released to the public, is a typical Sum 41 song, going back to their roots. They again blend pop punk and metal to craft a precise blend of sound that only they can pull off.
To change things up a bit, although heavy, “Breaking the Chain” features themes of consequences relating to our actions. It reminds me a lot of punk music found in Europe or South America, akin to Die Toten Hosen.
A real standout on the album compared to previous Sum albums is “War”. The song discusses not knowing what we are doing in life, and is a much mellower song compared to others on the record even though it is still edgy.
“Twisted By Design” acts as an anthemic closer for the album. Whibley sings of starting anew, possibly referencing his very public health issues that came to light last year. Thankfully, Whibley was able to recover and has made it his mission to bring more Sum 41 to the fans, and I would say that 13 Voices has fulfilled that mission. Here’s to many more!
Sum 41 – 13 Voices Album Info
13 Voices is available through all major retailers now. You can follow the band on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
If you missed it, we also recently reviewed the “Don’t Call It a Sum-Back Tour” featuring Sum 41, Senses Fail, and As It Is.
Matt Carlson, a talented multi-instrumentalist who releases music under the name Wild Domestic, has released a new song titled "Authors". The song is from his upcoming record, Singular, which is slated for release in early 2017. The album follows up on Wild Domestic, Carlson's 2015 self-titled release.
"Authors" features punchy drums with heavily distorted guitars and vocals akin to those of Anthony Raneri (Bayside). Carlson, who is mostly self taught, shows with this track that he can successfully be a one-man-band. If the rest of the album showcases his skill as well as "Authors" does, it will be exciting to hear more when Singular is released in 2017.
Wild Domestic Info
You can follow Carlson's project on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Singular will be released in early 2017.
If you're like me, you're watching the election results come in and are increasingly panicking. Then you remember that you have German citizenship and start making plans to relocate, before distracting yourself with new music. So here we go, the second installment of Triple Tuesdays!
Let me introduce you to Raglans. The Irish alt-rockers recorded their debut EP, Again & Again, was released on Fierce Panda Records last month. They are also working on a full length to be released in 2017, which will include the five tracks from the EP.
Vivian K from Philadelphia, PA, manages to combine the sounds of many of today's popular indie-punk acts, such as Joyce Manor, Tigers Jaw, and PUP. They are definitely an act to keep an eye out for, and I wouldn't be surprised to see hipsters everywhere singing along to their sad songs soon.
Next, we have a quite fitting song. BlackWaters, based in Guildford, England, wrote the song about Brexit and their inability to vote because they were too young. Hopefully tonight's likely outcome will influence some artists in the US to write protest songs about our new Herr.
To start things off, we have Tribute, a post-hardcore/metalcore band from Poughkeepsie, NY. The five piece got together in 2013 and has since released three singles and a self titled EP on their Bandcamp page. The production of "Lambs Become Lions" is perfect, not a single note is out of place, the drums are tight and punchy, and the vocals sit well in the mix. Tribute will definitely be a band to keep an eye on in the next year or two.
Up next we've got Blue Helix and their song "Runaways". Compared to Tribute, Blue Helix have a more classic sound in the direction of grunge and hard rock, but there are definite metal influences to be heard. Hailing from Washington State, the band won the 2015 Puget Sound Battle of the Bands. The band clearly follows in the steps of Seattle's music of the 90s, and will likely become one of the Pacific Northwest's hottest acts.
To round things out we have the Israeli metalcore band Canine and their cut "From Ashes". The song is the first single from their upcoming debut, The Uprising. The guitar solo at 3:05 alone makes this song worth checking out. I can't wait to hear more from this band!
As It Is kicked off the show on an exciting note, bringing Jimmy from I Hate Heroes out to scream during their first song. Their 30 minute set was good, but the local engineer seemed disinterested and the guitars were noticeably too low in the mix for quite some time – finally corrected by a very noticeable fader mid-song move halfway through the set. The vocals were also very dry, and could have used a touch of reverb or delay. That being said, As It Is had excellent stage presence, and the performance itself was great, my only complaints lie with the House of Blues engineer who was mixing the band.
Senses Fail
These veterans in the touring world stole the show in my opinion. They really brought energy to the crowd, had a good sense of humor, and to be quite honest their touring engineer provided the best mix of the night, even better than Sum 41's. Having been around the world many times, it isn't surprising that Sense Fail could bring such energy to the crowd to get them ready for Sum 41. Lead vocalist Buddy Nielsen encouraged the audience to sing along, which they did on many of the band's more popular songs, including set-closer "Bite To Break Skin".
Sum 41
15 minutes before the band was even scheduled to go on, the audience was chanting their name. The energy in the room was like a bomb waiting to go off. The set started with a medley of recordings, including the classic "O Fortuna", after which Sum 41 kicked into high gear with "The Hell Song", followed by "Over My Head" and "Fake My Own Death", the lead single off of their new album 13 Voices. Through the whole set, vocalist Deryck Whibley switched off between playing guitar and jumping around the stage while letting original guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh play and having co-lead guitarist Tom Thacker come up front for guitar leads. Bassist Jascon McCaslin and drummer Frank Zummo fill out the rhythm section of the Sum 41 lineup.
A highlight of Sum 41's production was that unlike many bands these days, they didn't ignore spotlights and chose to light the downstage area well. Many bands these days opt for only backlighting which makes the musicians very difficult to see, and I am glad that Sum 41 didn't go down this route. They also carried their own sound and lights, which added to the show but I must say I was not impressed with the mix – some songs were great while others were not, it seemed the engineer was not adjusting the mix to fit different songs very well. The snare drum also sounded thin and hollow throughout the set, and the high-mids in the mix overall were standing out in an annoying way.
Aside from the mix issues, Sum 41 played a really amazing set. The band blew through both classics and new songs, though the audience seemed far more interested in the classics. Before you knew it, an hour and twenty minutes had gone by and the band was starting their encore. A surprise highlight during the set was when the band covered Queen's "We Will Rock You", but with their own special twist on it (skip to 6:35 in the video below). Overall, Sum 41 proved that even in 2016, they've still got it and they don't plan on quitting any time soon.
Sum 41's new album 13 Voices is available now through all major retailers.