Story of the Year - The Constant

Alternative Metal rockers Story of the Year come out with a new record for 2010 and isn't the title fitting - The Constant. Anything but, is the new album with their variety of influences of styles mixing some hardcore, funk metal and alternative rock as well as the presumptious emo-pop lyrics gives fans new hope and especially Australian fans - a solid act for Soundwave Festival 2011. Yes that's right. i have already been looking. And wouldn't we also love Jimmy Eat World to come back soon, especially given that Aussie fans know of a new and in recording album to be released over the new future. But that's another story altogether.

The Constant opens with The Children Sing and it proves to be an epic and suitable opening track to the record. A great pop-metal track with accompaniment from some children makes it a fun and great sing-a-long for the live stages. But the next track really shows what Story of the Year bring to the table - The Ghost of You and I, a shoe in for their live single of the album. Using great melodies with a bit of the old 'short, fast and loud' treatment to make their point as the songs transitions into what fans love - Emo-Rock lyrics mixed with some alternative metal melodies as they are 'longing for daylight'.

To The Burial presents us with a slower but more epic and just as loud track indefinitely leave us with moments of screamo and hardcore in our ears. A bit of punk-rock follows the opeing chorus and every other chorus to keep us in our seats, the pop and radio friendly feature of this track makes it really the lowlight of the record.

The Dream Is Over shows us Page Avenue saga Story of the Year which all listeners will love with the under-melody and the lyrics are the subtle but most important part of the track - they just know how to put our feelings into words, who really wants to wake up from a dream?

Are we looking for more vintage Story of the Year? You bectcha! Time Goes On and so do Story of the Year as their new record looks to invograte old fans who are still stuck on Page Avenue. Interesting lyrics as well as how we choose to interpret them but they sit down and realise that lives came and gone but time still goes on.

The Constant finish with a speed-metal/hardcore track that's title doesn't have the best intentions, but that's we love them isn't it? Eye For An Eye really shows why Story of the Year have produced such commercial success - their ability to be different from other alternative-metal/post-hardcore groups and present such varying material with a vast array of influences, but still able to keep their core music writing styles to please old fans and still keep their fan base growing.



7/10

Alkaline Trio - This Addiction

This Addiction was promoted as a return to roots for the Alkaline Trio, no doubt as a ploy to bait old fans who have been waiting over ten years for the second coming of Goddamnit! With Matt Allison (the producer responsible for most of the band's earliest work) manning the boards and new label Epitaph footing the bill, things looked promising. The lead single and title track was a great start, and showed itself to be close to a return to form, with its blazing surge of guitars and slightly vintage feel (traces of "My Friend Peter" can be heard), and it seemed to reveal a band with something to prove. However, the deeper you get into This Addiction the more apparent it becomes that the model for their punk past must be From Here to Infirmary (not the heralded classic Goddamnit!), since the end result is still the same polished album full of vaguely gothic and bloody references where characters like Draculina live — no real bitterness, sore-throat defiance, or endearing heartache to be found. Despite their efforts to convince listeners otherwise, Alkaline Trio just can't seem to recapture the spirit of their early days, when purpose and emotion fueled every note. Instead, one is left with totally competent — and at times, yes, catchy — songs that ring just a bit too hollow compared to the urgent leave-it-all-on-the-floor guts of those earliest releases. Once the listener gets past the initial bait and switch, This Addiction takes a few spins to sink in, but when it does, several tracks do stick out of the bunch, the title track and "Off the Map" being some of the strongest. Dan Andriano has a solid showing, but with only three songs compared to Matt Skiba's eight, it would have been nice to hear him more, especially since Skiba's lyrics leave much to be desired. So despite the polished and punchy singalong choruses, This Addiction is really just more of the same recycled melodies from the Trio rather than any sort of rebirth. Those who have been enjoying what the Alkaline Trio have been releasing for the better part of the 2000s will love This Addiction all the same, but everyone else who still clings to hope of the band reclaiming its former fury may finally just throw up their hands and move on.

Confirmed Act 3:The Get Up Kids

After what was 5 or so years of rather good success and the influence they put on other pop-punk and emo bands to the day – even such as superstars Fall Out Boy and pulled-out act of Soundwave 2010, My Chemical Romance, and their further stint with more meaningful and productive pop-punk group, The New Amsterdams, they will be sure to bring out a lot of ranging songs and the setlist will be hard to predict. Obviously, fans love their breakthrough record – Something To Write Home About, but of course the other records will be cover, seeing their 10 year absence has brought tears to many fans.

1.Holiday
2.I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
3.The One You Want
4.Coming Clean
5.Overdue
6.Woodson
7.Your Petty Pretty Little Things
8.No Love
9.Off The Wagon
10.Valentine
11.Red Letter Day
12.Campfire Kansas
13.Holy Roman
14.Mass Pike
15.Action & Action
16.Walking On A Wire
17.Long Goodnight
18.Don't Hate Me
19.I'll Catch You
20.Ten Minutes

Confirmed Act 1: Motion City Soundtrack

Well all the bands that are coming, particularly the bigger acts will have a problem since their dilemma of trying to mix the old and the new stuff, seeing that most of they had a new album in the last 18 months. None more so than Motion City Soundtrack. They have flown under the radar for quite some time in the alternative rock and pop-punk world yet their stage presence, stage antics and ability to lyrically write fantastic songs bodes well for 2010. After releasing their newest record, My Dinosaur Life, in late January 2010, this will surely be the majority of the act with such poppy and catchy track as Worker Bee, Delirium, Her Words Destroyed My Planet, Stand Too Close and Disappear, they essentially could cover the whole 40 minute set with the new album... but they won't. Of course there will be moments of the older stuff while fans love and obviously some new fans will enjoy the set due to the increasingly poppy yet meaningful lyrics and music by Motion City Soundtrack.

1.Worker Bee
2.The Future Freaks Me Out
3.My Favourite Accident
4.Broken Heart
5.Delirium
6.This Is For Real
7.When “You're” Around
8.Pulp Fiction
9.Motherfuckers
10.Last Night
11.A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help)
12.Even If It Kills Me
13.Attractive Today
14.Stand Too Close
15.Perfect Teeth
16.Her Words Destroyed My Planet
17.L.G. FUAD
18.Disappear
19.Everything Is Alright

Preview to Soundwave Festival 2010 – Sydney

Well T-minus 8 days to Soundwave Festival 2010, the premier punk, rock, metal and emo showcase of the best acts from Australia and around the world. We've all seen the timetable and after months of speculation and changes I bring you the bands that I will be attending. Some that I wish I could attend and setlists of them, well at least hopeful setlists!

Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life

This album was written by the five members of Motion City Soundtrack, produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 fame, and mixed by the legendary Andy Wallace. If that isn't enough to describe just how undeniably accessible and fun "My Dinosaur Life" is, then I must continue.

This album seems to find Motion City Soundtrack coming through a difficult time, but with a but sunnier outlook than that of their previous album, "Even If It Kills Me". The opening track, "Worker Bee", is not a typical super-fast sugar rush like the listener may be expecting if they are familiar with this band. It is, comparatively, a mid-tempo track in this context. It still has the quality that makes it perfect to open the gates on a great pop-rock album, and sets the tone for a bumpy yet enjoyable ride.

"Her Words Destroyed My Planet", if I had to wager, will be recognized as a big hit sooner rather than later. If you don't believe me, watch the video. Try not to have flashbacks to the memorable Fall Out Boy video for "Dance, Dance". I dare you.

"Disappear" may be the angriest track this band have ever released, or at least the most frenetic. The vocals sound like a panic attack that somehow managed to find its way to a microphone.

Motion City Soundtrack shines brightly when they lay their hearts on the line. "Stand Too Close" will prove this, if you don't believe me. If you don't wistfully recall some lost love or recover a deep-seated pain from listening to "Skin and Bones", you're a robot, and in the words of William Murderface, robots are NOT to be trusted.

The sound of this album has all of the guitar, synth and drums that you expect from this band. But as a fan, and a musician who started on four strings, I urge the listener to dig deep and appreciate the deftness of Matt Taylor's bass playing. Taylor's developing skill certainly anchors the sound of this album.

Lyrics and Singing: Justin Pierre is a master lyricist not because he paints an abstract and dark canvas of enigmatic poetry. He is a master of his role as main lyric writer for Motion City Soundtrack because he tells his story with brutal honesty, down to every anal-retentive detail of whatever inspires the track in question. Whether it is the disillusioned but hopeful spirit conveyed in the key lines of opening track "Worker Bee" (I've been a good little worker bee / I deserve a gold star"), the pop-culture references that this band have become known for ("Her Words Destroyed My Planet", "Stand Too Close"), or the hilariously and nonchalantly profane "@!#?@!", the lyrics never let up in tone.

My only gripe is that for a guy who claims to be sober and clean, Mr. Pierre seems to have a continuing fixation on drugs, evidenced in "Delirium". It's still a catchy and memorable track, but how many times can one man beat the same dead horse?

Impression: Is there a number higher than 10 that I can choose for this category? Honestly, this is my favorite Motion City Soundtrack album since the beginning of their career. "My Dinosaur Life" has established that not only are this group of outcast musicians and misfit Midwesterners catchy, but they are competent. Motion City Soundtrack has made an album that plays to every strong point of every note or lyric that this quintet have previously put to celluloid or computer. It shoe-gazes without being overly self-aware. It is bouncy, bouyant, and I can safely say it is brilliant.

The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About

So, this is a pretty good record I must say and after purchasing the 10th anniversary CD/DVD with a live performance of the entire album, this will be a good band to check out if you are attending Soundwave Festival 2010, pending the timetable annoucement (I know there's gonna be at least one clash because the lineup is so AMAZZZIINNG!!).

Opening with Holiday, it sets a punk-inspired alternative rock album with some easily identifiable pop-punk sounds. The vocals give their genre away, and some pop-punk rhythms help us rock out to the track. And gee... wouldn't we all like to be on a holiday right now?

Here, come out the alternative rock of TGUK with Action & Action with a pop-punk riff mixed with a synth and keyboards. This style follows with several tracks, Red Letter Day, the uptempo Ten Minutes and I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel...

Evidently, we see the influence that TGUK have on many modern bands, and following on from the gothic rock and metal scene in the 80s, they form the backbone of the second wave of Emo, as cited by pop-Emo group - Fall Out Boy.

But of course, any great album needs to have contrast and change, to make those singles and iconic songs on the record stand out. We are introduced to this lower tempo indie rock through Valentine and even more so with Out of Reach with its soothing acoustic guitar, which is very well recorded with the emphasised bass notes and slides.

The lyrics throughout the album, make it a very enjoyable and meaningful album, shown in Out of Reach - "Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of reach... Start over..." Even in the high tempo punk inspired Ten Minutes, "It's like I've fallen in love, while I just fall apart." lyrics have a strong role in the song.

Beautifully, the album's end starts with a cover of The Cure's Close To Me, which I would almost listen to instead of the original, except that they are missing one key factor - Robert Smith's vocals. Finally, Something To Write Home About ends with a maginificent outing track. It begins with its beautiful piano arpeggios and faint electric guitar. Lyrics clearly want to be heard, and the assurance given that I'll Catch You means that we'll always have Something To Write Home About.

7.5/10

Next, I'm feeling towards AFI's new record Crash Love.

NOFX - Coaster

So, punk is dead is it? Not of as 2009. Over the last 20 years we saw the rise and fall or rock as we know, from the initial grunge and garage rock in Seattle, stimulated by Kurt Cobain and his individual punk view.

Cobain combined his newly found punk rock views with his childhood influences of Neil Young and Leadbeddy to lead the revival of rock from the pop and dance of the 80s.

NOFX seems to come out of this era and produced some real solid punk rock riffs even after the greats in the 70s. Short, sharp, fast and sweet with strange nicknames like most punk rockers, led by Fat Mike, they produced one of my favourite albums of the last 25 years – Punk in Drublic.

Nowadays, in their 40s they still have the same energy and vigor although their intensity has diminished yet they still know how to produce a fucking rocking album.

Coaster begins with We Called It America and followed by The Quitter of which both have a high intensity rhythm and pretty convincing lyrics. The album works really well as the opening 2 songs follow through and work as one whole opening title – with the lyrics ‘You wanna be a winner? You gotta quit thinking about quitting’ making a great firing up song.

After some slower (you know it was coming) tracks we get to Blasphemy with a great catchy riff and faster to get those heads banging and legs jumping. Moving on, we reach Creeping Out Sara, with comical lyrics on Tegan and Sara.

Back with the faced paced music and good riffs mixed with the punk-inspired solos Eddie, Bruce and Paul and Best God in Show is catchy and reminds me too much of a poo song but rebounds with it reggae beats – every NOFX has something foreign.

Don’t forget the jazz guitar and trumpet in I Am An Alcoholic to move back to their weird humourous fillers and ends with One Million Coasters, a great finale with strange comparisons yet gets me jiggy with the retro references.

Rock on NOFX!

7.5/10

More anger

Alright. i’m back. With a vengeance.

No seriously, when i say punk what do think of? Leather. Long messy disgusting hair. Drugs. Sex. Fuck. Sex Pistols. And the like. Not today’s modern culture.

I just recently went out to NOFX and their gig out at Hordern Pavillion in Sydney finally waiting for them to come out after 2006. After witnessing Jane’s Addiction earlier in the year with the original Nothing’s Shocking line up I was not disappointed by Fat Mike and the crew. Entralling and outrageous with many hits from their new record Coaster, which I am looking at reviewing soon so keep watching, they produced a great performance and played many great hits from the past.

NOFX was one of those bands who were able to brink back rock after its so called demise in the 90s due to the chaos and fucking up era of grunge and garage rock. They did what punk did in the 70s (both in the USA and UK) – make it simple because they could play complicated stuff and play it double time with overdriven guitar and being there writing music to make a point – with your lyrics.

So, that’s the prime basis of punk and being able to say FUCK YOU! To anyone and everyone. However, as I mention punk to my friends one of them said, ‘I love punk. Green Day is awesome!’

Rookie.

Green Day for anybody out there saying it is punk IS NOT PUNK.

Remember, to be PUNK you don’t have to dress punk and play punk music but you can’t be PUNK just because you look PUNK. Punk was a movement in the 70s and it was about rebelling to everyone, in particular ‘the pigs’ and ‘the government’. Green Day don’t. If anything, they used to be pop-punk 10 years ago but now of couse they succumbed to labels and money and went shit. Not many bands don’t change after this. If any. Well there are some but you’d
need to find them yourself.
So, my angts against this whole thing will never stop but until another moment like today happens i’m gonna take a break from ranting at the youth and their bad education.

Watch soon.

NOFX – Coaster review coming soon (when I analyse it enough)