Foals Total Life Forever 3/5 Listen To: Spanish Sahara Skip It: Black Gold On the heels of their 2008 release Antidotes, the five piece band that make up Foals have just released their second album, Total Life Forever. However, don’t expect the frantic, funk-tastic mess that made up their previous album to show up quite as noticeably this time around. Instead, their sound has been toned-down and refined, turning into a more cohesive work – one that doesn’t feel quite as fresh as their …

Devo Something For Everybody 4/5 Listen To: Fresh Skip It: March On While it has been precisely 20 years since Devo has released a studio album, the band that encompasses the degradation of society’s progress has ironically evolved. The simple Commodore-64 synth tones that marked them as de-evolutionaries have transformed into modern dance beats and rhythm loops that could be backing anything in pop music today. “What We Do,” for instance, begins with an electronic melee of tones and …

Gaslight Anthem W/ Tim Barry July 14, 2010 Sound Academy Sometimes it's amazingly refreshing to see a band that doesn't need to depend on any tricks at all. Gaslight Anthem really are as great as they sound and they don't do anything special to be that way other than just be themselves. Seeing opener Tim Barry could be intimidating, but instead he comes across as completely honest and endearing. There are few people who can make you want to change the world through a song like that. With just an …

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VersaEmerge Fixed At Zero 3.75/5 Listen To: Lost Tree Skip It: Up There VersaEmerge are a breath of fresh air for female fronted emo. In the Warped Tour scene, you have Paramore and bands who want to sound like Paramore and that’s pretty much it. VersaEmerge are going to get comparisons, but don’t be fooled. They don’t sound like Paramore. VersaEmerge are an artsy, darker edged female fronted emo band that will mix things up for the scene musically. On their first full length album, …

The Gaslight Anthem American Slang 4/5 Listen To: Boxer Skip It: We Did It When We Were Young For their extremely highly anticipated third album, The Gaslight Anthem are dipping their toes in some new things. It’s not enough to alienate anyone, but just barely enough to keep things different. American Slang is in essence a solid album. It’s what The Gaslight Anthem fans are expecting and exactly what they want. This isn’t the type of band you expect to drastically change their style. …

The Boys of Summer What It's All About 3/5 Listen To: Things in Twos, Maps and Magnets Skip It: Gun Shy I was surprised reading The Boys of Summer's press release to see them openly count the rarely-brilliant Angels and Airwaves as an influence, but as soon as the shimmery guitars and reverbed out, heavenward vocals hit, shit was obvious. Frontman Jon-Paul Bakaric is a dead-ringer for Tom Delonge, though without the painkillers and shallow attempts at lyrical universality. Musically, that same …

The Dead Weather Sea of Cowards 3.5/5 Listen To: Blue Blood Blues Skip It: Jawbreaker Experimental blues rock super group, The Dead Weather, return to the scene with their second studio album Sea of Cowards. This album is like nothing I’ve ever heard before but sounds a little bit like a fusion of Alice Glass’ (Crystal Castles) loud, raw vocals, the simplicity of The White Stripes bass-driven songs with a hint of 70’s psychedelic rock and a dash of electronic. This album is unique, …

Hot Hot Heat Future Breeds 3/5 Listen to: Times a Thousand Skip it : YVR After over ten years of being a band, Hot Hot Heat heats things up with a new album. Future Breeds soars above and beyond the experimental sound that the band seemed to be aiming for with their previous albums. Future Breeds, Hot Hot Heat’s fifth full-length album, comes a whole three years after their last release Happy Ltd. This album’s sound can best be compared to catchy Britpop and although it lacks the catchy …

The Blue Van Man Up 3/5 Listen To: Silly Boy Skip It: Trees That Resemble Listening to The Blue Van’s 2008 record Man Up, you’d probably assume you were listening to a spin-off of The Kinks or The Who, straight from the 60’s. Surprisingly though, these fine gentlemen have been playing for less than a decade – and they’re starting to garner some serious attention (they’ve been backed by Apple). Following in the footsteps of comparable artists like Wolfmother, these …