by Ian Schneider | May 13, 2019 | albums, review
Indie-folk duo Cricket Blue are storytellers in ever sense of the phrase, and their new album Serotinalia is packed full of them. With pristine harmonies and scaling acoustic guitars, Cricket Blue is able to cause the listener to drift off into another conscious zone, full of hope, but also darkness.
Members Laura and Taylor are a vocal match made in heaven. As you listen to each song/story, you feel you are at a concert, with Cricket Blue performing just for you. This concert is not at a large venue. It is simply in a small room, with just the sound of Cricket Blues voices and strings enveloping the confined space. The darkness in every song prompts contemplation of self, allowing the listener to be full immersed in the art. I cannot stress enough how talented these two musicians are, and how their chemistry creates an album containing the purest form of the indie-folk genre.
Serotinalia is out now, and you can keep up with Cricket Blue at http://cricketbluemusic.com/. You should keep up with Cricket Blue.
by Meredith Schneider | May 13, 2019 | singles, wolf tracks
Birmingham-based rock musician Alabama Rose just released a song that was basically made for your next great adventure. “Come With Me” boasts ethereal reverb for days, and robust vocals that weave gracefully in and out of guitar-heavy instrumentals. We’re hearing hints of Zooey Deschanel and Joan Jett coming through, a sound that is enigmatic and timeless all its own. As Alabama Rose urges you to “Come With Me”, the urge to move energizes you. This song is perfect for road trip weather and lazy, beautiful days in the grass.
Keep up with Alabama Rose here.
by Ian Schneider | May 10, 2019 | albums, review
Punk in every sense of the word, the Zig Zags’ new album They’ll Never Take Us Alive rings out loud and proud with electric guitars and metal riffs. From its lead off track “Punk Fucking Metal”, the Zig Zags let it be known that they are not messing around with their fourth album.
You can physically feel the metal influences in every single note and lyric sung. This listener appreciates the constant appearance of the galloping electric guitar, accompanied by fast kick pedals. Like something straight out of a Guitar Hero video game, the ever present guitar solo will have you wanting to do anything requiring physical energy, let’s just say, I don’t know, run head first into a roaring mosh pit. With all this speed metal talk, it is hard to look pastZig Zag’s ability to also slow it down, in a very punk rock way. Their track “Fallout” brings the tempo down just a hair, almost reminiscent of Dio’s “Holy Diver”. But, the consistent theme across the board is the methodical gallop of the electric guitar that will be ringing in your ears for days to come after listening to this album.
Zig Zags have been an ever evolving force in the punk rock landscape for years now, and their fourth album really puts on display their growth, in the most punk way possible. They’ll Never Take Us Alive is available now, and make sure to keep up with ZigZags here.
by Karina Marquez | May 10, 2019 | albums, review
Acclaimed artist Allman Brown captures intimate love and all its facets in his sophomore album Darling, It’ll Be Alright. Brown has created an album that is so smooth and captivating in both vocals and lyrics that you find yourself easily slipping into a constant loop of his music for hours.
The album opens up with the effortless soft pop of “Home,” a heartfelt track that is as catchy as it is uplifting. The title track, along with “Dust & Heat” and “Bury My Heart” have a similar positivity to them that feels genuine and sounds like summertime. On the flip side, songs like “Crazy Love” and “Shapes in the Sun” delve deeper into the sultrier aspects of Brown’s music. It is reminiscent of fellow British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s many hits in the unique vocal melodies and edgy, sharp guitar riffs.
Brown also delves into more somber ballads with “Hurting,” “Waiting for Something to Believe In,” and “Lonely Hearts, Los Angeles.” In particular, “Lonely Hearts, Los Angeles” stands out as a track that discusses the solitude of being in a big city, but still manages to be romantic in its depiction of something as gloomy as being alone – a difficult feat. Another standout was the final track, “Natasha,” which is a perfect example of Brown’s ability to emphasize the details of a loving relationship as well as highlight the beautiful simplicity of the song itself:
I bought you a Neil Young CD,
You made me try different food,
Showed me that being angry is not the same as being strong,
My darling, my darling one,
This is you love song.
Much like how Brown comes across in his music, Darling, It’ll Be Alright wears its heart on its sleeve. It is deeply romantic, heartbreaking, optimistic, and incredibly honest. To put it simply, this is what passionate music sounds like.
Be sure to check out the album, and keep up with Allman Brown here.
by Ian Schneider | May 8, 2019 | albums, review
Goosebumps. The immediate sensation one gets when listening to the intro to Judah and the Lion‘s new album Pep Talks. The aptly named Pep Talks gives the listener a metaphorical punch in the mouth with numerous vocal buildups, booming horns, and a steady building guitar. This is the band’s third album, and it does not disappoint from start to finish.
Big band feels with heartfelt lyrics is how this listener likes to describe Pep Talks. 17 tracks long, Pep Talks boasts features from Kacey Musgraves and Jon Bellion, but the majority of the focus is on Judah and the Lion’s ability to captivate audiences with their pop-alternative style. The constant presence of the variety of strings, and the pounding of drums, just make you want to move. Even as I write this at my desk, my head is consistently bobbing, and my feet are thumping with every single beat. Emotionally stirring, Pep Talks is raw in every sense of the word, putting on display every single talent that Judah and the Lion possesses.
The release of Pep Talks signals the announcement of a worldwide tour from Judah and the Lion. With festival stomps throughout, the band will be touring from May until November. Without a doubt, the songs on this album will be triumphs live, all of them have a live feel even when you are streaming them through a computer. I for one cannot wait to witness Pep Talks live, and I can only hope that Judah and the Lion incorporate the intro track “Pep Talk” into the performance. It gets me amped just thinking about it.
You can keep up with Judah and the Lion on their socials and their website judahandthelion.com.
by Phlis | May 6, 2019 | albums, review
Dead Girls Corp. recently released an album. So what’s it like? Read on and you shall discover.
The album starts with Dead Girl, the feel of the track is very much 90s metal. It has nice droning chugging guitars and potent vocals. I also like the industrial feeling you get on this one.
From The Bottom is next, this has a gorgeous old school industrial start and feel, I must admit the feel of the music is nothing new but it’s amazing just by being what it is. This track has a lot of power behind it both vocally and musically, some very nice potent and energetic drumming here.
X’s No O’s again has that classic industrial start, the music is very packed full of sound which can sometimes detract from each angle of the music but this is not a bad thing. Again this track is nothing different from the previous two tracks in any way, but the music is one you find yourself moving to.
Alleys Of Death is by far the most melodic of all the tracks so far with great placement of each part of the music, it doesn’t feel as slightly too full as the previous three tracks do. This has a cock rock feeling to the track vocally and also the way that the guitars screech.
Ask For It is really a track that has very prominent vocals and guitars, they just seem to dual with each other yet compliment each other at the time. Though at points when both are full on they tend to drown each other out somewhat which is a shame as it detracts from the feel of the song.
Flesh For Fantasy again has a cock rock feel but this time it’s melodic and very sexy, almost orgasmic industrial metal. On this track the vocals sound like a sensual but aggressive David Coverdale. I like the music on this one, the backbeat is good but the guitars seem to tell part of the story which is quite clever.
Can’t Change does what some of the other tracks on this album don’t, it harmonizes the clutter of the music. It’s full on sound but with etiquette and emotion, I do love the slight echo on the vocals here as it adds a slight excitability to the feel of the music.
Promise Me is a track that is something different to other tracks on this album, this has more a late 90’s nu metal feel yet with a more slightly classic guitar sound. It’s almost a homage to the greats of that era like Stabbing Westward as it has that slight feel to it.
VDay comes next and to me as the album is winding down then so is the music, VDay is a lot more mellow than the other tracks but yet it does slightly peak at points. It has them chugging guitars again but yet there is something about this track, so far from what I have heard VDay is my favourite so far. It’s heavy, melodic, light and a true belter of a track.
Just The Same does similar to VDay, it winds down from the other tracks. Again this track is lighter, it’s less cluttered than some of the other tracks and I must admit this one is very harmonic. It just seems to fit well together, for the first time here you can hear the bass perfectly. Liking this track a lot.
Dynamite is again quite light compared to the beginning tracks, David Coverdale esq vocals make a return here. The music ebbs and gets a bit more heavier than VDay and Just The Same but then it calms down again, I think it’s perfect for the setting lyrically here.
And last but not least we have Worth, oh the bass here is very sexy. Only issue here is at points the music becomes cluttered again which kind of spoils what is a very catchy track, it’s just a little bit too much I feel.
Overall I feel this is not a bad album but there are quite a few tracks where the music is just too full and it becomes very cluttered which detracts from the actual talent of Dead Girls Corp. As the album comes to a close the music mellows and shows the true expertise of each of the musicians, vocals are amazing but they do get overpowered by the music sometimes.
If you like decent industrial then this album is for you, it’s nothing new but it does keep alive a genre that we don’t tend to see much of these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqnfz5NzvOw
http://deadgirlscorp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/deadgirlscorp/
by Karina Marquez | May 2, 2019 | videos, wolf tracks
New Orleans-based indie pop band
Royal Teeth manages to meld vulnerability and a catchy beat together in their latest single “Rivalry.” The track highlights the ever-present rivalry between change and constancy — the inner turmoil of deciding whether to move on or not to move on. The lead vocals of Gary Larsen and Nora Patterson, paired with guitarist Thomas Onebane and drummer Josh Hefner, creates a sound that allows the music to take hold of their listeners in an emotional way. The chorus stands out as the perfect example of how
Royal Teeth can show off their own musical style— deeply honest lyrics to a toe-tapping beat so that it gets stuck in your head:
Baby I’m not wasting no more time,
Drag my heart down one too many times,
Hold me steady give me one more try,
I made up my mind, I’m wasting no more time.
Be sure to check out Royal Teeth’s upcoming album Hard Luck, and keep up with them here.
by Phlis | Apr 25, 2019 | 5 to 7
Songwriter and composer Gaby Alter released his latest EP under the moniker Yes Gabriel on Friday, April 19th. His career thus far has included creating music for a variety of placement opportunities, namely Off Broadway musicals, independent films, PBS, NPR, and even Disney. With this new work comes some pretty incredible lyricism, and stunning influence peeks through as well. Read on for more in our interview with Alter.
You have a lot of musical experience, what part of your musical past brings you the fondest memories?
In my late teens and twenties, my friends and I put on a string of rock musicals in a small theatre space under a pizza parlour in Berkeley, California. We would write shows about aliens and zombies and superheroes and perform them while people upstairs ordered pizza and played video games. I got to hear songs I wrote sung by some really talented people, and the audiences–a lot of whom were our parents and friends from high school and their friends–loved the shows. That’s really when I started to write songs more seriously.
Your latest EP was recorded in a friends front rooms, why did you never go into the studio?
Actually it was recorded mostly in my own living room–and full disclosure, I did go to a studio one day to track a string quartet. But to answer the gist of your question, I started out thinking I was making demos that I would later re-record in a studio. At some point, I realized there was an intimacy to the songs which I was capturing with my home recordings, so I felt I didn’t need that extra step. A lot of that came down to what needed to be recorded: most of the songs are built around acoustic guitar and piano parts, which home recording captures pretty well. Drums would have required a studio because they are too complicated to record on your own, but luckily, there were no real drum parts on the album, just loops. Also, recording at home allowed me to avoid making choices under the pressure of time and money.
You had no pre-determined path for the album, it just formed. What does this approach bring to the album in your mind?
Stephen King says not to outline a story ahead of time, but instead to excavate it like a fossil. That way you get something that’s the most truthful and interesting, because you discover the story as you write it. So hopefully my putting one foot in front of the other, rather than having a road mapped out first, helps the listener feel like these songs have an organic cohesion with each other and within themselves.
What elements of musicals lay within your debut EP?
When writing lyrics for a musical, I often use specific details. They make the character singing the lyrics seem like a specific person instead of a generic one. I use those kinds of details in my songs on this album. On “Fall Asleep”, for instance: “Do you still have my shirt/the one with faded letters that didn’t quite fit?/You used to wear it when we went to bed and I’d watch you fall asleep in it.” The listener can picture those specific, visual, intimate details of a relationship, and then hopefully it becomes more real for them.
There are other kinds of story telling I use in the lyrics which I use in musical writing. Like in “Dear To Me”, where the song starts with the beginning of a relationship and ends with what happens afterwards, describing moments and details throughout. It’s a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Musicals songs often have journeys within them, where a character goes from one place to another emotionally, physically or both. Similarly, these songs trace a journey from falling in love to losing love, often within each song.
That said, these songs don’t sound like my theatre songs musically. The arrangements and mood are quieter, more internal. They’re meant to be listened to on headphones or in your car rather than in a theatre.
There are a lot of details in your lyrics, why put so much details into your lyrics when so many artists keep lyrics simple?
I think I answered that in my last response, so I won’t repeat myself. 🙂
To you why do the elements of folk, electronica and chamber pop work well for you?
The organic sounds of folk and the artificial sounds of electronica sounds go well together because they offer a strong and satisfying contrast. Electronica adds surprise to folk, and can limit the sentimentality or conventionality of a purely acoustic folk sound. I’m drawn to those types of sounds and to artists that combine them–Sufjan Stevens, for instance, is a big influence. And chamber pop – adding orchestral instruments to a pop-style song – is obviously nothing new. The Beach Boys and Beatles did it back in the 60s. I love how much richness orchestral instruments bring to an arrangement. They’re real and alive and have a lot of emotional power.
In your mind what would be the perfect place and time to listen to your new EP?
Driving in the evening when the sky is orange, or late at night. I think the subway, or an airplane would work equally well.
Of all the songs on your debut EP as Yes Gabriel, which song is the most you and why?
I love all my children equally. 🙂 But seriously, this is a hard one to answer. I think they are all very much aspects of me, or who I was when I was wrestling with the things I sing about on the album: longing for someone, trying to understand what love meant when a relationship is over.
What do you feel has been the definitive milestones in your career as Yes Gabriel?
I sent the EP to a friend of mine before it was released, and he literally woke me up at 3 am calling from the west coast to tell me how much he thought it worked. I can’t imagine a better response to the album than that. It let me know that it was really landing emotionally.
What makes Friday a good day to release your EP? Why was April 19th a good time?
I waited too long for certain windows, like late or early in the year, and then I heard March is a bad month to release unless you’re playing SXSW. Also, it’s a dark-hued, internal album, more appropriate to colder weather, so any later in the year and it would seem a little out of place.
Thank you so much for giving Imperfect Fifth this interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Just a small plug for Bandcamp, where you can find my album. They are very fair to artists and support the discovery of new music.
Thanks very much for interviewing me!
Keep up with Yes Gabriel here.
by Meredith Schneider | Apr 22, 2019 | albums, review
Cleveland-based rock outfit Heart Attack Man – comprised of Eric Egan (Vocals/Guitar), Adam Paduch (Drums), Tyler Sickels (Guitar), and Seamus Groman (Bass) – released their new 11-track full-length Fake Blood on Friday, and we have honestly been head bobbing to it all weekend. Though the names of the tracks (i.e. “Fake Blood”, “Blood Blister”, “Rats in a Bucket”) are hardly kosher for the holiday weekend – and might give your Aunt Susie her very own heart attack – the songs are entertaining. Intricately woven lyrics and hard bass lines make the album a concrete favorite, loaded with energy smothered in oughts punk influence that will keep you coming back for more.
Personal favorite tracks include “Moths in a Lampshade”, “Sugar Coated”, and “The Choking Game”, an obvious nod to a horrible pastime of the last decade. (And if you listen to the lyrics of “Sugar Coated”, please keep in mind revenge is not our game here.)
Get a taste for the album in its entirety below, and then let us know what you think over on the Facebook page!
Keep up with Heart Attack Man here.
