Review written by Mike French, who still lives in the Stone Age, thus his computer being unable to handle TypePad's next generation editor. Thanks Mikey!

Personally, I can’t stand bands that sound like Kid Dynamite but aren’t Kid Dynamite, so my stubborn, fanboy ass was reluctant to pick up Resonance’s Transfuse after numerous said comparisons in the past. Though, with some obvious nods to the band and the preceding and possibly more influential Lifetime, Resonance’s sound is just as rooted in the late `80s D.C. scene as New Jersey; in fact, between the perfectly imperfect nature of the unstable shouts to off-key singing and the shifty major chords (with that slight arpeggio…Dan Yemin knows what I mean), this record sounds like Embrace got back together and did a Kid Dynamite cover album. So have I found a band that’s challenged my own standards? Yes.

More words after the jump.

What? They broke up? Figures…

Well, anyways. “Statues” opens with a rhythmically bouncy, Kid Dynamite-esque backbeat, but expecting Jason Shevchuk’s bitter “fuck yous" would be wrong. Instead, a style that moves between a more raw-sounding Ian Mackaye and Ari Katz shares introspective issues and climaxes with "I find myself moving to the beat of clock sounds" over a descending guitar harmony.

Though the majority of the ten songs are at full speed, the thundering tom syncopation of “A Surfacing History” segues into a mid-tempo narrative with a very unique breakdown: lock-step chord hits with one of the catchiest leads on the album filling the spaces. Here, the pleasantly off-key vocals really hit the spot, concluding with "the bruise has healed, but the sadness stays." “Machinery Outweighed,” if you remember the opening paragraph, sounds like Embrace covering Kid Dynamite; the way the vocalist holds notes are reminiscent to Ian Mackaye with how they break, and I swear that the breakdown was ripped right off Kid Dynamite’s self-titled album. I checked, though: It’s not!

The single notes that haunt the first verse of “Radiant Chains” provides an epic feel to the closer, but it eventually speeds up and pummels its way through catchy choruses and dual screams. Around this time I reflected upon the album as a whole and found myself reaching for the first song to experience it all over again.

Transfuse is a very impressive and honest full-length that leaves me wanting more, but will result in inevitable, unfulfilled cravings; whatever the members plan for future endeavors will certainly have my attention.

(2008, Collapse)

Resonance

Review written by Mike French, who still lives in the Stone Age, thus his computer being unable to handle TypePad's next generation editor. Thanks Mikey!

I asked my 10th grade English teacher once for advice on writing, and she replied with the "write about what you know" cliché. Ah, and success it was; I walked away a different person with this newfound knowledge and planned on applying it to future written efforts. Later the other night, after immensely enjoying Two Cow Garage's Speaking in Cursive, I thought to myself: "Come on, Mike, you're punx; why listen to anyone?" So here I am writing about a subgenre of punk I have very little knowledge about and the chances of making an ass of myself are pretty high. As long as I have an opinion, it should make me somewhat qualified...I think.

More words and streaming music after the jump.

Two Cow Garage plays, what I consider, whiskey-soaked punk and alternative country, and have been compared by others to Lucero and the Drive by Truckers. With Speaking in Cursive, the band shows dynamics ranging from loud, dirty overdrive to soft, palm-muted acoustic guitars and use it as a backdrop to raspy, sorrow-filled vocals.

As the bass line and pedal tone of the guitar on "Your Humble Narrator" ascends its way over steady rimshots, Micah Schnabel recalls "waking up to cassette tapes and ashtrays filled up from the night before," showing the use of country music's storytelling calling card. The quiet track builds with louder piano-accentuated chords and eventually harder snare hits until Schnabel's voice reaches a painfully grinding sound.

Track 3, "Folksinger's Heart" is instrumentally one of the best tracks on the album; after a short organ solo, a bluesy, southern-tinged guitar lead bends its way into an acoustic re-visitation to the chorus. However, I'm a little hesitant to say that it's the "best" since the harmonicas, organs and keyboards layer almost all of their songs perfectly. "Glass City," whose vocals are provided by the band's other vocalist (who sounds a lot like a bassier Chuck Ragan), is more on the punkier side with heavy tom hits leading to a palm-muted post-chorus. Damn is "being afraid of living is just the same as dying" a cute line!

Unfortunately, after a long grouping of slower, somber songs, I almost wanted the closer to end with a rockin' bang. Instead, in the same fashion as the first song, "Swallowed by the Sea" is another slow song, but even shorter. With the exception of that, and the fact that "Funeral Drag" and "Brass Ring" sound very similar, I can't find much wrong with this record at all. It's a seemingly underrated record of heartbreak that I will, without hesitation, throw on when I am feeling down.

(2008, Suburban Home)

Two Cow Garage

Two Cow Garage - Your Humble Narrator

Two Cow Garage - Glass City

Friends of WWH The Swellers have posted a new tour video chronicling some of their adventures on their tours in the past couple of months. Absolutepunk.net is hosting the video and you can check it out here.

And if you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of a new song from the band's new record due out in 2009, as well as yours truly in the crowd during the band's set at THE FEST. I'm the guy standing there looking pissed, so I shouldn't be hard to find.

I've heard this before and so have you. Gruff, gritty pop-punk. Sub-two minute stories about drinking, shitty jobs and slacking. Bands like Monikers seem to be a dime a dozen these days (even the press release I got with this thing openly acknowledges that), so why do we the listeners value some bands over others? Timing? Availability? Relatability? Memories? It could be all of those things or none of them, I'm not really sure. What I do know however, is that I should love Wake Up a lot more than I do, but I just don't and it bums me out because music like this is typically right in my wheelhouse.

That's not to say you won't love it, though.

More words after the jump.

Monikers features Ryan from legendary Florida act Discount on vocals and guitar, and his delivery is raspy and confident, like a perfect mix of Blake Schwarzenbach and Frankie Stubbs. "80 Proof" is admittedly a strong opener, built around a catchy chorus carried by Ryan's vocal pattern. "Not The New" is endearingly sloppy, and "Settlement" shows that the band isn't afraid to play fast, pissed off punk. "Them and Us" is a fun, catchy jaunt that's poppier than anything else on the record. The bouncy, drum-filled "What Doesn't Kill You" is a treat, too. I'm trying.

Immediately noticable however is the production -- or lack thereof -- that makes all the instruments, especially the guitars, sound distant and not as punchy as they need to be. This is made more apparent as the record presses on, and it detracts from the overall quality of the songs. Which again, is a bummer because I can tell these songs are good and would be vastly improved with a production job that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a bedroom in 1988.

(2008, Kiss of Death)

Monikers

Stream this entire album at Punknews.org