Schlagwort-Archive: Album 2011

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Alkaline Trio – Damnesia

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So 2011 is the year that Alkaline Trio is performing for 15 years already. As their latest release „This Addiction“ has been 2010 normally nobody would have thought they were going to release a follow up this year. Due to extended touring 2010 this was more or less impossible.

But Alkaline Trio wouldn’t be one of my favorite bands if they would not find a solution for this problem. Therefor the band met this spring to record an album of fan favorites in acoustic versions, which would be the birthday release 2011.

I’ve read some reviews that were constantly mourning about the fact that this is
– no new music
– acoustic is crap
– disappointing, as the band should get back to their punk roots

However I don’t really understand what those guys are thinking as it was absolutely clear that „Damnesia“ is an acoustic album or an album re-arranging old , beloved songs. For the fans. And that’s exactly what they put out and that’s exactly what I wanted to have.

The tracklist reads as follows:

01. Calling All Skeletons
02. Nose Over Tail
03. This Could Be Love
04. Every Thug Needs A Lady
05. Clavicle
06. Mercy Me
07. The American Scream
08. We’ve Had Enough
09. Olde English 800
10. I Held Her In My Arms
11. Blue In The Face
12. I Remember A Rooftop
13. Private Eye
14. You’ve Got So Far To Go
15. Radio

So to the old songs three new ones have been added.

Personally I wouldn’t say „Calling all Skeletons“ or „American Scream“ are my favorites. But this is always depending on personal taste and I guess whatever songs they would have chosen there would always be someone complaining.

„American Scream“ was the biggest surprise for me musically. It was my least favorite song on „This Addiction“ and clearly developed one of the most beloved on „Damnesia“ as the way they re-arranged it is incredible and the piano suddenly made me feel the song, which I couldn’t beforehand.

The three new songs (one of them being a cover) are fun to listen to and so I’m absolutely happy with that new record!

Thanks to the band for sticking around so long! Hope to see you on a regular basis in the next 15 years!

 

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Dave Hause – Resolutions

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Resolutions – by Dave Hause

One of my favorite albums of 2011 so far, has been Dave Hause’s Resolutions. It was already published in January. I bought it in April when the dates of Chuck Ragan’s Revival Tour in Europe were announced and it was clear that besides Chuck Ragan himself, Dan Andriano and Brian Fallon there would be a guy called Dave Hause joining. Until that point I had never heard anything from him and I decided to change that right away.

Due to the fact that Resolutions (if you want to order it via Amazon in Germany) costs more than 20 Euros, I went for the I-Tunes download option this time (which means I still do not have a hardcopy version and I’m really hoping he’s going to sell them during Revival Tour).

The album more or less blew me away. Dave Hause is an awesome songwriter and the songs on that album are perfectly arranged. Most of the songs are totally different. There are quite slow and calm ones and there are up-tempo songs that make the feet automatically start to whip in the rhythm.

The song “Rankers & Rotters” reminds me of a Foo Fighters song while others like “Time will tell” can not be compared with anything else. It starts quite slow and calm and at the end it’s an up-tempo song with that just keeps you wanting more, which makes the song the perfect opener for the album.

Whoever is going to see the Revival Tour in Europe this autumn should definitely give that album a try beforehand. It’s awesome and Dave deserves our sing-a-long during the tour (I know that can as well be regarded as torture sometimes) and his songs are easily sticking in mind.

For sneak listening I suggest:
-Time will tell
-Pray for Tuscon
-C’mon Kid
-Heavy Heart
-Rankers & Rotters

Which is already half of the album … but I can’t help, this would be my top 5 of this album!

As for the Revival Tour, all 4 have outcoming albums in 2011. Dave & Dan have been published already and Chuck & Brian (w. Horrible Crowes) are due for September. So far, with pre-listening some of those upcoming songs, I can already tell that the Revival Tour will be my personal highlight of the year!

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Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room – Hurricane Season

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A lot of time has passed since I wrote my last post about music. Not due to the fact that there haven’t been great releases meanwhile, but I somehow neglected that part and so all those will find their way to my homepage later than there release date. Nevertheless the latest addition to my vinyl / cd collection can not wait for bad weather.

My music collections contains a lot of different bands from sometimes quite different genres. Some of those bands have been there ever since their first record came out and whenever a new one is released it’s added to the collection. I wouldn’t even say that I constantly listen to those. Sometimes I don’t for month and then when I’m in a special mood I pick up one of those album to listen to and they always have the ability to drag me into the music. All those bands have one thing in common. They have a singer that is able to transport feelings, lyrics, just everything just by the way he/she uses it’s voice. When it comes to this point I have like 4 favourite male voices that are able to make me shiver or help me relax to an extent that I only experience when hearing those voices sing.

Those artists are: Ed Vedder, Chuck Ragan, Brian Fallon & Dan Andriano. The lastest is one of the two singers of the band „Alkaline Trio“ and his voice & songwriting is probably the reason why the band has been & still is one of my favourites. Due to the fact that Dan is the second singer of Alkaline Trio it’s clear that there’s a number one and this can be clearly seen by the shares of those two voices on the Alkaline Trio albums. Normally Dan has 3 or 4 songs and Matt has the rest. (Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt’s songs too, but it’s different). So a long time I was hoping that one day Dan would finally publish some of his solo stuff on a solo record and this is happening today!

His first release is called „Hurricane Season“ and contains 10 beautiful songs from what people normally call singer-songwriter-genre. All songs combine breathtaking lyrics with wonderful relaxing and comforting music. Strongly recommended.

Just an example what I mean with breathtaking lyrics, an excerpt from „The last day we ever close our eyes“:

You and I did sprout like a planted love, so deep in the ground that it grows on forever. So that anyone can feel it. And ten bugs will come to fill up on our sweet blood and chew up the bark that shields us. But we’ll keep on growing towards the sun.

The whole album is full of such awesome lyrics! Unfortunately 10 songs go by pretty fast, so that I really, really hope Dan is not going to keep us waiting another 15 years until the second album shows up.

When it comes to the songs itself, Dan has done a Track-by-Track comment, so there’s nothing left for me to say on the tracks itself.

The album has been release through Asian Man Records (500 black, 500 turquoise, 500 clear). Kings Road Merch is selling a blue vinyl limited to 300, Interpunk a white limited to 300 and from Hot Topic one can order a clear red which is limited to 300 as well. All sell the CD as well and downloads are available through Itunes or Amazon, whatever you prefer.

For all the rest I can as well recommend Dan’s homepage .

And I will catch up in the following weeks with music from : Dave Hause, Alkaline Trio and some more…..

 

 

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Rise Against – Endgame

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Another release with high expectations from my side was Endgame, the new album of Rise Against. No idea why, but so far I always needed a bit longer to get into releases from Rise Against. This time I fell in love with it pretty fast. The difference this time was that I directly took it with me into my car for the way to work and it worked perfectly. Especially the opening track is perfect for highway driving and so I already began to love it after two or three days.

The album has 12 tracks and for anybody giving it a try I can recommend : Architects, Satellite (first single), Midnight Hands, Broken Mirrors, This Is Letting Go,  which are all pretty easy to adopt. A really good and rocking album and I’m quite sure it will still be one of my favourites for 2011 when this year is over, even with strong releases like the first Emergency Room record still coming.

On the first glance surprisingly was the fact that the track that is responsible for the album title is the last one on the record and not the first (which seems to be quite normal). It’s not that Endgame wouldn’t have made a good start for the record, even though  for me, personally, Architects is the better song, but I guess that Endgame was placed at the end of the records just because of the name of the song.

Tracklist:

  1. Architects
  2. Help Is On The Way
  3. Make It Stop
  4. Disparity By Design
  5. Satellite
  6. Midnight Hands
  7. Survivor Guilt
  8. Broken Mirrors
  9. Wait For Me
  10. A Gentlemen’s Coup
  11. This Is Letting Go
  12. Endgame
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Jupiter Jones – Jupiter Jones

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Jupiter Jones is a German punk band. Their first albums have all been released on their own label Mathilda and Titus Records. The new album is the first one to be released on a major label, Columbia.

The songs of the album can be described as a good mix of punk / rock and one or two more slow, poppier songs. The first single is „Still“ and it has got quite some acceptance from radio stations and even on television. The singer has a voice that goes into the same direction as Chuck Ragan’s and actually I’ve already seen them both on one stage (Hot Water Music concert in Trier).

The album contains 12 songs. The i-tunes release has Still (acoustic) as number 13. Following is the tracklist:

  1. Ansage
  2. Hey! Menetekel
  3. ImmerFürImmer
  4. Still
  5. Alter Mann wo willst du hin
  6. Vater
  7. Sonne? Scheint!
  8. Berlin
  9. Hier oben … (Jupp)
  10. Stück vom Weg
  11. Der Hund der Stock die Tür
  12. Komm bloß nicht nach Bad Bentheim

I’m not really able to quote a favourite as I like them all. Additionally I must admit that it’s probably the only German release I will have bought at the end of the year as I could not recall any other German band of that quality. Highly recommended!

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Bayside – Killing Time

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The second album I bought this year was Bayside’s Killing Time.  Actually I didn’t know what to expect as I hadn’t heard anything of the band so far, but it was a suggestion from a friend and so I decided to give it a try. That was the reason as well for me to buy the I-Tunes Version (which includes a bonus track) and not the hardcopy one (which will definitely follow)

The album was originally released on 11th February and in Germany the label for the release was Wind up / Emi.

As the I-Tunes Version has the bonus track the tracklist is as follows:

  1. Already Gone
  2. Sick, Sick, Sick
  3. Mona Lisa
  4. It’s Not A Bad Little War
  5. Sinking And Swimming On Long Island
  6. Seeing Sound
  7. The Wrong Way
  8. On Love, On Life
  9. The New Flesh
  10. Killing Time
  11. Winter

I must say that like the Menzinger’s Chamberlain Waits last year the new Bayside nearly blew me away. Absolutely unexpected the album has become a constant companion wherever I am. At home, in the car, at work it’s more or less on constant rotation, meanwhile only interrupted by listening to the new Rise Against that has been released here last week. Killing Time has increadibly good lyrics and very catchy tunes. It’s stuck in my ear ever since the first listening.

The first two songs might be my favorite ones from the beginning on.  With title 3 „Mona Lisa“ I had my problems and it’s still the least favorite song for me on the album even though I can not really say why. It appeared very soft and rounded to me and that might be the reason why I prefer all the other songs on the record, but I wouldn’t skip it. The same problems turned up with title 9 which felt like an interruption of the whole album when I first listened to it, but meanwhile I have the feeling that it’s exactly where it should be on the album, even though it’s the more or less only ballad on the record.

This album is definitely the reason to check the older Bayside stuff now. I strongly recommend to give this record a try!!