Reviews

Smile Smile’s newest album Truth on Tape reveals an open letter from the heartbroken vocalist/guitarist Ryan Hamilton to the woman who caused these scars. His lyrics portray the hurt and longing of his former lover. They are accompanied by a simple acoustic piano backing or a head bopping ditty complete with a full band.

The woman who is Hamilton’s muse of these public proclamations is Smile Smile’s keyboardist herself, Jencey Hirunrusm. Hirunrusm even provides backing vocals to the angsty lyrics written about her.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

I headed to The Independent for the first time on Friday night. SPEAK was releasing their debut EP "Hear Here." Love at 20 was debuting live for the first time ever. This would be my first time seeing Josh Mills' new band Missions. A night of firsts all around.

My overall impression of The Independent is that this is a cute little venue. I love that I don't have to cross I-35 to get to there. It's a quick ride from my house and that equals WIN. The intimate room is perfect for shows like this and the stage lighting gave me some awesome photos.

Love at 20
For this show being this band's debut, they were on top of it. I've heard their album "Time to Begin" many times so I was really familiar with the material and more or less knew what to expect. I chatted with drummer Mark Toohey waiting in line for drinks and he mentioned that the band got together in December and had to learned the entire album. Very impressive first show. The addition of female vocals from Amber Zook gave the songs a nice touch. Frontman Mike Groener had a little trouble with those high notes but I'm sure with more practice and less nerves, he'll be fine at future shows. This is definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Missions
This band was interesting to say the least. Not saying I didn't like it, but after seeing Mills performing in a clap happy dance band in the previous years, this was an unexpected change. Missions still has that dance capability to them but compared to Clap!Clap!, it's like a darker goth-like electronica band. It seemed with the crowd that they either loved them or wanted them to get off the stage so they could get their sugary fill from SPEAK.

SPEAK
What can I say about this band? This is my third time seeing them in the last 3 months. As always, they delivered a fun show. What makes them great in my eyes is that they obviously enjoy performing whether it's their originals or their covers. Guitarist Nick Hurt and bassist Joey Delahoussaye are so enjoyable to watch as they continuously shimmy their glasses off their faces.

By the way, how awesome are those names? These band members have great distinguishable names. Alongside Hurt and Delahoussaye, there is also vocalist Troupe Gammage and drummer Jake Stewart. And I learned that Gammage is a IV which mean there are 3 other people out there rocking that name. Amazing.

Anyway, SPEAK did a two part set which means after they did their first set of originals including songs from the new EP and an awesome rendition of Simple Mind's "Don't You (Forget About Me)," the guys took a short break before coming back with a new wardrobe (most likely as a refreshing change from their sweat drenched clothing) and did an entire set of love-themed cover songs in honor of Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately for me, I have Saturday morning class. (Yes I know and lesson learned: I will never ever schedule a class on Saturdays again.) So that meant I had to leave early and ended up missing the entire covers set. I did catch the first song which was Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" but keeping up with twitter, I learned that I missed Britney Spears' "Toxic" and an amazingly on point cover of "I Will Always Love You." The fact that I didn't witness this is now included on my list of "life's biggest regrets" for sure.

'Light Speed' is the first single from Twin Atlantic mini-album Vivarium (released on September 14th). The four-piece band hails from Glasgow, UK. This is apparent through vocalist, Sam McTrusty's Scottish accent when he sings. The rawness in his delivery of the lyrics adds more intensity to the already fierceness of this song. The band only gives listeners a short time to prepare before they immediately cut straight to the furious bass and guitar-driven melody.

Currently the band is touring around the UK with Canterbury. Shortly afterwards, they will be heading to the US for thier first tour in the states with fellow bands, The Fall Of Troy and Envy On The Coast, including a stop at South by Southwest Music Festival.

Originally posted at Amped Reviews.

photo by Jorge Solares

Spoon has been one of Austin’s hometown heroes for years. After vocalist Britt Daniel initially teamed up with drummer Jim Eno in 1993, the band quickly started earning critical praise from press and music fans for their easily accessible hybrid of indie and post-punk rock.

Spoon achieved commercial success as songs from their 2005 album, Gimme Fiction, provided the soundtrack to a variety of movies and TV shows. The involvement with popular TV shows like The O.C. and Veronica Mars, and movies such as 17 Again and Cloverfield attracted even more aficionados to Spoon’s minimalistic rock.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

Every year before South by Southwest, I take time out to sit down and sort through all the bands I have befriended on MySpace, visit various websites such as www.showlistaustin.com and Red Gorilla Festival, and make a calendar of all the free shows I want to see.

This normally follows with me printing out this list so that I have a schedule of where I need to be during the week, but of course, when the week finally rolls around, this schedule ends up staying in my bag.

While I did catch some bands that were originally on this schedule, the majority of bands I saw this year were discovered as I was walking down Sixth Street and was intrigued by what I heard. So, without further ado, here is a list of bands not on my schedule, but that I was fortunate enough to see.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

Here's a review I did for Frantic Clam's album Anatomica. Tyler Groover from the blog TwoGroove asked if I could give him my 2 cents and here you go.

Yes, I liked this album. But you gotta read the review to find out why.

Click here to read the review at Suite101.

It is no joke. Murdocks will be releasing a new album "Roar" on April 1, 2008, three years after the previous release "Surrenderender". Murdocks, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Franklin Morris and two newly inducted members, bassist Kyle Robarge and drummer David T. Jones, has shared the stage with various bands such as My Chemical Romance, and What Made Milwaukee Famous.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

Franz Ferdinand is back with a new album, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" (released late in Jan.), although listening to it doesn't seem like there was any time or style change in between their previous recording, "You Could Have It So Much Better" (2005).

The songs from "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" could be played right after the preceding album's tunes, and it would sound like one continuous release.

This would be a problem if they were a horrible un-listenable band, but luckily they are not.

Click here to read the rest at Accent.

From the moment the first note of Quiero Club's Nueva America plays, I'm instantly lost in an episode of the latest Gossip Girl episode. Cue the Kristen Bell voiceover with images of Blair and Serena living in the high society and Quiero Club belongs to the club of bands that provide the soundtrack to this popular CW TV show.

Click here to read the rest at Austin Vida.

According to Jenna's Revenge's MySpace page, they self-proclaim that they play "unashamed, 'old school,' feel good rock" music. Mission accomplished. Just listening to Everything at face value, it's evident that these four guys just want to play rock and roll. However, if they want to support a living with their rock and roll, they're gonna need to attract paying fans.

Click here to read the rest at Amped Reviews.