For Fans Of

A podcast (and tumblr) where we listen to music so you don't have to.

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FFO Reviews "Mischief" by Blind Justice

In attempt to weed through suggestions, I'm doing a text review of this one. So if you sent this one in for the podcast, sorry.

Blind Justice are based out of New Jersey, and are another newer, young hardcore band. "Mischief" is a fast paced, attack-heavy 7" with some skate punk influences. It's heavily reminiscent of groups of Get Real and the Little Rascals - and I can only assume that this sound may be a product of the region, as they share Jersey as their home. Honestly, if I were still 16, I would love this band. But I'm not, and now it's just another one for pile.

FFO: Get Real, early 2000's Lockin' Out, songs about the 'core.

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FFO Reviews "Get Gone" by Wolves Like Us

After an impressive debut with "Late Love", Oslo's Wolves Like Us offer up another two songs in the form of this 10". "Get Gone" is a near 8-minute track full of stoner rock-influenced riffing, nuanced by heavy rhythms & instrumentation, and melodically-gruff vocal stylings. I felt like the opening few bars make the song feel super dated and borders on early metalcore; but there's no denying how sonically heavy and powerful it becomes. The second track is a cover of Quicksand's "Too Official", and it's... okay. Or rather, very competent. I can only hope there's more in the tank for Wolves Like Us.

FFO: A post-hardcore filtered combination of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Water Music, & Iron Chic, music that sounds like it has a beard.

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FFO Reviews "Clear My Head With You" by Adventures

Based out of Pittsburgh and featuring the majority of Code Orange Kids, Adventures takes a step back from the caustic, metallic delivery of members aforementioned project in favor of a classic, emotive post-punk sound. "Clear My Head With You" brought to mind the likes of the Promise Ring mixed with I Hate Myself, and has some quality tracks to offer. Although I did feel like the latter half of the 7" was slightly mediocre, the openers "I Can't Stay" and "Promise" are strong enough to carry the rest of the material. As always, there's power in brevity, and I appreciate what the group is going for here.

FFO: I Hate Myself, No Idea Records mid-to-late 90's catalog, the Fest.

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FFO Reviews "Mean Streets" by Rat Path

Rat Path is a relatively new band based out of Seattle, playing modern hardcore with some inspired-riffing in the vein of Cro-Mags and Suicidal Tendencies. Overall, "Mean Streets" is a bit of a paint-by-numbers release; sharing heavy similarities to bands like Alpha & Omega, Backtrack, and even early material by fellow Seattleites Ill Intent. This EP is far from being poor in quality, and is worth checking out, but ultimately isn't anything exceptional. Great band name, though.

FFO: Alpha & Omega, modern hardcore, longhairs riffing.

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Visit Original Link

You are not hallucinating, this is finally the next episode of For Fans Of. We return from our month break to take a look at Pity Sex's debut album "Feast Of Love", and follow it up with our Record of the Week: The Power & The Glory's "Call Me Armageddon". Background music, Forming's "Selftitled" EP.

Download this episode on iTunes.

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FFO Reviews "13" by Black Sabbath

This album is so unexpectedly good to me, I don't even want to attempt to write bad jokes about it. Although its length can be staggering to some, "13" is a solid and - above all things - classic sounding Black Sabbath album. I can't even remember the last time I was able to audibly understand what Ozzy Osbourne was saying. Be it production or talent, this record is just a heavy hitting and impressive presentation of songs. I don't know if I'd put it down as being one of Sabbath's best albums, but its certainly on par with them.

FFO: Black Sabbath, stoner rock, you don't need anything else.

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FFO Reviews "Everybody Loves Sausage" by The Melvins

I'm pretty sure the only thing I hate more than covers albums are live albums. Seriously, most of them should just be titled "We Are Contractually Obligated to Produce a Record this Year" and call it what it is. At least with the Melvins, they go the extra mile with picking through some extremely deep cuts ranging from Venom, to Bowie, to the Kinks; as well as bringing in guest vocalists by the likes of Scott Kelly & Jello Biafra to name only a few. But all of that doesn't change the fact that the album is widely inconsistent in production from track to track, or keep it from being incredibly awkward. You may argue that's exactly what the band was trying to accomplish, and a handful of the songs are actually quite good, but I'm just not buying it.

FFO: The Melvins, music that gives you a false sense of superiority, sausage (I guess).

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FFO Reviews "Colourmeinkindness" by Basement

One day I'll learn not to judge a book by its cover. By "book", I mean band, and by "cover" I mean all the other fartsy groups certain bands get lumped in with. This is my first experience with Basement, and I don't really want to risk ruining it by listening to potentially worse older material. I greatly appreciate the not-so-recent insurgence of heavy 90's alternative influence in the post-hardcore & punk scenes; but considering such staggering similarities, it's kind of awk-weird that "Colourmeinkindness" was released on the same label as Daylight's "Jar" only a few months apart. Basement is a little heavier on the Silverchair vibe though, with hints of Sunny Day Real Estate.

FFO: 90's alternative rock, using British English, appreciating bands after they break up (whoops).

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FFO Reviews "Thy Kingdom Scum" by Church of Misery

Sludge metal always has the dynamic of either giving me the desire to bang my head until my neck snaps in half or boring me to the point of tears. Church of Misery's latest offering is more of the former, offering up 7 tracks of meaty, heavy-hitting doom riffs nuanced by spacey, drugged out 70's-rock. "Thy Kingdom Scum" may not have as heavy of an impact on me as previous albums from the band; but it's another piece in a consistently solid puzzle of releases by Church of Misery. Also, I always have the option of experiencing this record in a whole new light should I choose to ever start smoking weed. So, that's cool too, I guess.

FFO: Black Sabbath, any number of doom/stoner metal bands, serial killer references.

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FFO Reviews "Single Mothers" by Single Mothers

I (mostly jokingly) rag on Jeremy Bolm a lot on this page, but there's no denying the guy's got relatively good taste in music; even if he's terrible at describing a band's sound accurately. Single Mothers are a Canadian post-hardcore band touted as being a hybrid between the Hold Steady and the Bronx. After I finally got over the douche-chills that induced, I discovered a rocking punk band that I'd put somewhere between Ink & Dagger and "I Never Said I Was Brave"-era Mewithoutyou. There's nice production and flow to the EP, and certainly piques my interest in future material.

FFO: Ink & Dagger lite, very dark boys,  spoken word verses that aren't mind-numbingly boring and ineffectual like La Dispute.

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FFO Reviews "Born to Die" by Lana Del Rey

I can't help but think even Lana Del Rey doesn't seem excited about the music Lana Del Rey is making. This album feels pretty flat and empty; no soul, no attitude, no sneer to the words being delivered. It's like someone decided to mumble-sing their way through the score to an art-house movie about international spies. I had high-ish expectations for this artist & release, and save a handful of songs, the majority of "Born to Die" ends up feeling like an uninspired delivery over relatively uninspired instrumentals.

FFO: Mopey pop music, wearing American flag-print clothing, gaudy vintage/retro fashion accessories.

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Update: Where the hell is the FFO Podcast?

Oh guys, let me tell you about how much the last week or so has sucked for me. As you may or may not have noticed, you can't stream any of the episodes on the Tumblr page currently, and I assume you can't download them through iTunes now either. Well, that's because my server was hacked and wiped out. Yeah.

I work for a design & print agency, so I'm far from being the only person affected by this, and my data is of relatively low priority compared to some of the other clients we work with. Everything will be recovered, it's just going to take some time.

Until then, I'm going to continue recording new episodes to be posted. I haven't had the opportunity to write any Turntable posts from dealing with this & being swamped with print work; but regular review posts will continue.

Hopefully I'll talk to you guys next week! Like, seriously, I might just move everything over to PodBean if that prospect is unrealistic.

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FFO Reviews "True Predation" by Struck By Lightning

I chose to blindly listen to Struck By Lightning from a Spotify suggestion, and I'd be lying if I said my immediate impression wasn't a positive one. Although I'm fairly familiar with vocalist Greg Lahm's previous work in Mouth of the Architect, Struck By Lightning is quite a departure in not only sound, but with their ability to keep my long-term interest as well. "True Predation" is equal parts d-beat punk and doom metal; bringing to mind the likes of Disfear or The Great Deceiver (see: Tomas Lindberg), but draws also draws contemporary comparisons to groups like Himsa, Black Breath, and All Pigs Must Die. The band is able to run the full gamut of metallic styles well within the album's opener, "Sickening Reality", and maintain that fervor & ferocity well throughout its 9 other tracks. However, it's hard for a band playing this style to truly stick out from their peers. "True Predation" is a bit of a "here & now" sort of listen.

FFO: Tomas Lindberg bands, misleading use of high-contrast black & white imagery, playing/attending shows with humans who smell like Subway sandwich onions.

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FFO Reviews "Freya Police" by Skategang

Skategang are a French punk band who I found by extension of Youth Avoiders. I really don't have any other information because 1) they seem to be relatively new & have hardly any web presence, and 2) I don't fucking understand French. "Freya Police" is a short, 3 song EP of groovy, poppy punk music. At times it reminded me of groups like Deep Sleep, the Damned, or the Ergs, which I thoroughly enjoyed. French bands, man.

FFO: The Damned, French punk, wearing striped shirts and eating bread.

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FFO Reviews "Twelve Years" by Daytrader

I thought Daytrader's debut EP was promising when it was released in 2010, but lost touch with the group after they traded some embarrassing social network drama with Philadelphia's Daylight. For me, "Twelve Years" is a bit underwhelming and had shades of Crime In Stereo's "...Is Dead"; which also failed to truly win me over. The album leans towards being a 90's emo throwback in the vein of Sunny Day Real Estate or Further Seems Forever, but the emotional weight falls a little flat. The instruments are capable, with crooning, soothing vocals, but overall I found "Twelve Years" to be kind of mediocre and forgettable.

FFO: Early Taking Back Sunday, later Crime In Stereo, 90's emo revival.

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FFO Reviews "Downward Years to Come" by Nothing

A few years ago, I made a cross country trip to This Is Hardcore in Philadelphia, almost entirely based on the fact that Horror Show were reuniting. Nothing was vocalist's Nicky Money's new band, and he had their demos available at their merch. I wasn't super impressed by what I heard, but really started coming around to the group after hearing a Wes Eisold remixed song on their second demo. "Downward Years to Come" is very much the band solidifying their sound; huge swelling guitars and ambient noise, similar to the likes of the Drop Nineteens & early Starflyer 59, or modern groups like Anne & Whirr.

FFO: Drop Nineteens, dream pop, music to fall asleep to.

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do you know how much i love you for talking about Compound Red? i was certain i knew no one else who gave two shits about them.

That's great to hear!