Indie Music Reviews

Thomas Charlie Pedersen - Second Hand War

published on September 13, 2016

Thomas Charlie Pedersen - Second Hand War

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thomas.c.pedersen

The first solo album from Vinyl Floor frontman and songwriter Thomas Charlie Pedersen is fourteen tracks of classy acoustic singer/songwriter material that rings out with sincerity and poetic simplicity. The production gives every song an intimate treatment, but likewise surrounds each of the songs with a smoky moodiness benefitting the vocals and lyric material. Pedersen does a superb job writing songs of great timelessness – despite the low-fi nature of the compositions, they all sound uniquely modern and speak to universal experiences. Nothing here is remote or over-elaborated. Instead, Pedersen’s dominating mandate seems to be connecting with his audience and he does so superbly. Second Hand War is an album of strong construction and fantastic beauty. Rarely does a songwriter and musician do so much with so little and makes it work so spectacularly well.

Monica Pasqual – Is Fortune a Wheel

published on September 9, 2016

Monica Pasqual – Is Fortune a Wheel

BANDCAMP: https://monicapasqual.bandcamp.com/

Indie Award winning recording artist Monica Pasqual presents a deeply personal album with “Is Fortune a Wheel” - a vivid, daring journey into what happens when unforgettable memories are lost by a lover whose ability to recall the past is fading. These memories, still cherished by Pasqual, are explored through song as she navigates the art of letting go. The album is a modern-day odyssey through love, pain, loss and the ultimate rediscovery of self.

The Fylls – Interrupted

published on September 9, 2016

The Fylls – Interrupted

URL: https://www.thefylls.com/

The young kid rounds the last set of boarded up red brick buildings and dodges a black junker car filled with loud boom music and a wicked pair of smoking lips sneer out the driver’s side window at him as he hustles across the trashy city street. As the young kid approaches, he sets down his boom box on the hot asphalt, right next to the old cracked cement basketball court on a sweltering humid day just on the other side of the tracks. The young kid pauses. New York City’s sounds buzz in his ear. He drops in his CD and hits the play button. Something happens… the air changes and the basketball, the young kid and the music are the beat on the ground. The Fylls’ new EP ‘Interrupted’, bends the airwaves with their trademark style coming from the railings of the late 60’s and the flannels shirts of the 90’s. This is an album totally relatable as it tackles the inner social conscience of turmoil, reeks the unpleasant memories of social commentary about the perils of where this young kid relates, and the doom and gloom known only as the city life.

Frank and Deans - How Did You All Get In My Room?

published on September 8, 2016

Frank and Deans - How Did You All Get In My Room?

URL: https://franksanddeans.com/

This wildly ingenious four piece from the Las Vegas area will make a big impression with their first release. Franks and Deans are a tribute act aiming for the unlikely marriage of Rat Pack era songwriting with the bite of hard-hitting punk rock. Their first album How Did You All Get In My Room? is a brilliant piece of musical art, but further pushes the pop art envelope. The album cover is a direct cop from the albums of the Rat Pack’s prime while their visual presentation focuses on their genuine humorous edge, but the music is unquestionably serious. Franks and Deans are a powerful musical force with the ability to take their music anywhere they like and connect with audiences under a variety of contexts. The thirteen songs on the first album cover the gamut and will satisfy many.

The Quitters - No Big Deal

published on September 8, 2016

The Quitters - No Big Deal

URL: https://www.quitterspunk.com/

The eclectic Los Vegas based punk act The Quitters is a four piece unit whose second release, No Big Deal, builds on the tremendous promise shown on the band’s first release Contributing to Erosion. They pull from a deep vein of influences filtered through an uniquely individual attack and display a wide breadth of musicianship typically not touted by “punk” bands. It never smacks of pretension once, however, and the band’s performance always aims to serve the song. They effortlessly whip up the uptempo charge of classic punk while freely indulging in much riffier material listeners might find on a hard rock or even metal album. These characteristics make moments of real diversity stand out when they come and The Quitters delivers many such moments.

Kim Vogels – Native

published on September 6, 2016

Kim Vogels – Native

Primary URL: https://www.kimvogels.com/

An album that takes a few back roads, the ones that twist and turn, dusty, rocky, and cause the stingy drops of sweat to roll down your dirty gritty face and into your eyes as the music of actor/musician/songwriter Kim Vogels pulsates with the chill of story telling down your spine. A powerful vocal voice that haunts the spirit and makes the soul wrestle as the blend of Kim Vogels heritage bring together a depth of multiple cultural regions and twists them into a complete story, as each song encapsulates its very own story line to tell, all while your mind comes under her spell.

Porcelain People – Streetlights

published on September 6, 2016

Porcelain People – Streetlights

URL: https://www.facebook.com/PorcelainPeopleMusic/

The unification of electronica with pop music grew, in part, from the gradual gravitation of synth fueled eighties pop with the burgeoning dance music scene of the same era. At its purest, there’s very little rock heard in this style, if any. Porcelain People are no different in this regard. Their first full length album Streetlights is a totally realized musical effort that achieves a flawless balance between the competing melodic and style elements. The pop side of Porcelain People’s music reigns a little more strongly thanks to their extensively developed melodies, but the synthesizer work has substantive melodic value as well and often helps lay down convincingly natural percussion parts. The thirteen song collection has solid production from first note to last and never treats a single individual component in their presentation as paramount. Instead, the music is offered up with a decidedly long view and tremendous imagination.

Bob Lien - Color of Sky

published on September 2, 2016

Bob Lien - Color of Sky

URL: https://www.boblien.com/

Bringing together the spartan folk rock typically associated with Midwestern and eastern based acts with the much more experimental approaches of West Coast artists results in a real winner for Bob Lien. His fifteen song opus Color of Sky does an unforgettable job of synthesizing various styles while remaining on point throughout. Some people might have a knee-jerk reaction to the album’s length, but closer inspection reveals that the songs themselves justify the album’s duration. Moreover, there’s a real sense here that Lien is, in a sense, clearing the decks for perhaps a more modest, but equally bright, future. Color of Sky plays like the work of a man with something to get off his chest. There is no three a.m. dark night of the soul songs here, but he presents an unvarnished view of himself and his experiences filtered through grandly cinematic and imaginative musical confections.