Success in Store for Zerochance

I meant to post this entry about a week and a half ago, but things kept getting in the way and I'm only getting around to it now.

It's pretty rare that I put much stock in a band that friends me on MySpace. In my view its two easy for any group of people to come together claiming to be a band when all they do is scream three-chord nonsense into a microphone or whatever. However, Zerochance happened to find itself one of the rare exceptions.

Zerochance is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Erick Belitto who basically woke up one morning and decided to chase his dream (with a little help from John Mayer and Guster). Comparing Zerochance's music to that of groups like Train or Dashboard Confessional really doesn't do it justice, because it does have a style all its own, with Erick's southern twinge and heart-on-a-sleeve conviction that would make even Chris Carabba's heartstrings tug. At this point his first album Better Days for Broken Hearts is only available on his website and on iTunes, but believe me when I tell you that this album is truly worth hearing. The songs range from the bouncy "Burn My Radio" to the poignant in "Four Letter Words" and "First Born". If you go to his MySpace page you can hear two tracks from his forthcoming Accessory to Success, due out in June.



I'm going to post an mp3 of "Van Nuys", my favorite song on the album, but PLEASE check out his MySpace page and go check out the rest of the album. Trust me on this one. I can't predict if Zerochance is gonna be huge, but if Nickelback can sell 5 million albums, there's no reason Zerochance doesn't deserve the same shot.

Zerochance [MySpace]
Better Days for Broken Hearts on iTunes
Zerochance - Van Nuys

==TJ==

Puddle of Mudd's Clock Is Ticking With New Single, Album

Nu-metal outfit Puddle of Mudd (a band that was earlier today mere weeks away from making an appearance in the Discount Rack), crawled out from the rock that is the year 2003 earlier today when it released a new single and information about its forthcoming album. Living on Borrowed Time, the band's third studio album, will drop in late July, and the first single "Famous" hit digital outlets and radio stations within the past week. Borrowed Time appears to be an appropriate subject for the band, as it's been four years since they were last heard from and they've replaced two members since then.From listening to it, "Famous" appears to be little more than the poor man's "Crazy Bitch" and it didn't even warrant a place on the iTunes front page, so don't expect much anticipation for Living on Borrowed Time.

Puddle of Mudd - Famous

Source: Billboard.com
Puddle of Mudd [MySpace]
"Famous" on iTunes

Discount Rack: Jumping Doesn't Always Mean Moshpits

In the new section Discount Rack, Viva la Mainstream offers up a song or artist that would otherwise be forgotten by everyone except those still collecting royalties from it.

The "Punk Goes..." collections have been successful at if nothing else providing some cheap comedy in the days before mp3s of Marilyn Manson covering Justin Timberlake controlled the music blogs. Most of the covers were pretty forgettable or downright awful (see: Gym Class Heroes bastardizing RHCP's "Under the Bridge). But that same "Punk Goes '90s" compilation yielded something that's not only a good listen, but actually...not a joke??



I'm sure we all remember Third Eye Blind's four-and-a-half minute antisuicide PSA, "Jumper", one of those songs that was pretty good for the first 999 times you heard it on the radio, and then just sorta faded into the background. This cover is by the equally undistinctive BEDlight for blueEYES, complete with its emolicious piano and wailing that conveys more than the '90s-era whining of Stephan Jenkins. BEDlight has done nothing of note since then and probably won't anytime soon, but a track like this will be iTunes fodder for all the cover fanatics to feast upon.

Punk Goes '90s on iTunes

BEDlight for BlueEYES - Jumper (Third Eye Blind Cover)

==TJ==

Second Spin: Going back to Sam's Town

Welcome to Second Spin, a new weekly feature where I go back and give an album another listen to see if my first reaction was correct, or if perhaps it deserves better than the treatment it's received. The first album in this feature: Sam's Town, the critically derided sophomore album from The Killers.

My initial thoughts on Sam's Town weren't too far off from everyone else's. I missed some of the '80s revival synth-pop that permeated Hot Fuss. At the same time though, The Killers were in a rough spot in recording a follow-up to an album like Hot Fuss. If they had gone and recorded 12 more tracks like "Mr. Brightside", they'd have gotten panned for being unoriginal and formulaic. But they took a different route on Sam's Town, paying homage to '80s arena rock greats, and they still get slammed.

Sam's Town isn't as bad an album as everyone made it out to be. The individual songs don't stand up well as singles, but the album as one cohesive idea is actually pretty cool. Yeah, the whole "Enterlude" and "Exitlude" idea is a bit gimmicky (Who is Sam and who the hell decided it was his town, anyway?), but when it's flanked by tracks like the Springsteen-worshipping "When You Were Young" and "Bling (Confessions of a King)", the campiness is pretty much forgivable. Granted, later tracks like the tired "My List" suggest that maybe The Killers didn't have as material to work with in this new style, but despite the flaws that come with any album that gambles like this one, Sam's Town is still a fun listen, and a great album to take on any car ride (The title track and "When You Were Young" at full blast with the windows down? Awesome...). Cut The Killers a break; it's rare that you see a band take any kind of risk with their sound these days.

Then: ** 1/2
Now: *** 1/2


Sam's Town on iTunes
The Killers [MySpace]
Standout Track: Bling (Confessions of a King)

==TJ==

Y100 Returns!

Today the city of Philadelphia has something to celebrate. No, the Phillies, Sixers and Flyers still suck and football season is still a few months out.

When Y100 was shut down in February of 2005, it effectively sounded the death knell for alternative rock radio in Philadelphia. Until last week, when the station formerly known as Star 104.5 (also known at times as Sunny and Rumba) adjusted its format to the alt-rock format that had been missing in the Philly market for over two years. It's current title is simply Radio 104.5, and since I started listening about 30 minute ago, I've heard everything ranging from Soundgarden to The Killers to Nickelback, and it's newly formed website has logos for everyone from Linkin Park to The Police. I've added the site to the links page, along with a couple others. So So Philly rock fans, rejoice! More on this story when I hear it.

www.radio1045.com

Source: http://willdo.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/2007/05/altrock_and_big.html

==TJ==

When Will the Madness Stop?

First, there was Alanis Morrisette and her piano ballad rendition of "My Humps". Then we caught wind of Chris Cornell giving "Billie Jean" the Soundgarden treatment. And now Whudahexup has released a new track from Panic! At the Disco...which just so happens to be a cover of Nelly Furtado's "Maneater". I don't know what's behind all this, but I'm going on record with my request to hear someone do a rocked up cover of "Smack That". Can we get someone on this already please?

Panic! At the Disco - Maneater (Nelly Furtado Cover) (Courtesy of Whudahexup)

==TJ==

But the Kid Is Not My Son...

OK, first things first, because I keep forgetting to put this up...

I'M ON MTVU!!!

When the page opens, select All Shows > Campus Invasion > Kidz in the Hall - Wheelz Fall Off. Wait till the time counter hits 2:54 (it counts backwards). But yeah that's the first wave of awesomeness.

Other cool stuff:
-The oft-talked about Chris Cornell cover of "Billie Jean" finally leaked last week along with a few other songs from Carry On. It should be noted that a blogger for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer referred to the new material as sounding like old Daughtry B-sides. If this is the case...more, please!

-A few entries back I mentioned more leaked songs from Chinese Democracy. Well, to put it quite simply...they suck. Miserably. Think "Macy Gray recording a metal album" bad. Yeah.

-Last week Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee married longtime her longtime boyfriend, therapist Josh Hartzler. In my opinion this will lead to one of two outcomes: a) they will divorce within 6 months (in keeping with the Axl Rose comparisons), or b) Hartzler will leave Lee amid more complaints about Lee's overbearing personality and weird hairstyles. In other news Evanescence announced that members of Dark New Day will be filling in for the dismissed Rocky Gray and John Lecompt, and that the tentative title of their third studio album will be Cuban Democracy.

OK I made that last part up.

One more thing about Evanescence; in an attempt to "clean house a little bit" former drummer Rocky Gray is selling on eBay the platinum and gold records he earned while with the band. In his column, Bill Simmons keeps what he calls the Vengeance Scale. Right now this act appears to measure at about a 6.5. Damn...bitter much?

OK that's it. Might be back tomorrow with more stuff.

==TJ==

Review: Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

2003's Meteora, while it was a perfectly good album, made it painfully clear that Linkin Park had pretty much sucked dry the well of nu-metal, rap-rock, and other hyphenations that sustained them for so long. In the four years following that album, members of LP released solo projects (last summer's Fort Minor and scattered art projects), disputed their record deal with Warner Bros., and got much older. Most of these changes are reflected in Minutes to Midnight with the help of producer Rick Rubin (Audioslave, Johnny Cash). Linkin Park promised a departure from the sound that dominated their first two albums. In large part they come through on that promise, and the result shows a very mature, albeit far from perfect 12-track effort.

The most noticeable difference from the getgo is lead singer/screamer Chester Bennington's growth both as a writer and a performer. Bennington has progressed far beyond tired, angsty screaming. Chester emerges as a true singer, using his screaming as at most a compliment to the now-diminshed crunching guitars. Songs like the standout "Shadow of the Day" (shades of U2's "With or Without You") embody the change that LP promised. When Bennington does scream as he does in the lead single "What I've Done", it's largely tasteful and goes past the self-indulgence of past tracks. At the same time, emcee Mike Shinoda has fine-tuned his contribution, no longer rapping one-liners behind power chords. On "Hands Held High" and "In Between", Shinoda puts forth his best rhymes and even *gasp* sings the chorus. While the first two tracks, the jumbled intro of "Wake" and the downright abysmal "Given Up" (a half-assed leftover of the angst-filled wails of old) don't help their case, Linkin Park has committed themselves to a new direction. It's not perfect, as weaker tracks like "In Pieces" and "No More Sorrow" make clear the room for more growth, but the change is leaps and bounds past where they were.

Let's get one thing straight; just because the rap-rock is gone doesn't mean LP is a different band. The motifs are the same paranoid, finger-pointing that laced previous albums. But the person on the other side of the finger is a different figure. "Hands Held High" is a pointed criticism of the Iraq war behind a military drum cadence, complete with its haunting chorus of "Amen"s. Likewise, "The Little Things Give You Away" closes out the album with a poetic attack of President Bush's mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath; as Bennington sings in the six minute opus, "All you've ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you / Six feet underwater, I do". But don't confuse Minutes to Midnight with another American Idiot. Linkin Park has refused to comment on the political undertones of their album, and let the music speak for itself.

On Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park turn a corner in their career, going beyond their formulaic scream-and-shout, but not sacrificing the edge that endeared them to the masses to begin with. This is what a change in sound should be. The framework remains the same, but the texture and overall aesthetics are something truly great to behold.

**** (out of *****)

Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day

==TJ==

Axl Rose : Chinese Democracy as Amy Lee : ...

I know I promised a Minutes to Midnight review, and that's still coming later tonight, but I want to give the album another couple spins before I make a final call. In the meantime a few bits of news from the past couple days.

-Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance are headlining the 2007 edition of the Projekt Revolution tour, with Placebo, Saosin and a couple of other no-names slated to be on the tour as well. Chester Bennington held a press conference earlier today with details, but no site has come forward with details yet. An unconfirmed report from Blabbermouth.net says the tour will come to the Tweeter Center in Camden on August 25th.

-Evanescence is down a drummer and a guitarist. Amy Lee, the heavy-handed, gothy lead singer reported that Rocky Gray and John Lecompt were ready to move on, but in a bitter MySpace blog entry (now blocked) Lecompt described an angry cell phone call from Lee which ultimately ended with him being fired. These departures mean that Amy Lee is the only original member of the band remaining. Is it too early to start making Guns N Roses comparisons?

-Speaking of which, another member of the GN'R camp is about to get fired. Over the weekend at least two more tracks from the mythical Chinese Democracy album leaked. "There Was A Time" and the title track both found there way onto the internet, and if a report from idolator is any indication, as many as 6 more tracks could leak in the very near future. Is this a real leak, or has the recent lawsuit caused Axl Rose to adopt alternative methods of releasing the album?

Ok that's all till I get back with that review. In the meantime, kindly take note of the fact that Axl Rose is 45 years old.

==TJ==

No, I'm Not Dead

Yeah, I know it's been nearly a month since I updated. So sue me.

Some quick things and I promise a real update in the next week or so.

-In lieu of a real review, I will tell you that Bright Eyes's album Cassadaga is pretty cool, but kinda lags in the middle. *** 1/2 out of *****
-Ronnie Day's The Album is incredible. Think Teddy Geiger meets Dashboard Confessional. ****
-All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana needs a couple listens to sink in, but is a really fun, well-written album. ****
-Me. Seeing Dashboard 3 rows from the stage. And getting Ronnie Day's autograph. And other cool stuff. LiveJournal has that one (second entry from the top)

Now that school's out I'm gonna go back to getting serious about this. My next update will come early next week and it's gonna be a review of Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight, which leaked earlier today. So stick around for that.

==TJ==