Music Makes Us

The Wild – A Collection

From Atlanta, GA, the WILD are a bunch of friends who love playing music and sharing in the DIY philosophy of music, art, and politics. This is what The WILD has to say about themselves…

We are five friends having a great time playing music together… We all feel the best when we are traveling together and getting to see old friends, making new ones, jumping off of high things into water, and playing music every night. right now everybody lives all over the country…. We’re from Atlanta, Lexington, Denver, Brooklyn, and Massachusetts… We write songs that are political and personal.

• Mudlines2:38
• Let Me Sing You A Song3:12
• Stillness Sickness4:02
• Our Cities2:48
• Street Names3:29
• To Be Content3:25
• They Too Will Know3:51
• The City That Never Sleeps3:27
• We Will Drive These Warlords Out4:51
• We Shall Overcome Someday4:20
• Oh Alex4:56
• Set Ourselves Free (Acoustic)5:16
• Everything We Need (Acoustic)3:37
• Together Underground (Live)4:25

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Dropkick Murphys – Going Out in Style

Finally back in Minneapolis where I can have my workspace to get some of my projects started back up, this being one of them. I have some lesser known treats also waiting on some formatting and uploading. St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching, so here is the newest album from the celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys which just came out this year.

They were formed in Quincy, Massachusetts, United States in 1996. First playing together in the basement of a friend’s barbershop, the band made a name for itself because of its relentless touring and for its annual St. Patrick’s Day weekend shows in Boston. The band’s songs often deal with the working-class environment in which its members grew up. The band put out a series of EPs and was signed by Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong’s label Hellcat Records. In 1998, the Dropkick Murphys released their first full-length album, Do or Die.

• Hang ‘Em High3:58
• Going Out In Style4:07
• The Hardest Mile3:25
• Cruel4:21
• Memorial Day2:58
• Climbing A Chair To Bed2:59
• Broken Hymns5:02
• Deeds Not Words3:40
• Take ‘Em Down2:11
• Sunday Hardcore Matinee2:42
• 19534:13
• Peg O’ My Heart2:20
• The Irish Rover3:38

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Pets – Ready the Rifles

I am a big Kepi fan, and because of that I ended up seeing a show he played in Stockton, CA at the Plea for Peace center with Pets. For those that don’t know, I live in Minneapolis. Through a contest at the show of who can release the most energy I won copy of Ready the Rifles by Pets as did two of my friends who were with me. I am not sure if the album has been released yet, but I can tell you this… it is great and was played more than once on the drive back to my friend’s place in Southern California.

The show and venue were amazing. I would say anyone living in Oakland/San Francisco should check it out at least once. Jason Webley will be playing there soon, and the venue was founded in part through Mike Park of Asian Man Records. Basically the venue was destined to be a fun, which made the venue a perfect fit for a Kepi or Pets show.

I am actually only on my netbook still, so I have no way of ripping the album to post to grooveshark… which makes me feel like this post may be a bit ridiculous, but I do recommend checking it out or picking it up.

P.S. Every band that played that night rocked.

Gun Outfit – Dim Light

I finally have internet at my new apartment, and man do I love the speed. Uploading this album was a breeze, so I might end up digging through my old CD collection and uploading some indie albums I bought a while back. Already championed by the LA scene and the Rough Trade shops in the UK, Olympia, WA’s Gun Outfit are an avalanche of intensity and excitement. Dim Light is reminiscent of Meat Puppets, X, Dinosaur Jr, and Hüsker Dü. I haven’t listened to the entire album, but I like what I have heard so far. Playing SXSW got them some well deserved exposure and I look forward to seeing more of them.

Track List

• Work Experience2:12
• Troubles Like Mine2:08
• Guilt and Regret2:06
• The Valley3:54
• In the Dark1:44
• Control2:49
• Cocaine Woman3:46
• Had Enough2:09
• On the Beach1:52
• Your Will2:01
• Like It Is2:41

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Spoonboy – I Love You This Is a Robbery

I missed updating yesterday, had to get a filling that fell out replaced… and I guess now I need a root canal. Anyhow, here is another artist from plan-it-x. Spoonboy (born 1983) is a member of Washington, D.C.-based punk-pop band, The Max Levine Ensemble. He is definitely a political artists whose actions reflect that. Anyhow, I need to get work done, so I will just leave this album here for you to listen to.

Track List

• Intro1:38
• The Restaurant2:05
• California2:12
• What You Want2:25
• Second Hand Smoke2:07
• Actions and Words2:44
• Fireball or ‘What I Learned From TV’2:35
• Paint by Numbers1:24
• Ghosts Overseas1:18
• Always Leaving1:26
• My Generation2:33
• Philadelphia2:01
• This Is War…3:19
• True Blue2:33

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Kepi Ghoulie – American Gothic

Kepi was the bassist and vocalist for Sacramento, California based pop-punk band the Groovie Ghoulies. He has been recording and touring both with a full band and as an acoustic soloist since the Ghoulies’ break-up in mid 2007. If you ever get a chance to see him play live, do it. Great music, great stories, and a great person to grab a sandwich and have an great conversation with. The crowds always love him and rightfully so. His presence live makes you smile and just generally feel good. He has a few CDs under Kepi Ghoulie as well as the CDs under Groovie Ghoulies, all of which have pretty sweet artwork.

Track List

• Full ServeN/A
• To Sing For YouN/A
• Sleepy HollowN/A
• This Friend of MineN/A
• Stormy WeatherN/A
• Tornado loveN/A
• True Love Will Find You In The EndN/A
• Take a LookN/A
• Running On EmptyN/A
• Down We GoN/A
• The Great BeyondN/A

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Nana Grizol – Love It Love It

“…The catchy, heartfelt crunch of the album’s opener, “Circles Round The Moon,” segues seamlessly into the brassy, beautiful circus-lullaby, “Tambourine-n-Thyme.” Things get sad and stripped down with “Tiny Rainbows” — a gentle plaint nudged toward the light by the brilliant horns. And “Broken Cityscapes” gets positively naked: Theo’s adamant vocal sounds above his acoustic guitar and a couple rattles.

Theo’s lyrical voice is ruralist, lovelorn and punkrock in the most primal way: he looks to explicate a world gone way wrong on the most basic, inhumane levels. Experiences gained on the touring road and at his home at the Orange Twin Conservation Community have led him to question the empty life of the modern American, and the disquieting ways the inherent Dystopia have made itself manifest on our own interior landscapes.” – orangetwin.com

Track List

• Circles ‘Round the Moon1:26
• Tambourine -N- Thyme2:28
• Less Than the Air (By Dave Dondero)4:36
• Motion In The Ocean3:58
• Voices Echo Down Thee Halls (for Jared)2:29
• Stop And Smell Thee Roses2:11
• Tiny Rainbows2:08
• Will We3:57
• Everything You Ever Hoped Or Worked For3:54
• Broken Cityscapes5:34
• The Idea That Everything Could Possibly Ever Be Said (for Patrick)1:52

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Awesome Color – Self Titled

These guys are on tour, so make sure to check out their myspace for tour dates. Also, this band makes me feel like I should reevaluate the categories I have set up. Good thing I am tagging all of these albums in addition to the categories.

“Is it possible to smash a guitar un-self-consciously? It certainly seemed that way at Cake Shop earlier this month, when Awesome Color left a roomful of in-the-know types gleefully dumbstruck. (Oakley Hall was headlining– that alone means several quality musicians were present.) Singer Derek Stanton’s seemingly unpremeditated ax-whacking lacked any sense of violence or menace(which is fine). It was simply the final blow in a stream of gestures that translate across rock & roll forms; any punk, metal, or bar-rock fan can appreciate the thrill of someone playing guitar with his bare feet–and having it both look and sound cool. (Yes, Stanton did that, too). Considering that Awesome Color has been a band for only nine months, there’s an alarming lack of things to find fault with in their music or its execution; even the name makes sense after witnessing the trio’s unironic stage presence. Some of the group’s songs evoke Sabbath as played by Germans in the ’70s, with Stanton’s terse riffs cruising atop crisp, loping grooves provided by bassist Michael Troutman and drummer Allison Busch. Other tunes come across like lean, airy impressions of classic Southern rock (the three met in Ann Arbor, Michigan–the northernmost Southern state–before setting up together in Bushwick). But the most indelible image from an Awesome Color show is the rapt joy in Stanton’s face when he backs away from the microphone for a solo. It was infections in the close quarters of Cake Shop, and should be at the Lakeside, too.” – Mike Wolf

Track List

• Grown6:54
• Ridin’4:28
• Free Man4:36
• Unknown3:43
• It’s Your Time3:47
• Hat Energy3:29
• See You Hear You5:49
• Animal7:25

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Blood or Whiskey – Self Titled

This has much more of a folk countryside feel than Flatfoot 56, which is a good thing. I hope I got the tracklist right, different sites said different things (Amazon vs last.fm). Blood or Whiskey formed in Kildare (IE) in 1995 as an irish folk / punk crossover band, similar to The Pogues. Their first two albums were also heavily influenced by them. In 2003 lead singer Barney Murray left the band. Vocal duties were taken over by guitarist Dugs Mulhooly. Untill 2005 they underwent alot of line up changes, leaving Dugs and Chris (drums) as the only original members. In 2005 they released their third album Cashed Out on Culture, which had more of a punk-edge than their former two.

Track List

• Always Remember3:20
• Bucharest2:18
• Goodbye My Girl3:57
• Prospect Hill2:39
• Rocky Road3:32
• Wack For a Widdle2:48
• Take Me Along3:34
• Deathwatch5:39
• New Banjo Thing2:37
• The Mero3:54
• Galway Town3:50
• La La La2:28
• Even Her Love3:03
• Keep the Baby2:22
• Drunken Priest of Dingle2:53
• Feile2:39
• Unfinished Business2:00
• Down With the Ho’s5:38

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Flatfoot 56 – Knuckles Up

I will probably only do this once in a blue moon, but I am posting a Christian band. They are a Celtic punk band as well, which is the reason I am putting this up here. Since the year 2000, FLATFOOT 56 have steadily unleashed a rollicking barrage of Celtic punk and folk-tinged hardcore from the South Side of Chicago to an international audience with intense and positive party-like energy. The band’s latest album, JUNGLE OF THE MIDWEST SEA, tightly packs the quartet’s eclectic and driving musical charge into fourteen tracks that celebrate the pride of the working class and their Chicago roots. If you like this album they have a new album Black Thorn (which I personally like more) that isn’t on Grooveshark yet.

Track List

• This Town0:00
• Brotherhood0:00
• Knuckles Up0:00
• Fight To Live0:00
• Breakin’ The Law2:14
• Holdfast4:34
• Chi-Town Beatdown4:42
• Battle Of Bones4:44
• Blood And Sweat3:53
• The Rotten Hand4:43
• The Long Road3:17
• Amazing Grace4:44
• Arran Boat9:51

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