FINGER ON THE PULSE #3 (Marshall Teller)

Marshall Teller Records are quietly yet successfully releasing great new guitar bands; both British and American. They are doing it their way. Their debut release; a split between Colours, Cheatahs, Dignan Porch and Not Cool set the standard of quality that was yet to follow and is continuing to flow, like a waterfall of vinyl. This isn't to say that they are mass producing everything they release, no-way-hosay! Each release has been super exclusive, helping to bring back the value of vinyl releases. They keep it bang up to date too, with the debut release from the mind blowing Weird Dreams AND the debut release from the now next big thing: The Vaccines. So, they do a very tidy job of representing London's strangely poppy guitar sounds, that's something no man can deny. To add to this, they have brought Total Slacker from the USA to the UK in the form of the split four track 7" with Weird Dreams. American weird guitar pop, rejoice!!! Marshall Teller will continue to bring out the "oomfff" in modern guitar based music...and beyond! I can feel it in my bones. And while you're visiting their site to drool over their vinyl produce, why not order up a Colours band tee or a The Vaccines tee? Because that's right ladies and gents, Marshall Teller records do awesome band shirts too. Shazam!


VISIT:  http://www.marshalltellerrecords.bigcartel.com/

Featured Artists

Weird Dreams, The Vaccines, Colours, Total Slacker, Cheatahs, Dignan Porch, Not Cool.

Key Releases

THE VACCINES - "Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" / "Blow It Up"   7" Single

WEIRD DREAMS / TOTAL SLACKER - Four Track Split 7"

Written by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Marshall Teller logo taken from their website. Lovely.

SMITH WESTERNS - "Dye It Blonde"

Pop music is that tricky genre in music that is so hard to define, yet easy to recognise. Pop music is easy to make, and yet so hard to get right. Pop music nowadays makes people want to grimace and dig up their old 80s pop records. Thank the sweet heavens for Smith Westerns and their second record. A step up in every sense of the word. They caused an excited stir with their self titled debut of glam rock recalling nuggets. It was a youthful record through and through, full of the excitement of making music.
With "Dye It Blonde" they have retained their knack for crafting subtly crooned hooks, but made it sound all together more grand and epic sounding. This doesn't mean you should start hating them, like most Kings Of Leon fans did when "Only By The Night" came out. This means you should embrace them once more with your loving ears. "Dye It Blonde" is such a great leap forward, which they have achieved in such a small time. It's most admirable. Opener "Weekend" lets you know exactly what you are letting yourself in for with it's gorgeous guitar licks and heart warming chorus. They manage to make the record sound very light but with a noticeable emotion driven punch. Highlight "Dance Away" makes damn sure that you're dancing in different directions all across the floor. It changes it's pace various times throughout it's two minute and fourty four seconds of glory. And where their debut borrowed heavily from glam rock, their second effort seems them finding their own musical feet. The guitar skills have only got better and the sparklingly clean production allows for more sounds like piano tinkles and acoustic strums to add more depth. In theses modern days where sex sells everything and penetrates almost all aspects of pop culture, "Dye It Blonde" is a deeply romantic record that aims for the heart and hits bang on target.


RATING: P P P P


TRACK LISTING

1) Weekend
2) Still New
3) Imagine, Pt. 3
4) All Die Young
5) Fallen In Love
6) End Of The Night
7) Only One
8) Smile
9) Dance Away
10) Dye The World


STAND OUT TRACKS: "Weekend", "Dance Away", "End Of The Night"


Released: 2011


Like This Album? Huh? Try This Album!

BEST COAST - "Crazy For You"

This album is a treasury of pop nuggets from start to finish. It's simplicity is where the genius lies.

Photography and words by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Smith Westerns photograph taken from Google. Nicely done.

DRUMS OF DEATH - "Generation Hexed"

Drums Of Death could be so much more, this becomes apparent on this ambitious yet rather yawnsome debut LP. The image, the name and most of the time, the beats, are all present. But the promised personality and originality fails to materialize. From a guy dressed in skull make up calling himself Drums Of Death, you expect demented dance music with horror movie soundtrack twists. Or a disgustingly good noise/dance musical hybrid. Instead you get songs that have good jumpy paces and dance floor ready beats, but it feels like you've heard it all before. The vocals on the tracks also don't really bring much to the table; with a lack of any personality they kind of just meander over the pumping beats. The standout track, that sounds just like what Drums Of Death sound like they should sound like is "Creak". It's sinister throbs and skittering 8-bit tinkles make it equally chilling and thrilling.  It's also complete with some weird chanting in the background and triumphant kick drums. Transporting you to a dance floor full of dead dudes. Download that song, even if you don't buy the whole album. "Karaoke" is a great opener to an album with its chopped up melodic moans, and it flows beautifully into "Science & Reason" which gets the party started. It's the definite highlight of the vocal led tracks. It has a similar feel to "Tenderoni" by Kele. Sadly, the record goes downhill from that point. The charts and modern pop music is littered with beats from dance origins, some people flip dance music on it's head and create something mental and different. And if anyone is going to do this, surely it should be Drums Of Death? Maybe it's expecting too much of the poor dude, he has made a good album. No doubt, when it's played loud it'll kick off club nights everywhere. Be warned however, if you are looking for something different, but dancey and electronic at the same time then go flail your limbs to Hudson Mohawke or Flying Lotus. Drums Of Death has the tendency to bore you to death, unless you love cheap and cheerful dance bangers. Maybe he wasn't trying to do anything different, but it feels like he should and more importantly could.


RATING:   P P



TRACK LISTING

1) Karaoke
2) Science & Reason
3) Won't Be Long
4) Lonely Days
5) Creak
6) Everything All At Once
7) All These Plans
8) Modern Age
9) London Teeth
10) Voodoo Lovers


STAND OUT TRACKS: "Creak"   "Karaoke"   "Science & Reason"

RELEASED: 2010


LIKE THIS ALBUM? TRY THIS ALBUM!

KELE - "The Boxer"
This album shares a similar desire to achieve dance floor appeal with the same simple yet effective dance beats. Kele's arresting croon accompanies the sweaty beats perfectly.



Photography and words by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Drums Of Death photograph taken from google. Nice one bro.

IN A NUTSHELL #2

LES SINS in a nutshell.

Daft Punk on a very low budget.


ANTHEMS:

"Youth Gone"

"Lina"

VISIT: http://www.myspace.com/lessins

  
Written by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Images used in graphic taken from google images.

Gig Swig: Drum Eyes + Wotwolff Live @ The Labour Club, Northampton (Saturday 23rd Jan 2011)

Drum Eyes conjuring structure from noise.

"Abandon hope of healthy hearing, all ye who attend this gig." Those words should have been scrawled on the door of the Labour Club on Saturday 23rd January. It's clear that this gig is going to be an acquired taste from the start, DJ Rajinder sets the mood with his set of constant noise jams with the occasional fuzzy pop song being dropped. Drum Eyes receive a great turn out of mostly adults, the youngsters among the crowd are Labour Club die-hards. There is a general sense of anticipation in the air, the crowd seem to be expecting something. But what? Wotwolff do a good job of rocking up the almost vibe-less room with their bash and shout blues rock. The twosome make a glorious racket and they make up for the lack of conventional band member numbers by rocking out like their lives depended on it. It's hard not to get swept up with their enthusiastic anger. The drummer looks and sounds like someone you don't want to mess with. Especially when he is pummeling the life out of a defenceless drum kit. It's a good job drum kits don't have feelings. You think that sounds ear shredding? On top of the beastly beats and cymbal smashing are discordant chords draped in distortion with plenty of feedback interludes and blues riffs. Singer/guitarist Kev really knows how to make his guitar wail. Wotwolff help you to shed the stress of modern life by simply screaming it off your mind. They are a perfect choice of support band when it comes to noise rock gigs. Now to see what all the fuss about Drum Eyes is about...

Wotwolff let it rip.

It's hard not to get excited waiting for Drum Eyes to play. The stage is littered with equipment: from guitar pedals to keyboards, all in a sea of wires. Then there's the fact that there is two drum kits set up. The track pumping through the sound system slowly fades out, giving way to a double drummer drum intro. From here on out, Drum Eyes craft sound-scapes from tribal rhythms, bass work outs, a violin with strange altering effects on it and a general wall of shifting sound. There are references from all the great styles of rock: from progressive to kraut-rock to noise rock. They know how to make it danceable too, with twinkling synth lines and heavy bass lines. There is hardly time to catch your breath either, as most songs merge into the next with professional craftsmanship. It almost feels as if they are making it all up before your very eyes, but it soon becomes clear that these planet sized noise arrangements are carefully calculated. Each member of Drum Eyes really gets into what they are doing too, there is no self indulgence here. They want the audience to feel what they are feeling. Especially their bass player who immediately connects with the audience through his use of hand gestures. First he mimes playing an imaginary keyboard to the beat of his band then he starts driving an invisible car whilst smoking a cigarette. The crowd mime straight back at him. The fun doesn't stop here however.

On their final, and most out of control song, their enthusiastic bassist jumps straight into the group of punters at the front of the stage igniting a frenzied mosh pit at the point of the song's almighty kick in. Everyone just lost their inhibitions and went nuts: blame it on the music. Then they leave, just like that. It takes a while to get out of the zone they drop you in. But its safe to say that tonight's crowd have been treated to two different ways of noise. The first being a very primal, fast noise. The second being a well calculated noise odyssey. I think I speak for all the attendees when I say "my ears hurt".

POWER CHORD LIVE RATING: P P P P

GIG HIGHLIGHT: When the lead guitarist from Drum Eyes decided to let his hair down and let rip on some killer guitar shredding.

BEST PERFORMED SONG OF THE NIGHT: "Future Police" By Drum Eyes



Want more from these bands? Visit:

http://www.myspace.com/drumeyes

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Wotwolff/124085397649558


Written by Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Photography by Jack Parker. Awesome.

THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE ON THE FUTURE OF MUSIC

BROTHER - Part Two

At Power Chord, we love nothing more than endless debates with our friends about the latest hyped beyond belief band. So we decided for this brand spanking new feature, that we would get the people of the future's thoughts on the apparent "future" of music. For the first one, we've got Brother. Both the media and the band themselves reckon they are going to be the next biggest rock band in the world ever. They are being labeled by most as a cheeky update on Brit Pop which was previously made awesome by Blur, Oasis and Pulp. Sounds good. We asked each of our judges to listen to the track "Darling Buds Of May" available on Brother's website. Let's see what our judges thought...

STUART FRASER

P.C : First Impressions?
S.F: Crap name, indie guitar stuff that doesn't really interest me.

P.C : Hype Worthy?
S.F: If you like.

P.C : Remind You Of Anything?
S.F: Indie and guitars.

P.C : Are They The Future Of Music?
S.F: Anyone who makes a sound is.

 

 JOSS CARTER

P.C: First Impressions?
J.C: Meh. The guitars are wonderful on this song but his voice is horrible.

P.C: Hype Worthy?
J.C: A little, don't go crazy.

P.C: Remind You Of Anything?

J.C: BLUR. BBBBBBBLLLLLLLUUUUUUURRRRRR.

P.C: Are They The Future Of Music?

J.C: No, they're the past done to a good standard.

 

RUSS EICHMANN

P.C: First Impressions?
R.E: Heard hype. I'm always judgemental of hype. Softer than I thought.

P.C: Hype Worthy?
R.E: Like I said. Hype: Not my thing. (except those Vaccines, but that was pre-hype). Meh says it all.

P.C: Remind You Of Anything?
R.E: Darling Buds of May: That show where they just drink tea and sit around doing nothing. That. Just musical.Time Machine: Since when did Cage The Elephant get mellow and stu- oh. I see what they did here.

P.C: Are They The Future Of Music?
R.E: If by future of music you mean people falling asleep or the industry dieing, yeah. On a side note: I can see why people like it, and it's fairly alright music. Nothing magical. Or special. Prefer me some upbeat faster music, even though I do like some slow indie tunes. However this just feels like my dull physics lecturer picked up a guitar and sang. Kinda.


A mostly positive response to Brother then, a lot of opinions either being "don't like it" or "it's ok". We at Power Chord love a  bit of Brother, so they at least have a place in our hearts.

Written and edited by Jack Parker. Photographs taken from facebook.com. Nice.

THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE ON THE FUTURE OF MUSIC

BROTHER - Part One

At Power Chord, we love nothing more than endless debates with our friends about the latest hyped beyond belief band. So we decided for this brand spanking new feature, that we would get the people of the future's thoughts on the apparent "future" of music. For the first one, we've got Brother. Both the media and the band themselves reckon they are going to be the next biggest rock band in the world ever. They are being labeled by most as a cheeky update on Brit Pop which was previously made awesome by Blur, Oasis and Pulp. Sounds good. We asked each of our judges to listen to the track "Darling Buds Of May" available on Brother's website. Let's see what our judges thought...


  
   

FRED PARKER

P.C : First Impressions?
F.P : Britpop bad boys.

P.C : Hype Worthy?
F.P : Refreshing in terms of indie music, so yes.

P.C : Remind You Of Anything?
F.P : Hard-Fi (think about it)

P.C : Are They The Future Of Music?
F.P : They are not very original but they may well be.


   

BEN FOOT

P.C : First Impressions?
B.F: I really like the 'Darling Buds of May' on first listen. Not the most original or innovative thing I ever heard but good melody and hooks and the lyrics are not godawful.

P.C : Hype Worthy?
B.F: Hard to say, would need to hear the full record, but signs are good on the basis of that single.

P.C : Remind You Of Anything?
B.F: Reminds me a little of a few of the more well known British indie bands of the last few years like The Cribs maybe a little bit. I can hear a little of The Soft Pack in there too, but an English version. Perhaps.

P.C : Are They The Future Of Music?
B.F: All music? No. The future of Slough Gritpop? I have no idea - I only just heard of that, but sure why not!?

   

CORAL TAYLOR

P.C : First Impressions?
C.T: Easy on the eye and nice music that doesn't take too long to like. Catchy and upbeat.

P.C : Hype Worthy?
C.T: I think they're something cool and interesting but I'd have to hear some more.

P.C : Remind You Of Anything?
C.T: Not sure, possibly but I can't put my finger on what it is.

P.C : Are They The Future Of Music?
C.T: Hahaha, who knows!

There's the first lot of opinions, tune in for the next lot. Well done Brother, you've impressed so far...

Written and edited by Jack Parker. Photographs taken from facebook.com. Bodacious.

PEEPERS ON THE KEEPERS #1

This little round up of the most relevant new bands kicking up a fuss will make sure that you keep your peepers on the keepers for the duration of the coming year. Get ready to be all hot and bothered over this golden nugget of musical companionship...


MELTED TOYS

These creepy guitar wielders are already making waves with their song "Wild Waves". First off, there's that name, it suggests something eerie. Eerie is what you get with Melted Toys, clear production brings their haunting guitar and bass lines to life with the occasional synth stab thrown in. The vocals are barely more than a whisper, but conjure up imagery of bad dreams but mostly its undecipherable, which adds more mystery to these mysterious song crafters. They are bang on trend in terms of musical stylings. Odd sparseness is the way forward, till death do it part. If you like anything off transparentblog.com, then you will dig this. The sound that's most definitely emerging (with Melted Toys being among some of the few at the helm of the great ship eerie) may sound a little silly to some. It may be viewed as just more lazy hipster music. Have faith in the fear though, this creepy wave will keep rolling till it hits the shore.

Do your homework:

www.transparentblog.com

www.myspace.com/meltedtoyssf

www.meltedtoys.bandcamp.com

Get into the groove:

WEIRD DREAMS

www.myspace.com/weirdweirddreams

YOUNG PRISMS

www.myspace.com/youngprisms

HOUNDS OF HATE

www.myspace.com/houndsofhate

Written By Jack Parker for Power Chord Music Blog. Yezzir.

LIVE THROUGH THE LENSE - Death Pedals + 72% Morrissey + Blood Visions @ The Labour Club, Northampton 15/01/2011

 BLOOD VISIONS

72% MORRISSEY

DEATH PEDALS

Photography By Jack Parker For Power Chord Music Blog. Nice one.