On stage frontman Scott Lewis beat his chest and spewed hate for the world as a vein in his forehead pulsatted in sync with drummer Shawn Cameron’s light-speed double bass work in such a way that I half-expect it to burst at any moment, covering the crowd in gallons upon gallons of his loathsome blood.  Guitarist Cory Arford and Ryan Gudmunds shreded their way through the band’s debut single, “Lie To My Face,” and asthe song reaches it’s utterly savage climax and the relentless blast beats and drop-C chugging begin, Lewis’ vocals slip into the kind of deep gravelly growl reserved for gargoyles, minotaurs, and the gigantic demon from Fantasia; and then, without any warning, the music stops, Lewis draws in a deep breath of the silent, molasses air through his tattooed throat and curdles out a four word avalanche of vicious emotion, “lie to my face!” To this day, I’ve never heard anyone go that low.  I was hooked.

Nearly two years later, Scott and the boys are back with their third album, Hell Chose Me, and very little has changed.  Scott’s growls are as low as they’ve ever been, his screams still sound like he stole a banshee’s voice box, and the lyrics are still unapologetically vindictive.  Ryan and Cory are still shredding through the kind of ferocious riffs that make Kerry King quiver and chugging through foundation-shaking breakdowns; and Cameron’s hyper-technical percussion work still feels like an explosive test on fast-forward.  But, it’s not what stayed the same that makes Hell one of the best deathcore releases in months; it’s the overall complexity of the album.

There seems to be this terrible movement within the hard core scene where the goal in each and every song is to bullshit your way through to the verses in an attempt to build up to the epic breakdown, each one being heavier and boggier than the former.  I call it “brOOtal syndrome” and it’s an epidemic that claims even the most reputable and virtuosic death metal and metalcore bands; and it’s not that the breakdowns aren’t important, it’s just that too much importance is placed upon it and the rest of the songwritting process suffers.  So, in the midst of this myspace-ready plague, Hell is a breath of fresh air.  The super down-tuned “Beethovencore” riffs on tracks like “Entombed Monarch” and “Dead Archetype” are a testament to a refreshing revivalist movement towards better guitar-work throughout the entire song and the post-breakdown bass groove “Names Mean Nothing” is a clear indication of some very positive cross-genre experimentation.

When you get to bass tracks, Carnifex’s continual production of uber-brutal breakdowns may be a strong suit on Hell, but it’s the band’s refusal to buy into the maelstrom of bullshit currently surrounding the scene.  Bottom like: if Hell chose Carnifex, Hell chose right.

Written By:
Kevin Lindsay

As of late Theodore has really blown up. The have been busy traveling, gaining a larger following and writing and recording more songs. I received an e-mail recently from Moon Jaw Records, who was distributing Theodore’s new record, announcing said release and declaring that with one simple click I would be granted the opportunity to download the entire album in advance. The upcoming “Hold You Like A Lover” is one truly beautiful record. The wide array of instrumentation, blending harmonies and poetic lyrics are astonishing. It has been perfect at work lately for myself and a few coworkers. If you haven’t heard of Theodore, visit their site and sample some songs.

Check them out at Off Broadway. They will be accompanies by Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and Andrew Bryant.

Written By:
Michael Forbis

Now you may be wondering: why is it called Fate From A Fortune Cookie? Well you see, Garet was about to give up on his aspirations of pursuing a career with his music. He went out to eat with friends at a Chinese restaurant around the same time and broke open a fortune cookie. It read: “You will travel far and wide for both pleasure and business.” So why not name his EP after the thing that got him motivated again?

This newcomer’s five song EP completely showcases his personality and character. The tracks like “Waiting For The Splash” and “Give It Time” are finger-tapping tunes with infectious rhythms that lodge themselves in your memory. Honestly, I know having that one song stuck in your head for hours is annoying. If it’s one of these songs though, it happens to be slightly more…bearable.  Scatting fills in lyrical breaks and helps create a blithe feeling. The quick and light guitar mixes with the drums to make the songs very enjoyable and bring out the side of me that dances in the car. Trust me when I say that is not a side that comes out of me very often.

Not every song on the EP is all happy-go-lucky though. The song “I Would Like To Stay” follows “Give It Time” in the track listing and offers an abrupt change of mood. The dulcet and austere resonance along with the hopeful lyrics make it a song I like to listen to when I’m relaxing at home, getting ready to go to sleep, or if I’m just in a chill mood. It’s the only song on the EP with this sort of feel, so it’s a good change of pace from the upbeat fast tempos.

The remaining songs on the EP fall back into the jaunty harmonies that are a staple of Camella’s sound. “You’ve Gotta Slow Down” is a song all about taking time to slow down and living your life before it passes you by. It’s a song that I was really able to relate to personally so I might say it’s my favorite on the whole disk. “Beautiful Day” starts out with the soft shaker and gradually progresses, adding in guitars. Its memorable hook will keep playing over and over in your brain, making sure you never forget it. I tend to find myself singing it without realizing it when I’m outside with the sun shining down on my cheeks.

All in all, I believe that Camella’s release is only a sign of good things to come. He is just a beginner in the industry and he only has room to grow with his obvious talent. If you haven’t yet, check out his myspace and his facebook fan page.

Written By:
Becca White

The title of the album itself, to this author, is an obvious reference to their altered reasoning inherent within the album’s music.  It is a reference to the death of “traditional psychedelic” (or maybe more accurately drug-music), that has followed with the switch to the glittering new style of the likes of MGMT, Animal Collective , a handful of DJs, and to a lesser extent Radiohead.  It is no secret that hippies and rockin’ rollers alike have now accepted, and gladly assimilated with the world of electronica. To the extent that hippies rarely support traditional psychedelic-rock nowadays, the indie crowd has taken up that duty.

Upon reading the questioning title of the album, I thought BJM would then follow up with a form of tuneful psychedelia similar to that on their first 9 albums (or so), that being an awesome display of classic rockin’ roll psych.  However, they did not do that at all (it should be noted that their previous album, My Bloody Underground, was a failed attempt at intense -garage-punk-metal something or other, which was also inconsistent with their traditional style, however, it was still a straight-up rock album).  Here they have brought forward an album that instead says, “Sure, we’ll try this electronic, rave’ish stuff out; how about this?”

The first track, “Temop 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels of Sobriety),” emerges with a gleefully pounding beat, immediately one can tell this isn’t what one would reason it would be.  The song has eastern undertones, yet has an electronic sound, which comes off as if it should be played at a rave.  It, like many of the songs in this album, is without vocals.  It closes out quietly and with class.

Then emerges the second track, an especially well named song, “The Heavy Knife.” It is both intense and heavy, unusual sounds wail in and out, it is unquestionably violent – yet somehow ready to party.  It pounds with electronic syncopation.  This song goes in tandem with its successor, “Let’s go Fucking Mental.” This song is pleasantly lo-fi, yet still electronic and large.  The title of the song is aggressively repeated for most of the number, save on comical exception, in a way that lies on the line between anger and just a raucously good time.  It’s a song not best understood in a sober mood, to be sure.

In fact there is a prevalence of anger within the album, yet I wouldn’t dare deem it an angry album. For indeed there are more genial sounds within this album then irritated ones, but the latter just seem to stick out more due to their unexpectedness.

Songs like the opening track or the later occurring “Detka! Detka! Detka!”, which is happy right off the bat and combines amiable sounds of Indian origin with raw instruments, in one of the albums only non-electric songs(it is, nonetheless, still an obvious dance number).  Then there is maybe the album’s gem, “Super F*****”, a song with a formidable walking bass beat (almost hip-hop like), again with, yet no paired with wide acoustic guitars.  It also has something else I was waiting for from BJM, a tambourine pleasantly holding the time throughout!

It seems they were at a their happiest when incorporating eastern influences, and at their most vexed when they fully dived into the electronic sound.  However, there were a couple tracks that held to neither dictum, and are just plain experimental, at least for BJM.

They are at their most experimental and out of their box with songs like “This is The First of Your Last Warnings (Icelandic)”, a shockingly poppy song with atypical female vocalists, that indeed does sound highly European.  It’s a great electrified jam-groove, and I couldn’t help but think, “this is what the Disco Biscuits should sound like.” Also, the second to last track, “Feel It,” is a thumping club song with little variation that just builds and builds with these fuzzy, euro-pop, hook-like vocals floating in the background.  It’s weird, but, it’s undeniably good, especially if you feel like moving.

On the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s myspace page, under ‘Influences’, it simply reads “ACID.” Well, after listening to “Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?” it is apparent to me they went to Europe and took some ecstasy along with their LSD to record this one.  It’s an album that incorporates a lot of different new sounds for the group; it is also one of those where if you didn’t tell someone it was an album, one might believe your iTunes was on shuffle.  It’s a comment on the psychedelic and drug-music realm, post the death of the classical rock style.  Is it a dancing celebration of that death or a Mad-Max like view of the way things are headed? I think neither.

“Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?” is BJM confirming they can indeed enjoy, and also create some of their own of, the contemporary alteration of their beloved musical genre.  And in doing so they created one of the best albums within their discography.  However, the last song is a 10 min piece that splices a pleasurable and mellow grand piano soundscape with clips from interviews with John Lennon and others.  To me, it says, “Don’t be afraid people, it’s still us!”

I cannot wait to hear what they come up with next.

Written By:
Sean Poynton Brna
seanbrna@gmail.com

A while ago, I (BW) had a chance to do an interview with upcoming pop rock band, Disco Curtis before they played an acoustic in-store. Members Tanner Howe (TH), A.J. Novak (AN), Garrett Perales (GP) and Brendan Barone (BB) took some time to sit down with me and discuss them, their music and their futures.

BW: I’m here with Disco Curtis at Brio in Polaris. Could you guys tell them your names and what you do?

TH: I’m Tanner and I sing and play guitar.

AN: Hi, I’m AJ and I play drums and tambourine.

GP: I’m Garrett and I play guitar.

BB: I’m Brendan and I play bass!

BW: How long have you guys been playing music?

TH: We all have been playing music since we were very young. I started playing guitar when I was about ten but I started out on piano when I was about four years old. Then I met this guy (motions to AJ) and we started jamming together and stuff.

AJ: And I’ve been playing music since I was ten as well. I started off on pots and pans for a year until my parents would buy me a drum set and then I played that. I was also classically trained in percussion and drum line.

GP: I’ve been playing guitar since I was about eleven and then I met these cats in seventh grade.

BB: Uh, I’ve been playing guitar since I was about ten and I switched over to bass when I was about a year and a half ago.

BW: Cool. So what a lot of people have wanted me to ask you guys is how did you get the name Disco Curtis?

TH: Well we got the name Disco Curtis from a guy we knew that was a Disco Master. He was like a disco drummer/dancer/instructor in the 1970’s and we actually met him; he’s a friend of ours now. But we named it in honor of him. He’s an older gentleman.

BW: And how did you guys all come together to form Disco Curtis?

TH: We were in other bands before. Those bands kind of fell apart over time and we wanted to do something new and exciting and different. So I had this vision to do Disco Curtis and then AJ and I started jamming together. Then Garrett came in and then Brendan came in and it all just kind of fell into place. We started recording songs.

BW:  I went to go see the OP Presents tour in Columbus. How was that tour experience for only being together a year and playing with Boys Like Girls?

TH: It was really cool! Um, I mean, we’d had opportunities to open for bands like that but not as much in new areas so it was cool to get out of Texas, Oklahoma and branch out and play for new crowds. It was great. It was a great opportunity.

AN: Yeah it was perfect to get to go into these new markets where we’ve never played for any of these kids. At least in the capacity of thousands of people so it’s just like this rush of ‘I’m getting to meet all these new people at once’ and it was incredibly exciting. And now whenever we return to those areas we have great people we’ve met there before that will come out to all of our shows in the future. It was just a very, very good thing for our band and it was just a fun experience.

TH: And we’re thankful. It was just great that they took us out like that.

AN: They were all really really nice too. They were great people and it was great that they let us play with them.

BB: Yeah, it was definitely a fun experience to play with some of our favorite bands and actually get to meet them. Especially since they are all just really real guys. So it was cool.

BW: When did you guys know that you wanted to be in a band for a living?

TH: Well AJ and I had talked about being in a band. We talked about being in a band before we were actually in one. When we were in fourth grade we thought it was so cool; the idea of being in a band.

AN: We would draw pictures everyday of our band, but we never played music.

TH: We drew stick figure pictures of us in front of these huge crowds and you make a bunch of little circles and they are all the heads of the people.

AN: Then all the kids would gather around and be like ‘What is this?’ and we’d say ‘It’s our band,’

TH: Yeah, it’s our band. We would just draw pictures of ourselves playing for people but we never actually played. Then when we started actually playing instruments and did cover songs, wrote some really terrible songs…

AN: It was a lot of Blink 182 and Green Day.

TH: We did a lot of cover songs of Pop Punk stuff and then I guess whenever we were…like we knew we wanted to be in a band but we actually started playing and jamming a lot in kind of like fifth and sixth grade, and we started to really get into it. By freshman year we started to play music that actually sounded like music.

AN: And the thing is, Disco Curtis has really made our dream a reality cause until then we always wanted to be in a band or play in a band but we weren’t really doing things right. Then with Disco Curtis we saw that we could actually do this; people started getting interested and we started learning how to actually be in a band. We learned that is was more than the music side. We learned the business side and promoting. We were like ‘Wow, I actually think this is going to become a reality and a profession,”

TH: And we started Disco Curtis just our senior year.

BB: My junior year.

TH: Yeah! Summer before our senior year we were like ‘Yep, we really want to do this. I don’t want to go to college and we’ve only got one year. Let’s do this!’

AN: Once we all kind of made the decision not to go to college and we somehow managed to get [Brendan] to graduate high school a year early, which was a big adventure as well. Once all of us were out of high school and decided not to go to college it was like ‘This is it; it’s what we’re doing.’

BW: What should your fans expect to see from you guys in the future?

BB: Bigger things.

AN: They should expect to see us! The more that we grow we are not going to change the way that we treat them. One of the biggest elements of our band st the interaction with our fans; we rarely use the word fan, we use the word friend. Because even if that’s corny, we just really strive to achieve a real relationship with all of them so it’s not that base level of a fan. We like to hang out with them. We always hang out with them before and after every show; you’ll never see us leaving a show early. We stay there until the last person is gone. We never want to change that about our band.

TH: We’ll keep putting out music and doing bigger shows, but no matter how big the shows get we’re always going to hang out with people.

BB: I think that’s the coolest part too. As we keep going with this journey called Disco Curtis and we keep getting bigger it will be cool to remember the people that were there from the beginning. If it becomes a fad to like us or something it will be cool to remember the people that have been there since the start. It’s always cool to see those faces and stuff.

TH: I remember being 13 or 14 years old and went to shows, looking up to the bands. I just want to be able to do that same thing for someone else because I remember how big of an impression it made on my life. Like I was talking about meeting Boys Like Girls when I was a young little boy, a young lad. I remember meeting Dashboard Confessional for the first time. I remember that I thought it was so cool that he stayed and talked with everyone, so we want to be like that same thing. Hopefully we have some kind of impact.

BW: Any last words?

TH: Wow, uhm, I just wanted to say thanks to all of those who have supported us. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them.

AN: We love you!

BW: Perfect. Well, thank you guys for joining me!

AN: No, thank you!

Disco Curtis has recently signed to Interscope Records and has been picked to play on the Vans Warped Tour this summer. I would suggest visiting their Myspace to listen to some of their songs and to check out their new music video for the song “Ashley”!

Written By:

Becca White

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

While I had dabbled into Phoenix’s previous material, it took them this album to finally win me over. From beginning to end, these songs shine brighter, and dig deeper into the soul than anything else I listened to this year. This is an indie album at heart, yet it is easily accessible and creeped into the mainstream. A masterpiece I only like to consume in its entirety if possible, the album takes those who listen on a journey to their inner workings. Congrats Phoenix, you’ve joined the big boys.

2. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night

2009 was the year of the kings. While being a successful band all over the world, they had not achieved mainstreem success here in the states until this album. Even though technically it was released in 2008, it exploded all over 2009. so we will let it slip through the cracks. You can hear the soul pouring out of singer Caleb Followill’s mouth as he sings the lead single “Sex On Fire”. And after the radio play it got, it is hard to assume they are living like anything less than kings.

3. Muse – The Resistance

Muse is poised to be the next big band in the world, and with The Resistance you can hear that they are almost there. With each album they put out they stray slightly more toward an arena sound that works for them. A hugely ambitious record, this is the first where Muse really develops sonically. They brought in symphonic and electronic elements to flesh out their already huge dark soundscapes. 2009 solidifies their status as rock gods. They spent the year touring with U2 and playing the VMA’s, which exposed them to millions. There is nowhere to go but up from here.

4. 30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War

I always get scared when I hear albums being described as “epic”. This usually translates into “boring” for me. So when I saw the reviews of 30 Seconds to Mars latest offering, I was a little skeptical. Luckily I gave it a chance, because it blew me away. The band managed to take that huge arena sound and keep it interesting, filling the album harsh guitars, big electronics, and singer Jared Leto’s soaring vocal hooks. They even had a guest appearance from rapper Kanye West. Despite having the actor turned rock start stigma, Leto has finally created an album that lives up to his acting career.

5. Set Your Goals – This Will Be The Death of Us

If punk is dead, then no one told Set Your Goals. This Will Be The Death of Us is an amazing punk album that recalls the punk scene of the early 90’s. It’s hard not to hear traces of NOFX or Pennywise riddled throughout, and it comes off as refreshing. The dual vocals blend smoothly and the music is played fast and hard. With support from all their idols, punk could very well be the next big thing.

6. Passion Pit – Manners

Electro – indie newcomers Passion Pit have captured the scene with their debut album. The disc is just such an easy listen. Manners was way to pretty to be ignored. The songs evoke thoughts of floating through clouds and open meadows in the spring time. Despite the beautiful music they have created, one must wonder how many drugs Passion Pit had to take to create it.

7. Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Lady Gaga is the weirdest sensation of 2009. It was strange to see a pop start with real talent and a unique style. She dominated the media this year, and became a household name everywhere. The best part is that her music matches her outlandish behavior. This isn’t your typical pop record, and the songs are as interesting as she is. The production of the songs keeps everyone dancing, while her dark lyrics and crisp melodies keep the listener on the edge of their seat. Questions is, can she handle the fame?

8. Brand New – Daisy

Few bands can reinvent themselves like Brand New. Daisy starts with Jesse Lacey screaming his lungs out on the first track, Vices, and doesn’t let up much afterwards. You can feel the man’s pain and anger with so much clarity throughout this album. Proving that there are still a few gems in the “emo” genre, they created a piece of art that anyone who has been hurt in the past can feel.

9. Say Anything – Self Titled

Say Anything is back with a vengeance! After releasing 2007’s over inflated double disc album, In Defense of the Genre, they return with a more concise set of tunes. This seems to work to their advantage, as they noticeably trimmed the fat. There is no filler on this record. It seems to channel their older, more accessible work. Noticeably absent from the record are the curse words that singer Max Bemis used so frequently. Even though he toned down his foul mouth, he managed to keep the album full of the tongue lashing songs the band is known for.

10. After Midnight Project – Let’s Build Something To Break

Sharp hooks, and vocals to match made this debut from After Midnight Project cut through the crap of ‘09. Their sound contains tinges of My Chemical Romance pre Black Parade, and mixes it with pop sheen. The production is spot on, and seems to be almost a member of the band. This sometimes makes me wonder if we are listening to After Midnight Project, or producer John Freldmann himself. Either way, this is a band to watch for in the future.

Written by:

Evan McKeever

1. Clothing so attention grabbing that if the colors were any brighter they would be blinding.

2. Wild hair that seems unkempt, but in all honesty it took hours to style that way.

3. Crazy techno party beats are so infectious they stay in your head for days on end.

So what is it that sets Cash Cash, a band with new popularity from Roseland, New Jersey, apart from the rest?  If you wanted to judge them by their appearance, there is nothing that makes them unique among the many other people who play the same type of music as them.  They have the bright colored clothing, the crazy hair and wear the skinniest of skinny jeans.  But if one wants to judge them by their music, they could definitely find something that makes them different.  When I first heard about Cash Cash the first thought that came to my mind was, “No doubt I will like them, but they won’t be anything different from what I already listen too.”  If you know me, I love finding stuff that is off kilter or against the norm.  I decided I would give them a shot and I downloaded the first song I saw from them on iTunes.  That song was coincidentally their hot single Party In Your Bedroom from their self-titled EP.  I turned up the volume on my laptop, ready to listen to something I was sure I have already heard before.  I pressed play.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The beginning on the song starts out with lead singer, Jean Paul Makhlouf singing the title of the song over and over.  At that point I was kind of bored thinking, “Okay… I get there’s a party in your bedroom, where’s the meat to the song?” But as soon as they started getting into the actual lyrics, I was sucked in.  The message was something I was totally not expecting.  By the title of the song I just expected it to be about a girl who was hooking up with one of the band members (you would too, wouldn’t you?) but it was different than that.

I’m not going to explain what I believe the lyrics mean because I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s way of interpreting it, but you should definitely give this song a listen.  I continued to search for more of their songs from the EP and found that each one offered something different.  Their music is like a mix of 80s and new age techno, so it is pretty refreshing.  The fusion that they have managed to create is something that will be a door opener for many other bands in the future.

For example, Electric Hearts started out as more of a mellow beat with a darkened tone but then when it reaches the chorus it makes you want to jump around and dance.  I’ve never listened to a techno album with such versatility in the tracks.

If anything I would recommend Cash Cash to anyone looking for good, fun music.  I would expect to start hearing the names of Jean Paul Makhlouf, Alex Makhlouf, Sam Frisch and Anthony Villacari tumbling out of young mouths as they talk about their new favorite band.

Written By:
Becca White

The Ready Set is a one-man band originating from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Jordan Witzigreuter is the man behind the music and is responsible for creating some of the most infectious pop music that I’ve ever had the pleasure of stumbling across.  Witzigreuter writes all of his own music and records it all himself as well, but when he goes on tour he has a group of friends who come along to help him recreate the sounds.

I’ve found that when I try to pinpoint what type of music or what band I could compare him too, I just can’t – it’s utterly impossible.  His music is something unique and different of his own which I absolutely love.  Despite the fact that I can’t get enough of his music now; some of his earlier songs like Logistics or Sixty-Eight didn’t really appeal to me all that much.  They had that standard cliché sound of most rookie techno: over-edited and the beats make render the lyrics unintelligible.

My thoughts about his music changed when I heard the new songs he recently released.  His new digital single “Stays Four The Same” shows the formidable growth he has made in his music from his previous songs.  The vocals are entirely audible and the music behind them is completely catching.  Some guitars and drums are thrown in for a more instrumental feel which makes it such a pleasure to listen to.

After listening to a couple more of his songs (like Giants and Unender), I was completely blown away.  Thank God Witzigreuter figured out how to remix a song where his vocals are able to be heard.  Reason? Not only has his song writing abilities improved but his singing talents have skyrocketed immensely.

Witzigreuter has really found himself as an artist in a short amount of time and is now currently touring with bands like Backseat Goodbye and Plug In Stereo.  He also has toured with The Scene Aesthetic and The Color Fred.

I stated earlier that this is a band that deserves a chance to become big.  I think the folks over at Decaydance agree with me; they signed him onto the label today, Nov. 24. With all the time Witzigreuter puts into his music to produce such wonderful tracks, I think you would agree.

Written By:
Becca White

The following semester, Price traveled to New Delhi, India.  On his time off from school he traveled within India to the Western Himalayas to see the “Valley of the Flowers.” It had a profound impact on his perceptions of life.  He was sitting by a glacier in that valley when he wrote this song lyric:

“I’m walkin’ out of a skin left broken from a winters’ sun.
I will kiss you from your eyelids to your thumb

I let a bee crawl round my thumb and in my hand
Then I shook it off though that was not my plan.

How can you control things that you don’t know?
Easy, just let go.”

Price’s deepest immersion in another culture was in the Marshall Islands.  The Marshall Islands is a small island nation, known to some as a WWII battleground.  Others may know the islands as the place for the United State’s Cold-War nuclear testing program – the U.S. exploded 67 atomic and hydrogen bombs there.  Price lived there for the past year in a wooden hut on an island 6 miles long in a small village called Airok.  He became fluent in Marshallese and adept at spear-fishing while living with a host family and teaching in the village school.

Price said, “living in Airok was full moon, bright stars, hot sun, fat rain, big fish, islands polyps, coconut forests, surrounded by ocean.  Musically, the islands, like India, taught me something fundamental about sounds and rhythms.  In a way, I finally began to understand the simple aspects of songwriting and a concise way to capture the poetic.  That is what I seek as an artist and what I find beautiful whether in a song or nature: A sage leaf, a mountain top, a crashing wave, regret, restlessness, obstacle, overcome.”

Price added, “Traveling is movement; flying, one place to another, experiencing new sounds and smells.  It’s that freshness that creates fertile ground for songwriting.  We are reflections of our environment, literally.  With a change in enviroment, comes a whole host of things one has to reinvestigate in order to adapt and feel themeselves. Music is a constant that sustains me through periods of change and traveling always leads me to something new – in myself and in my songwriting.”

Since returning from the Marshall Islands, Price has found himself adapting to American culture with his family and through his music.  He is the songwriter for Kajanjan, pronounced, “Kah – jang – a – jang”.  The word is Marshallese for “to play music.” Kajanjan is a Chicago-based group made up of singer-songwriters Paul Gulyas and Donnie Biggins (The Shams Band), and also Ben White who tops off the group on the cello, banjo and vocals.

Price’s lyrics reflect the movement of his story and the stories of the people and places with which he has come into contact.  Kajanjan mixes well, which is unsurprising, because they all grew up together in Oak Park, Illinois.  While listening to Kajanjan, you accompany Price on his journey and, above all else, you see the friendship between Price, Gulyas, Biggins and White.  Their style of music can best be described as folk.  Travel with Price and Kajanjan in their live demo on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/kajanjan.  If you’re in Chicago, be sure to peek at their schedule and attend a live performance.  Dan Price’s unique story isn’t over yet: He will be leaving for Guyana in February with the Peace-Corps.  When or if Price returns, we’ll see how this next experience influences his music.

Written by:

Harmonica Dunn

Mayer subtly suggests the invasion of his privacy with the controversial first single Who Says; which would sit perfectly around a campfire between Willie Nelson and a Bob Dylan song.  According to Mayer, the repeated line “Who says I can’t get stoned” refrains from the recreational drug use and is used as a tool to point out how people’s opinions can be overbearing when trying to make the correct decision.

Battle Studies shows higher peeks of energy with songs like Perfectly Lonely and Crossroads, a cover of a Robert Johnson song that was made famous by Eric Clapton’s legendary band “Cream”.  Although it is a nice break from the heart torn chorus lines, Crossroads hides in the middle of the album as an excuse for Mayer to flex his knowledge of the fret board.

Mayer truly taps his creative nerve with the album’s hidden gem Assassin.  Backed by an unusual pattern of bells, Steve Jordan channels the drum build up of Peter Gabriel classic while Pino Palladino lays a restless and seemingly sporadic bass line.  The quiet and mostly absent guitar breaks through with Stevie Ray Vaughan like riffs providing a much needed climax to the album.

With other noteworthy songs appearing on the album like Friends, Lovers or Nothing and Edge of Desire, Mayer provides another solid album worthy of adding additional gramophone statues to his already impressive collection of 7.

Written By:
Patrick Kennedy