Album Review: Tree Sounds- Naps

Tree Sounds used to go by Molly Sunday but now she plays lo-fi ukulele under a new name. Since it's just one girl, it's a pretty simple sounding album, but nonetheless it's full of a lot of ukulele strumming, claps, and fun lyrics. The "band" name is kind of fitting, because it makes me want to go outside and go fishing and climb trees.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zn1zjjmdmtd

Album Review: The Sarcastic Dharma Society - Other People's Songs (Volume One)

Posted on "I Found This Song In The Road" earlier this year, re-posting here for more promotion and because it's free and really good.

The Sarcastic Dharma Society or pretty much just Matthew J. Vuksinich for the most part shot me an email asking me to listen to his work and tell me what I think. This local artist from the thriving music scene of Portland, Oregon has some real talent. Whenever I get emails from people with music to listen to especially if it's their own, I never have high expectations.

WRONG! I was simply blown away when I opened up the files he gave me which consisted of covers of some of my favorite artists. These are the likes of Andrew Jackson Jihad, Why?, The Beatles, Bright Eyes, and Mt. Eerie which I just recently got into.

The album consists of 10 songs all being covers of artists that I love from the start. Some of my other favorite tracks are "Don't Let Me Down" by The Beatles and "Shit On My Heart" by a local Portland band known as Meyercord.

http://www.mediafire.com/?h2w3gzjhwnm

Album Review: Fishboy - Nom

Fishboy of Denton, Texas has granted us a press release of their EP entitled Nom being released August 18th. I have been awaiting this album since it's announce months ago and managed to become a reputable press source.

The album will be released on 12" vinyl and some hand screened CD-rs. Fishboy did the vocals and then sent them to their goods friends the band The Om Nom Noms to do the instrumentals. The two compliment each other so well that you would never know that neither had any input on each other. The songs are rejects of their last rock opera the would confuse the story or just didn't flow. The album puts out some catchy indie fun into always amusing lyrics that you would have to be a fool to not smile at. In Nom, Fishboy proves their development from a basement solo project to a group of fun, creativity, and pure indie rock fun with a hint of twee. I have been a fan of Fishboy for quite a long time and I can not wait to own this on vinyl and CD. Happy Birthday To Me Records is putting this all out and you can get their last album and rock opera "Albatross: How We Failed To Save The Lone Star State With The Power Of Rock And Roll" along with their previous album "Little D" for just 10 dollars combined! They are also going to release a west coast tour to take place after their album release.

Here is a little description of the band, album, and such from Eric himself:
Originally the bedroom solo project of Eric Michener that began in 1998, Fishboy has taken on many forms. The past five years have seen the group transformed into a four-piece rock band that released 2007's Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll, hailed by some as "The world's greatest twee rock opera" and by others as "The world's only twee rock opera." The band has repeatedly toured the nation, playing said rock opera to all who would listen. A great time was had by most. But let's back up. To fully understand the latest Fishboy EP, two nuggets of truth are needed:

Nugget #1: The writing process of Albatross was 95% linear, in that nearly every track was written in the order it appears on the album. After the first song was completed, some thought was put into where to take the storyline and the musical flow of the album. Oftentimes full songs were completed and then scrapped because one of these two things wasn't working out -- either the plot came to a dead end or the flow of the album didn't work. When it was time to start the follow up to Albatross, it became clear that any attempt to use these songs would result in a lyrically confused mess of an album. Not that the songs weren't good; they were just abandoned plot lines to an alternate rock opera reality. And so a plan was hatched.

Nugget #2: Instead of gathering the band together to spend precious writing and arranging hours on these songs, the decision was made to blindly put them in the hands of a group of musicians with nothing to lose. Michener decided to hand over all musical duties and decisions to a local Denton, TX group of super-producers known as the Om Nom Noms. Michener took one trip into the studio, recorded vocals and scratch guitar, the guitar was deleted, and the Noms reconstructed the songs however they saw fit. Some upbeat songs became ambient, some hushed finger picked songs became rockers, and anything was possible in between.

The nine-song EP was titled NOM, not only after its creators, but after the sound of something eating another. It arrives on August 18th and will be pressed on 12" vinyl with album sleeves that double as fold-out prints hand-screened by the band themselves, for sale on yofishboy.com and distributed to select stores via HHBTM Records. The first 100 orders will receive unique packaging and a lot of little extras to be announced in detail once the preorder site launches later this month.

Check them out at:

yofishboy.com

fishboy.muxtape.com

myspace.com/fishboy

farewellalbatross.com (last album)

Album Review: Broski - Jortch

Out of Allentown, PA right near where I go to school, comes Broski, the sister of a blog reader named Emily. Broski is self described as "Music for driving away from your girlfriend's house" and it's pretty fitting. The four track EP is just a two-piece set of Mitch on guitar and Jordan on drums, but the simplicity isn't a bad thing. Mitch plays some choppy quick catchy rifts with a definite emo influence. They recently played with My Heart To Joy which is what I'm digging right now so that's a plus. I was going to try relate them to a Cap'n Jazz spin-off band, but they are like an upbeat version of all of them combined. My only critique which is kind of a major turn-off for me normally is the lack of vocals. I'm a big fan of music with something to say and a good voice to say it. Despite this, I enjoyed listening to Broski, and I look foward to seeing how they develop.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/broskisounds
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?nflhrmjd0kg

Review by: trollmaster

Album Review: The Joint Chiefs of Math - You Are Here

Here's the second band I was asked to review, The Joint Chiefs of Math. The Joint Chiefs of Math are a duo consisting of two lads named Kevin and Marcus. Together, they have crafted a bizarre, messy, noisy, dissonant masterpiece. Marcus plays drums like a hyperactive seizure made coherent through conscious thought and Kevin covers all the strings in a wild blaze of sound, not as wild as a group like Lightning Bolt, but somewhat close. In fact, I'd venture to say that these guys are a coherent version of groups like Lightning Bolt, playing a safer, but very satisfying version of that intense sound (minus the screaming and the fact that Lightning Bolt uses only bass whilst these guys have a guitar). Check 'em out and you won't be disappointed.

http://www.myspace.com/thejointchiefsofmath
http://www.sendspace.com/file/oalxai

Review by: Stubb

Album Review: In Heaven And You - Vena Cava Parts I and II

So five folks decided to send emails to this here blog askin' for reviews of their music, so I thought, "Hey, I'm an asshole who thinks he knows something about music, I could spare a few words for these guys," and so I did.
The first of the three bands I was asked to review was a project known as In Heaven and You lead by Alex Vallejo. The description in the email that was forwarded to me said, "...dark folk...", but if anything, this is acoustic prog with a small latin vibe (or at least the three tracks I was sent were). There's a virtuoso feel with each track, but without the lack of substance that virtuoso songs tends to have (see. every generic prog-metal band in existence. Planet X comes to mind).
The songs were primarily acoustic guitar and vocals with one little goody here and there. There's some rough patches, but overall this dude has tremendous potential and amazing talent. The musicianship is phenomenal and the songs have a great vibe that's begging for larger arrangements. Vocals are very heart-worn-on-sleeve-ish and have a bitter sweet hint of emotion, but could benefit from some vocal training. If you're in the mood for something dark, but light on the ears, pick this shit up now.

myspace.com/inheavenandyou
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z4tqzqngyte


Review by: Stubb

Album Review: Mesita - Cherry Blossoms

From the depths of Littleton, Colorado comes this one man band known as Mesita. Here at I found this song in the road, we have started to get artists requesting reviews and promotion, which is quite an honor is most cases. Mesita was put on the back burner for some time, and just recently was I assigned his album. My only regret about this album is that I didn't find it sooner. Every aspect of his music has its strong point which will cater to our blogs audience. The blend of guitars, harmonicas, accordions, mandolins, horns, and percussion is awaiting, and I am pleased to be serving it to you today.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jdmgetitmm0

Review by: IETF