I like music.

Spanish Love Songs; they have a reputation of emotional punk rock.  Brave Faces Everyone kicks that reputation into high gear.  The album opens with a low tone, a lone guitar and, singer Dylan Slocum wearing his heart of his sleeve.  Slocum's shaking vocals bring the entire ensamble together, making Brave Faces Everyone pretty damn hard to turn off.  Routine Pain is the perfect archetype of what the first song on an album should be.  It is the overture of the theme of the whole album.  An emotional tour of Slocum's obviously tormented psyche.  Let's see how much lower he can go.  On the surface, you might hear similarities to The Menzingers or The Flatliners.  It's obviously their sonic niche.  But as Routine Pain ends, and your ears get hit with that electronic outro and the drums (of drummer Ruben Duarte) carry you into the second track those similarities start to dwindle. 'It won't be this bleak forever," is not the feeling you get...

48 year old Craig Finn's newest release "I Need a New War," is his 4th solo album.  And from a quick count on wikipedia, his 24th release since 93.  Pretty damn awesome (I'm not going to lie, seeing an artist like this still putting out albums means the dream isn't dead.)  From the jump, you get immediate Springsteen vibes; specifically Nebraska.  His shaky vocals pull you through the stories he's created with his medium; song.  Meeting people, trying to figure out where he belongs in the busy world around him. Blankets opens the album with meeting a girl.  Where any good album starts!  They spend a few summers together but he realizes he doesn't love her.  His line about there being one too many walls in the city puts you in the middle of a row of skyscrapers and just feeling trapped and feeling too small next to a thunderous canyon.  She's left and he hires a detective to find her.  They follow her to the twin cities and you're beco...

I'm not gonna lie, I've never followed Norma Jean very closely.  To be honest, the only reason I even picked this album up was because a friend of mine sent me a link saying they used Walrus Audio pedals during the recording process.  I'm REALLY glad he did.  This album starts how I imagine walking down to the ring for a WWE title fight would feel... stomping down the metal ramp, going through the ropes, hearing the roar of the crowd, the bell rings and then... getting punched in the face by the Undertaker. Norma Jean has been through the ringer with their band members.  According to Wikipedia, 14 former members.  That doesn't include touring members, or session musicians or anything else.  After learning that, I became more intrigued.  The band formed in '97, the longest current tenured member is lead singer Cory Brandan.  His vocals have been at the forefront of their band since '04.  Dude has some serious vocal skill.  After a 5 ...

I can't say enough how much I've anticipated this album. The pre-release songs; Anna, Strangers Forever, & America got me so damn excited. I have just been absolutely stoked for this to drop. If you're anything like me, you listen to podcasts with members of your favorite bands. Well, I spent a full gym session listening to Greg Barnett on Lead Singer Syndrome, turns out he has a degree in Political Science! Which makes the opening track: America (You're Freaking Me Out) so much more awesome. Let's dive in. This album immediately starts with an existential crisis (just like their last couple albums did; I Don't Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore, & Tellin' Lies.) Asking us what the hell we're going to do about it. It has one of the coolest guitar licks they have ever written leading us into the chorus. Secondly; Anna. The passion of the song comes seeping through the lyrics. They're perfectly written, every syllable lines up with the strumming of t...