On first listen, Clap for Daylight’s debut album ‘Break Even’ reminds me of an elliptical mix of Bare Naked Ladies and Keane. A little bit of the laid back, casual funness of BNL, but also very edgy and sharp with more than a little darkness to it especially as you get into the album. It opens with the song, ‘Get Down’, which is a very funky piano heavy song with a catchy chorus that literally enforces the ‘getting down’ policy. Although the album has dark moments, it is good because the sun always shines on the darkness and they always bring it back up to a feeling of general hopefulness and goodness. Many of the songs are inspiring and high flying, but always down to earth and just face real world scenarios if you listen to the lyrics.
    Honestly, the album is great. The band steps out of bounds often, crossing over into emotions that people are oft to deny. The band is not afraid to tackle the issues of evil, as can be easily read in the track ‘the Good and Evil Inside’, although it is hardly one of the darkest tracks on the LP.
    What draws me to the band is the feeling of family that they provide. The band is obviously very comfortable with each other, and complement each other very well. The guitars and keyboards mesh in interesting ways, creating mechanical rhythms that interact like pistons on an engine. It gets even better when everyone is playing at once because of the lush harmony that they create. Amazing choruses and a great sense of rhythm give this band a professional and unique sensibility that is sure to lift your spirit. The vocalist is so entranced in the music that his true voice shines through the web of melody and harmony and gives a center of gravity to the entire ensemble.
    The lyrics are at times deeply metaphorical and at times just simple, referring to regular days and things that happen to all people. The writer obviously has a philosophical slant, but always keeps the theme understandable. This is what makes the band so appealing. Their sense of solidity with a good link to the realm of imagination gives them exactly what a band needs, something to distract your from your worries and help you remember the things that are important in life. Check this album out on iTunes and Amazon, and visit their myspace for songs and upcoming shows at http://www.myspace.com/clapfordaylight, while their website is being constructed.


Mog Rocket's Tooth and Nail is a potent, progressive rapture that comes at you in waves of fiery, yet subtle and mindful proficiency. Its a dynamic mix of progressive rock and jazz-filled metal with hints of  southern flavor. Mog Rocket proves they have an immense pool of talent and musical styles to draw from, while keeping the general feel of Tooth and Nail one of simplicity, matched to their not so simple and equative approach.

Tooth and Nail is a well thought out creation with explosions of expertise and responsibility. It has socially themed undertones showing that Mog Rocket is a little more than your average band; that is to say that they're not just singing about teen angst and who they fucked in the 9th grade; but instead rather intelligent ideas...but they do know how to let loose. Songs such as Bleed on Me, Jonny New Rock and Fingers feature drawn out and compelling progressive jams that will entice you to listen on...and on. I think Mog Rocket is at their best during those awesomely robust instrumental jams. Track 3, titled Waterboarding, starts out with mention of "the working poor" waiting on a lifeline that isn't coming...socially themed lyrics that keep you interested to one of the albums more subdued songs. Bathing in the Asteroid Shower is an amazing and luring all instrumental powerhouse that shows the more dense, darker and heavier side of Mog Rocket.

All in all, Tooth and Nail is an awesome listen. It boasts unique arrangements and well thought layouts that will no doubt leaving you wanting the live version. From what I hear and read, Mog Rocket puts on some amazing live shows. I look forward to checking one out. Support Mog Rocket, Support Local Music. Buy Tooth and Nail here. 

I found The Peppermint Confederacy while doing research for our bands section. I had never heard of the five piece from Woodstock, GA so I had no idea what I was going into. The album was free and immediately available so I decided not to listen to them through their myspace player; that way I was clueless to their sound when I sat down with the album. The album was instantly perplexing and hard to classify so I took it on for a few weeks, listening to it everyday, searching for new clues and answers. What I found was was an awe-inspiring experience that took me deep into the mind and somewhat fantasy like world of The Peppermint Confederacy and lead vocalist Josh Miller.

In the Rain of Daylight is a wondrous entity from start to finish. The Peppermint Confederacy provide substance and introspect mixing folk and alt-country that provide the listener with a sense of being lost, but with the feeling that your on the way to a magnificent new beginning. It was an adventure to listen to with the fusion of an array of instruments and meditative, somewhat psychedelic effects, mostly with a folky acoustic foundation. Everything from Acoustic Guitar to Harmonica, Piano and Maracas come together to create a soft and sobering sound that hits with passion and insight.  

What I enjoyed most about In the Rain of Daylight was its completeness. The music made is intelligent and well thought out with intention and purpose. It seems to have a goal and that goal is moving you towards thoughtful contemplation. Each song leads into the next with grace and smoothness that is not easily found or repeated, seeming to bridge the move from one device to the next; making it possible to experience the last song and the current one simultaneously, and with cause. The album is a journey with an emotional and subtle intensity. The lyrics stand alone as an impressive example of the art of language and arrangement. They are poetic and philosophical at their worst moments. Mix in some elegant and imaginative rumination on top of amazing and beautiful music, and you have Josh Miller and The Peppermint Confederacy's fantastically dreamy phenomenon, In the Rain of Daylight.

Click here to read an interview and see videos from with The Peppermint Confederacy.

CLICK to DOWNLOAD Entire Album for FREEEE

From Irreversible, we have a bounding 12 track album entitled Light.  This music is Intense. The music from the album 'Light' is anything but. We are talking some heavy stuff here, no doubt. The sound is very ambient, it  reminds me of 70s heavy metal. But without all the creepy hair-dos.  Honestly, listening to this makes me want to go to a live concert and just headbang for hours on end. There's pretty solid percusssion beats  
permeating throughout, and I love most of the guitar slams. Brilliant. The technique is used often for a reason.
 
The album starts off great, not too heavy, lyrics that aren't  
difficult to bear. Boundary Dissolution just made my favorites list.  
But then I hit Ego Collapsing. And felt my support also slowly  
collapsing. Ego Collapsing feels very awkward, and the variant,  
occasional, indiscernible hardcore singing didn't improve upon it.
But it's a good thing there are eleven other tracks to enjoy...
Although it's strange, I feel like in most of the songs, the music is  trying to escalate to something big in each song, but never quite  reaching it. And there's interesting use of a didgeridoo....This particular album is not for those aren't extremely invested in  listening to music. The songs are huge, very instrumental, and  
flow into each other quite well.

This album is almost an event, if that makes any sense.

Atlanta band Free Ticket....

Holy Hell. These girls just turned my brain inside out. This brand-new Atlanta band just let eight infinitely forceful songs loose on a split release with Grammal Seizure, a one man band from Maryland. AkuYou, consisting of Kim Chee and Clara Clamp, doesn’t seem to easily fit into any existing musical genre that I am aware of, unless pineal gland rock has already been coined. Using multiple effects and well thought out instrumentation, Kim shapes unique sound textures, which surround both Clara’s vocals and some pounding percussion that will certainly wake you up.  Their song Bass Split is a perfect example. It flawlessly imitates the sounds one’s brain might produce while having a not-so-great experience on a strong psychedelic drug… plus drums.  If this doesn’t sound fun to you then you need to just get over it and give it a try anyways. If you desire something a bit less ambient, their song SS has a bit more of a driving force, which really allows Clara to show you what she’s got. Or there is Henry, my personal favorite, which lies somewhere in the middle. Set aside the time to lie down, grab your biggest head-phones, concentrate, and experience AkuYou. You wont regret it.

Artwork from myspace.com/AkuYou

Contact AkuYou on MysPAce to buy the album.  

Hear songs by AkuYou on beatlanta at the bands beatlanta page.

akuyou.com

learn more about Danny Bailey and Free Ticket here.

The first thing that I noticed when I started STEREOTALK's debut EP Fatman'z Playhouz was the use of actual instruments. For me, that speaks highly of a rap band. Rap band, something that you can't say too often but when you do, it usually means you're speaking of a talented group of people...the Roots come to mind.

STEREOTALK provoke class in their rhymes. There wasn't any incoherent bullshit making up of words or pronunciation to ensure flow-ability to be found in Fatman'z Playhouz. Right away you are hit with the first song Fly Away, an awesome drum beat mixed with distorted guitar riffs on top of vocals that glide you through a well told story of being "taken away" from your current position or state of mind.  The follow up is a sweet little ditty (yeah, I said ditty) called Supermodel that serenades some girl, who I am sure is quite lovely. What I like about STEREOTALK is that, like so many rap artists, they are not shy about how big or famous they are, or are going to be for that matter; rhyming often in Supermodel about how the girl knows that he's a star. I don't think STEREOTALK has hit that status quite yet but they rhyme about it with style and technique; and the difference is that they can actually do it with confidence. They blend elements of jazz and soul into rock and hip-hop, and they do it well. In the 3rd song, Kinky Combat, they even manage to sneak in a bit of politics...not speaking highly of the a certain government figure...do the John Kennedy, yuh, get your rocks off...then switching into lyrics about getting some girl from behind - you get my rocks off.

The remaining songs speak of everything from more girls to heartbreak. Song #5 titled Elated has everything from crooning vocals to screaming to well styled flows about lost love and pain, all wearing a crown of distorted guitars and high hat focused drums. Dirty Floor is a story about a girl abused by her father and accused of lying about it to her mother, as well as some of her struggles in life; ending up in Las Vegas being seduced by a pimp and talked into prostitution and later raped in an alley way. The final track Green Ottoman has undertones of spirituality and regret. It touches on an individuals wrong decisions and hopes for a better future, after living on the wrong side of morality.

All in all STEREOTALK'S debut EP Fatman'z Playhouz denotes talent and originality. It features superb beats, amazing vocals...both rapped and sang, creativity and freshness. It is rap at its finest; reminiscent of older, fresher, free-styled inspired raps, not falling victim to mainstream rap's over use of violence, the word booty or shake and incoherent use of ebonics or made up language. Not that I don't appreciate some good gangster shit from time to time, but STEREOTALK manages to stay on par with what I would refer to as intelligent rap, such as Mos Def or Talib Kweli (fuck yeah Black Star), and many others I can't think of right now. They do have whispers of mainstream influence though. SUPPORT STEREOTALK.

Upcoming shows:

Oct 9 2009      10:00P
    THE VENUE     Dalton, Georgia
Oct 16 2009     10:00P
    The Local with Shotgun Opera     Marietta, Georgia
Oct 19 2009     10:00P
    Lenny’s Venue     Atlanta, Georgia
Nov 6 2009     10:00P
    Swayzes with Chase Long Beach and Morning Waits     Marietta, Georgia
Dec 10 2009     10:00P
    Drunken Unicorn     Atlanta, Georgia

And STEREOTALK is added to our list of "band's to do shows with next" here at beatlanta so be looking out for that. 

STEREOTALK on MySpAcE

Piedmont is a unique and transforming album that provoked something inside of me. The song titled Intro immediately pierces you with a sense of eeriness that is deep and profound and the second song titled Cambric really continues that sense and sets the mood for a good experience. The sounds being mixed are a little dark and give you a dense feeling when you first hear them. Their the type of songs that could make the score to an awesome suspenseful moment in life, or the overtones to an epic moment in a Michael Mann movie. Especially Cassidy, a song that carries you along a non-wavering path of lightness and sense of purpose. It reminded me very much of some scores that were done by Moby for various things. Those of us familiar with his works for movies and things know that sense I am referring too. That sense that makes you feel like life is deeper than the day to day drudge (see the score, by Moby, to the movie Heat at the end when Al Pacino has to shoot Robert DeNiro). That sense that music is meaningful and guides us through that drudge. Reklein did that for me. I don't listen to IDM music as much these days as I have in the past but Reklein awakened an interest to seek out some more information into the local computer electronic scene. Reklein say they are a band that was formed to fuse two different styles of music and I can definitely see that in the eclectic mix of sounds that they produce. Piedmont intertwines very dense, industrial undercurrents glazed over with a more space rock theme. Sometimes the industrial part can get in the way of the sounds harmonizing but it is very short lived making the majority of Piedmont a really cool album that can be a great companion in seeking out some expansion of mind. I recommend the songs Cassidy, Sinke and Robb for the spacier sound that I prefer, and the songs Harland and Michnofor a little more industrial sound. All of them are equally wonderous though. Reklein also melds some more bubbly and perkier sounds as well. See the beginning of Larson and the song Cartwright. Larson does manage to take it back to the epic, score worthy material toward the middle of the song, making it one that is pretty encompassing of what Reklein is all about...bringing together two styles to make beautiful and thoughtful music. 

Stream and Download the entire ablum Piedmont for free here.

The Wild. Now here is a band that I feel really embodies the independent spirit. This maybe-sarcastic band’s self-entitled EP starts off with an upbeat folk tune, They Too Will Know. Witt Wisebram, lead vocals, sings with a twang-iness that reminds me of Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah’s Alec Ounsworth. The Wild also manages to pack emotion into every song, which should sound very familiar to fans of Bright Eyes and Conor Oberst. These guys really know how to get that natural quality to music, that almost sounds profound, without that profound feeling. At the end of the EP, I’m hit with a song I almost thought crawled back from the 50's, which is great, because I love the 50's. The song, Oh Alex, takes me to a better time, with it’s prom ballad sound and amazing lyrics.  

The Wild falls into that small category known by an almost surprising few called anti-folk. Although, that is my personal opinion. Personally, anti-folk is one of my favorite types of music. But I think The Wild fits perfectly into that small section of music, with their almost goofy tone and sarcastic voice.

Official rating: 4 teapots out of 3 iPods  (1.44 teapots = 1 iPod)

I hate hardcore music, for the most part. But I love ska, for all its changes throughout history, with a major and semi-obsessive passion. So here, you see, is my dilemna. The band Turbo Slaughter is a kind-of-original fusion of hardcore and ska, or ska-core, as I read up on wikipedia.

Honestly, one of the only words I could come up with to describe this Slaughter of Turbo is “raw.”  The music often goes from a blaring, interminable noise of disjointed drums and almost screeching guitars, to a revved-up ska sound punctuated with barely discernible vocals.

Undoubtedly, for someone who does like hardcore, Turbo Slaughter’s EP, is most probably a decent band to get warmed-up to. Many of their lyrics seem to want to communicate to the world that they don’t give a shit. “Shut the fuck up” is repeated many times in at least one song. Not that I’m against such language, but it seems almost meaningless.

But anyways...that’s all I really have to say.  

I have just listened to Death on Two Wheels' album, Separation of Church and Fate, and suffice it to say, I just didn't know what to expect. When I did listen to it, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the Death on Two Wheels is not a hardcore heavy metal band with incoherent screams. Although, with songs like Calling Us All Back Home, it is very easy to catch yourself perilously close to headbanging in-tempo with the song.

Sadly, even though it is thoroughly easy to imagine any of Death on Two Wheels' songs on a classic rock station, they are lacking in true originality. One must admit, however, that true originality is hard to come by. The music is very easy listen to, as long as you're into dark, cliched lyrics and guitar riffs reminiscent of oh so many rockbands from the 70s and 80s.

Having said that, I am fully prepared to play this music as I woo my lady-friend into a casual love-making session. I would not be too surprised that at some point Death on Two Wheels will have made it to the proverbial top.

This is music with a southern rock feel, with perhaps a touch of metal, although the bands capacity of range in music style is broader than most bands can boast. Trae Vedder's vocals give each song a distinct and personal feel, which make the lyrics seem more real.

Overall, I think Death On Two Wheels is the kind of music you would probably enjoy having on your iPod, but make no mistake, they are far from a necessity.