Modey Lemon - Modey Lemon

Modey Lemon's eponymous, and first release is exactly what you want if you're into some ferocious garage rock. This album is fantastic and if you can get your hands on it - do so now. These guys are from Pittsburgh, which doesn't necessarily brew notably angry people. However, their self titled is like punk-blues. It's loud, energetic and misanthropic with songs like, "Grandpa's Bones" and "Jesus Christ ( for dinner)." Also, apparently their show is full of just as much uumph, with members acrobatics across stage. They are into demonstrating the chaos of their music I guess.

I'm going to suggest sticking to just this album if you're interested in music like this. Modey Lemon's newer material goes to kind of experimental voids and is much more tame. I enjoy Modey Lemon simply because it's raw, and makes me want to bang my head.

Song in the video is "Big Bang" is the first off the album, and a taste for what's to come. Next, songs about a garbage man that murders his woman, then a number on not feeding babies during a divorce period. This is closely followed by the terrible story of Caligula full of incest and murder. Finally, a song about rejecting Jesus Christ's request for dinner, that ends in an awesome blues harmonica solo to put the whole depressing saga into perspective.

10 Cover Songs That May be Better Than the Original

10. I Will Survive

covered by Cake

originally by Gloria Gaynor

Somehow, California alternative rock band, Cake does an interesting cover of the popular disco song. I guess they're both just trying to be optimisitic

9. The Man Who Sold The World

covered by Nirvana

originally by David Bowie

This cover is wonderful, I'm assuming Kurt was such a Bowie fan that he had to cover it during Nirvana's famous Unplugged session. I'm not certain exactly what version of Bowie's is the original since at one point in the 90's he redid it again and made it sound really creepy. I like the folksy undertone of the lyrics and obviously the guitar solo. This may have been biased but I really believe this is one of the best covers out there.

8.Flagpole Sitta

covered by Chiodos

originally by Harvey Danger

I like when the artist doing the cover brings in their own style into the song but still give it a feel of the original. Chiodos covered the song on "Punk Goes Pop", which is full of other interesting covers if you're into punk rock. Originally, Flagpole Sitta was popular somewhere in the late 90's and Weird Al Yankovic actually incorporated the chorus into one of this Polkas.

Portugal. The Man - American Ghetto

photo via portugal the man myspace

I've listened to these guys for a few years now and they continue to develop beyond my expectations. Their style has such a huge range, I believe everyone would like at least one of their albums. Those that dive into experimental rock with lots of samples would be drawn to albums such as Waiter: "You Vultures!" and It's Complicated Being a Wizard. To get some spacey, but down to earth at the same time, listen to Censored Colors. And for just really colorful experimental rock and roll, Church Mouth and The Satanic Satanist. Their EPs have a strange feeling of falling somewhere right between all of those moods and I'm a really big fan of The Pines and The Devil.

Anyways, as of March 2010, Portugal. The Man has started a sort of prerelease sale for their newest album, American Ghetto. You buy the actual album which is released sometime in May on CD and Vinyl. But in that purchase, you get the option to download the album in several formats, most notably FLAC, my favorite, and some high quality 320kbs MP3s.

Past fans may have a little trouble adopting this album, but after a few play throughs everything clicks and is awesome. American Ghetto goes towards a sample and really riff driven sound, and keeps that twangy rock n' roll sound somehow with some playful solos. I'm just going to highlight on my favorite song of the album, When The War ends. It slips away from the nature of the rest of the album and blasts off to a really distant mood, but once the lyrics come in, it becomes very joyful. Somehow, they managed to put in such a unique song but over all it feels right in place with the rest of the album right at the end, summing everything up.

Other tracks to enjoy: The Dead Dog and 60 Years. Don't forget, John Gourley's lyrics still are insane and are composed of some kind of elaborate metaphors that could only be thought up in Wasilla, Alaska.

The Von Bondies

These guys rode the initial wave of the garage rock revival in the early 2000's. Thanks to bands like the White Stripes and the Strokes, the Von Bondies are somewhat popular. I caught them earlier this year live, apparently everyone in their home town of Detroit hates them. They got alot of heat from the crowd at the Grog Shop over their new album Love, Hate, and Then There's You. I didn't enjoy it as much as their other albums so I'm here to talk about their old music today.

Off the first album Lack of Communication comes a lot of hard blues rock. I'm a huge fan of the bass lines from many of them, all with a very mopey feel topped with angry and frustrated guitars and vocals. I really dig on songs like Cass and Henry that have very narrative dialogue style of lyrics. I thoroughly enjoy the nice bluesy jam that is Rock and Roll Nurse, and even better you can hear it too.

Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On

I was certain that all of the indie kids, the ones claiming that Eagles of Death Metal are super rad and whatever terms they use for “cool”, were wrong.  I figured that with their recent release it would be time for me to diversify my resentment towards another band.  I mean, when their lead singer Jesse Hughes stated, “EODM's latest fabulous weapon, a top-secret music missile, a sonic warhead sexually tipped for her pleasure, shot from the deck of USS EODM Mantastic Fantastic.”, on Spin.com about their new album “Heart On”, I had to hate it. First step, I made sure I didn’t pay for it.

I sit down on Thursday afternoon and take a deep breath thinking to myself, “Finally, I’m going to get some closure.”

To ensure I find as many reasons to dislike it as possible, I put on my noise cancelling headphones so I can pick out everything. I double click the first song “Anything ‘cept the Truth”, and the standard rock beat and clap starts. Something went wrong. This guitar solo is sweet, actually it rocks. Jesse Hughes chimes in with, “Ask me why I came so late, ask me why I made you wait.” I feel like he’s singing to me. I feel like I should be telling to him ask me why I came so late… so late to this band that is great. This song is really good to get me pumped to listen to the rest. My expectations are high now.

The idea behind the band is that one day Jesse Hughes was inspired by a polish death metal band to make music that sounded like The Eagles playing death metal.  “(I Used To Couldn’t Dance) Tight Pants” starts off just like this. The riff sounds like it was ripped from an Eagles song and the rock-hard-o-meter was turned up by 80 percent. It’s basically hard garage rock, and by the 3^rd song on the album, I’m digging it.  As more songs go by, the album looses its intensity. The songs get more of a stoner rock feel as things progress.  The last song to catch my attention is “Cheap Thrills” which is at most a blaring jam.

Eagles of Death Metal seem to me to be a band that you’d want to have just in case.  Their music seems to be suitable to put on a party playlist and play really loud.  The lyrics focused on dancing, boogying, partying, and sex aren’t really too deep to interpret. I could imagine being able to just sit and appreciate their music for what it is. What I haven’t touched on is how danceable their music is. He’s not just singing about dancing and boogying, he wants you to because the beat of the songs are perfect. Overall, I’ll give “Heart On” a 1 out of 5 disapproval points. Their music is definitely good and deserves to be heard and listened to, plus I might actually buy their album now.