Willowz - Everyone

"Everyone" is the latest material from American band Willowz in which they play spontaneous and lively music that combine the visceral and urgent nature of punk and garage with a casual and supposedly candid so Californian attitude. The quartet presents 10 fast songs (mostly shorter than 3 minutes) in which, except for a couple of seventies flavored ballads, they go from obvious allusion to the raw & pure White Stripes garage in pieces like "Repetition" and "You Do ", to The Strokes melodic garage evocation in songs like "Destruction" or "I Know ". So, "Everyone" is not an album that will change rock history but it gives us a bit of fresh music. Fun and enjoyable. Is not that enough?. -CORANNIEIT-

Willowz, Everyone
Dim Mak Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

That Fucking Tank - Tanknology

When a band proclaims that works "challenging the assumption that 'good' music has to be made 'professionally' " and also has songs with names like "Keanu Reef", "Dave Grolsch" or "Bruce Springstonehenge" is not unusual not being taken seriously. Fortunately this seems not to be a concern for That Fucking Tank, English duo formed by Andy Abbott on guitar and James Islip on drums, who in "Tanknology" delivered 10 songs of instrumental psycho-hard rock with touches of stoner and progressive rock, so close of bands like Monkey 3 or, nowadays disappeared, The USA Is A Monster. By combining progressive structures, of some complexity, with catchy, almost metal, riffs, the couple link up pieces to create long passages that sometimes sounds as if Abbott is playing in his living room testing his new effects processor while Islip drums sounds impetuous and ease. Taking the do-it-yourself philosophy for a fun and carefree (but not careless) road, That Fucking Tank delivers a record with playful, powerful and imaginative music. -CORANNIEIT-

That Fucking Tank, Tanknology
Gringo Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Noah And The Whale - The First Days Of Spring

Noah And The Whale debuted last year with "Peaceful The World Lays Me Down" a good album but not more than the average dozens of records from indie bands with a semi-low fi acoustic folk /rock that included, but of course, some violin. Something really interesting must have happened so that now they can deliver a record as "The First Days Of Spring", an ambitious and sophisticated work conceived as a sort of accompaniment (or vice versa) to the homonym film created by guitarist and vocalist Charlie Fink. Curiously, although Fink and ex-band mate Laura Marling break up seems to be the inspiration and guiding line of the album, "The First Days Of Spring" has a joyful spirit even though has moments of fully melancholy. Combining gentle & introspective folk/pop with nice orchestral arrangements that are used either, give a twist to songs like "The First Days Of Spring", which opens the album in a majestic way, or to create a divertimento, choirs included, in "Instrumental I"/"Love Of An Orchestra”, Noah And The Whale have given a turn of the screw that has led them a big step forward. -CORANNIEIT-

Noah And The Whale, The First Days Of Spring
Cherry Tree Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site