Twin Atlantic Vivarium

by Sami Ponoroff

Twin Atlantic, a young band from Scotland, has reminded us of a classically forgotten lesson, with their new album Vivarium: never judge a book by its cover. When one first picks up the album, and opens it, they will most definitely be impressed; as one opens the album, the CD is presented in a pop-out cover, detailing grass and a teeth-like contraption (it is consistent with the albums theme). But, the good impressions end once one pops the CD into their stereo.

Twin Atlantic’s lead singer, Sam McTrusty, may be able to sing, but he is not a singer. Disregarding his subpar vocals, his Scottish accent distracts one from hearing the words. Also, about six out of the eight songs on the album sound EXACTLY the same: one can barely tell the difference as they flip through the tracks. Despite this, the band is not horrible. When one can hear the pure instrumentals they can hear Twin Atlantic’s talent. These instrumentals can be heard on their song ‘Better Weather.’

Music Video Reviews

The Ivy Walls “Getaway Driver” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Newcomer, The Ivy Walls’ music video for their single “Getaway Driver” is unoriginal. The video employs the done-over and boring format of juxtaposing the safe and calmness of a band playing on a rooftop with a dangerously dramatic world, located a mere twenty stories below, on the ground. As the video continues, and the real world characters lead us from a robbery to the desert, the audience cannot help but cringe: haven’t we seen videos like this a million times?
Despite The Ivy Walls’ good sound, the “Getaway Driver” video is tedious and boring; once the audience sees the girls running away incognito with suspicious black bags they know what will inevitably occur, an escape to a place (in this case, the desert) where they think no one will find them. And even worse, The Ivy Walls, in thinking they made an artistic break-through, covered the entire end of their video with successively darker stages of the color yellow: no, the color yellow did not make me think of the girls’ final state of complacency as they reach their personal nirvana, it made me think that the director did not know his way around Final Cut Pro.

The Futureheads “Heartbeat Song” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Finally, something I can listen to without cringing. Although their lyrics may not be of the highest quality, The Futureheads have a very unique sound—a sound that intrigues their listeners. The video accompanying “Heartbeat Song,” again not stellar, definitely has its moments: their retro-inspired game show is very cute-sey. All in all, The Futureheads have potential, but definitely need work: their lyrics need major retouching and their videos need to have more of a story life. But, needless to say, The Futureheads are much closer to fame than many of the other struggling bands and artists out there.

Blowing Trees “Goblins” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
After watching this video a few times, I have come to the conclusion that the star is not the lead singer, Chris Madden; the star of this video is its director, Ryan Scheer. While the band delivers music reminiscent of a bad high school sponsored concert, Scheer makes use of stunning visuals through his manipulation of light, televisions and angles. Because of his artful manipulation of the camera and light, Ryan Scheer is who should be remembered when one watches this video: he is the strongest artist in association with this lackluster band and their lackluster song, “Goblins,”
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30 Seconds to Mars-Student Journalists!

Want to interview 30 Seconds to Mars on April 27th at The Fillmore Miami Beach?

We will be presenting a student journalist press conference by invitation only before the show.

If you are a student journalist and want to attend email us info@therockstarstories.com.

A select number of journalists will be invited to the event.    Also we will be having a drawing for a pair of tickets to the show.

Email us to enter info@therockstarstories.com.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys by Morgan Catanzaro

My Propeller

The British alt-rock band Arctic Monkeys have finally released their third album since 2007, titled Humbug, in July of 2009.  The first single of off the album, Crying Lightning, debuted at number 12 on the UK singles Chart; far better than the bands last album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which had two singles debut in the Top 74 respectively, although all twelve songs from that album landed on the Top 200 Charts.

Humbug takes on a new sound entirely, especially compared to Favourite Worst Nightmare, which was more of a fast-pace record. Humbug demonstrates a slower, almost soulful sound that is Brit-Indie Rock in its entirety.  Arctic Monkeys have already been celebrated as an extremely accomplished and talented group, even though they have only created three full albums and one EP, and have already taken on a risk in their second album by changing around their “sound,” it’s really no wonder that the band would go in such a different direction. And it’s that re-invention and success that got them many compliments (such as being considered equivalent or even better than Oasis and The Strokes by the UK media) and almost as much criticism. There is no doubt, however, that this album will get the band many award nominations and chart hits.

I was pretty disappointed in the music video for their second single, My Propeller. It did live up to their new Indie-Rock sound, but it was extremely boring to watch. The whole video consists of two-toned colors of cream and a dark teal, so the band members were not extremely distinguishable unless you know what instrument they play. The other half of the video, the parts that were not of the band members, are just random things like a girls eyes, lips, random hands, an eagle, etc., but all in that same boring, two-tone color. I wouldn’t recommend wasting time watching the video, but the album itself is definitely worth listening to.