Tag Archives: alternative
The Sunstreak-A Review of “Once Upon A Lie”
Rock: the Sunstreak – Once Upon A Lie
by Marissa Liebl
Being from New York myself, the Sunstreak is one of the most talented rock bands that I have heard from the New York area. This band is made up of 5 members: Gary Foster, David Schuler, Tony Rebis, Jack Flynn, and Jason Sarkis from Rochester and have been bringing their own style of music to the world since the year 2005. Their music is completely mind-blowing and will leave you wanting to hear more. The sound is catchy and keeps you entertained. The members of this band produce a great sound that sweeps you off your feet. The groups music has shown that they have worked hard to get where they are now and that nothing will stop them to achieve their goals.
The lyrics of the songs on the album can be repetitive, yet their music seems to reflect on their feelings of having love and losing it.
The band has performed at Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2006 and sold over 25,000 records within 2 months. They posted on the Billboard charts without a distribution deal and they were the second band in history to do this.
It has dawned on me that this band produces overall enjoyment for their fans and their progress has proved their greatness and that they can go far in the music industry.
I solely feel that this group can become one of the best rock bands in history if they set their minds to it and follow their dreams.
Teenage Bottlerocket “They Came From The Shadows”
by Carly Shea
Proclaiming the use of Walkmans and running over cops in front of doughnut shops as cool again, Teenage Bottlerocket is back with another Punk Rock album titled, They Came From The Shadows. Veterans of the post-millennium Punk scene, Teenage Bottlerocket has been around since 2001 with four full albums and five EPs. The band consists of 5 Neo-Punks: Ray Carlisle, Brandon Carlisle, (Brandon and Ray are twins), Kody Templeman, and Miguel Chen. Since their formation in Laramie, Wyoming, the band has “label-hopped” with 4 different record labels, and are currently with Fat Wreck Records. Although Teenage Bottlerocket has been veterans of the Punk scene for nine years, they haven’t blown up on the mainstream like Rancid or Screeching Weasel. Still, they have a devout fan base, similar to a cult following. Teenage Bottlerocket is fighting for Punk Rock with loud chords and angst ridden lyrics, but at the same time is being submissive to the Punk Pop movement in their most recent album. Punk Pop is more easily sold than hardcore Punk, and Teenage Bottlerocket is switching over to the Punk Pop-side.
The very first track on They Came From The Shadows starts off with a heavy drum beat which you can’t help but tap your feet to. Soon after is the rhythmic guitar shredding and in addition to the feet tapping, you are now bopping your head to the chords. As if this track couldn’t get any catchier, Ray Carlisle comes in pumping out lyrics saying that the band is “making skate a f**king threat again”. Only their first track, Skate Or Die has set a high expectation for the rest of They Came From The Shadows and the survival of Punk Rock.
Feeling Punk Rock while wearing my Chucks, I eagerly pushed play on the next track, Don’t Want To Go. Expecting more rapid drum beats and snarky lyrics, I eagerly listened on, but the second the lyrics started, I felt that the entire album changed. No longer were the lyrics full of rebellion, but were a fast paced Punk- Pop-formula used on many Green Day albums. I was majorly disappointed.
Maybe their record label just wanted to throw in a few Punk Pop songs amidst the Hardcore Punk ones to appeal to a broader audience. But the more songs I listened to, the more disappointed I became. Songs like Do What? and Tonguebiter mirrored the pop-ish styling’s of Don’t Want To Go, and the CD lost it’s hardcore roots. The songs were full of Emo lyrics about relationship problems with a Punk backbeat. Where were the songs about moshing, hardcore drugs, and graffiti? What happened to God Save The Queen? Next time anyone tells you Punk Rock is dead, rest assured, it’s not. It’s just been drowned in the heavily marketed Pop that true Punk Rock once rivaled
LMFAO Interview with Michelle
Adelitas Way Interview
Interview by Sami Ponoroff with guitarist Chris Iorio
Adelitas Way, formed in 2005, has finally caught their big break. Not only were they signed in late 2008 by Virgin Records, but they are now on tour with Shinedown, Sick Puppies, and Cavo. Yet, the member’s of Adelitas Way did not always have such a glamorous life: before being signed the band lived out of a van in L.A.
Though many would have given up, guitarist Chris Iorio told us that even though people were turning them down left and right, telling them to go back to Vegas, persistence was key, and there was no way that they were going home. “We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t live in that van,” stated Iorio. That experience is why they tell aspiring artists, “[to] never give up,…always keep working,…and [that] it’s never over.”
Though their presence on the music scene has just been established, Adelitas Way has plans for the future. Iorio said they’d love to, “just keep playing music, stay on tour, put on a second record, and be around for a long time.” Iorio’s laundry list of places he would love to tour included Japan, Canada, Amsterdam, and the UK. But their aspirations don’t stop there; they dream of touring with bands like Linkin Park, Metallica, and Bon Jovi, accruing to Iorio.
One of the most “awesome” moments the band has had so far was hearing themselves on the radio for the first time. Iorio recalls, “…it was our first time coming back to Vegas…we had to check [the radio] to make sure it wasn’t the CD player!”
You can now purchase Adelitas Way self-titled, debut album on iTunes and in stores now. Check them out on http://www.adelitaswaymusic.net/ or http://www.myspace.com/adelitasway.