Best Of The Year 2011: First Half Update

This is the second edition of Muzik Dizcovery's quarterly update. Every staff member will put out a top five list, allowing them to indicate their absolute favorite records of 2011. Additionally, it will be able to alert you of albums that you may not have heard of otherwise. This list does not only include albums that have been released as of June 30th, as any album that we have heard so far this year is free to be included. You can read the first quarter update here. All the lists can be seen below the jump.

Album Review: Taking Back Sunday-Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday is Taking Back Sunday, forever and always. For many, this may be welcome news, as the band has quite literally become legendary since their domination of the last decade. And how couldn’t they be? In the mid-2000’s Taking Back Sunday defined the angst-lite pop-punk movement that listeners couldn’t escape from. However, despite their reliance on the somewhat juvenile themes of being under appreciated and “the complexities of adolescence,” Taking Back Sunday made a name for them, and in the process, garnered a bevy of fans, and a load of critical praise. Yet it can’t be helped to think that Taking Back Sunday have reached the bottom of their bag of tricks, and in the process, have reached the end of their creativity.

Contest: The Summer Set

Muzik Dizcovery is proud to announce our first contest. In honor of The Summer Set's upcoming album Everything's Fine, we have a prize pack which includes a signed CD and signed poster from the band. Though the album isn't breaking any ground, it's a solid pop-rock album that shows growth from the band's debut LP Love Like This. The goal of the contest is to create the best album title using only words from the song titles of Everything's Fine. Rules can be found below. The contest ends on July 15th.

Interview With Blindside

Blindside has been around for longer than I've enjoyed music, as their first release came out in 1996. After taking a five year hiatus, the band is back with their new album With Shivering Hearts We Wait. The band graciously offered to take up some of their time to answer some of my questions, which include comparisons to the band's past releases, charting on Billboard, nu-metal, an upcoming US tour, and many other things which you can see below.

Artist Spotlight: Grouplove

I don’t like EP’s. That may sound a little ignorant, but to me the vast majority of them are either made up of half-arsed ideas not deemed good enough for full albums, or are stop-gaps which are simply rehashed once the LP drops. I still listen regardless, since they waste comparatively little of my time, but it usually takes something quite exceptional to really catch my attention within such a format. One band who did just that earlier in the year, though, were LA quintet Grouplove, with their self-titled debut release.

Revolving around themes such as the beach and surfing, their brand of sun-drenched indie-pop hardley represents pastures new, but there's an undeniable warmth and bounce to their songs which can put last year's slacker stars like Wavves and Best Coast to shame. In truth, not all of the six tracks hit the spot, but those which do hint at a rich potential which could be realised come the release of their full-length in September. They may have missed a trick with the autumn release date, as it’s bound to sound great in hazy afternoon festival slots, but if the rest of the record meets the golden standard set by signature song "Colours" then it really wont matter.

The album, entitled Never Trust a Happy Song is due to be released on September 5th in the UK, and September 13th in the US. In the meantime, you can stream most of the EP on the band’s Myspace.

Album Review: American Verse - Standard Emotions EP

Standards have certainly been set for the American Verse clan to live up to on the scene that is pop-punk, having been compared to the likes of Saves the Day, and the gone but not forgotten The Movielife. With an album title the likes of 'Standard Emotions' anyone would be inclined to think that this seemingly humble foursome, hailing from Massachusetts, were selling themselves a tad short among such strong competition. But the candid pop-punk nature of an EP that learns from a motto of 'failure not success' does anything but that. It's evidently this get up and get go attitude that gives an EP, eagerly reliant upon the animated and headstrong culture it's involved in, a head start.

Album Review: The Wonder Years - Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing

One of the few but significant drawbacks to releasing critically acclaimed music is the expectation of a follow up of equal or greater value. Philadelphia, PA based pop punk giants The Wonder Years know all too well of this caveat, with the huge success that was their 2010 release The Upsides. Up to the release of The Upsides, The Wonder Years had been a gimmicky pop punk band featuring breakdowns, goofy lyrics, and Nintendo synth lines. However, from the day that The Upsides went public, The Wonder Years have no doubt been dreading the weight that was the demand for another album that could compete with The Upsides. Daringly titled Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing, The Wonder Years’ follow up unquestionably delivers. Suburbia is everything that should be expected from the talented group that created The Upsides. Released June 14th, 2011, it is the band’s debut on Hopeless Records.

Bomb the Music Industry - Vacation

Ska-punk collective Bomb the Music Industry! has gained quite a following over their career. Led by the always eccentric Jeff Rosenstock, the band has become a swinging door of artists, seeing many contributors come and go, offering up their talents to make each effort wholly unique. BTMI! will release their newest album, entitled Vacation next month on July 26th.

Vacation came about after a, well, vacation. During his trip to Belize, Rosenstock felt compelled to write the band’s eighth album, which interestingly enough is about “building a home.” Guest Musicians this time around include members from Bayside, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and Fake Problems. Vacation looks to be true to the band’s fun, catchy, and exciting nature, and is sure to be an instant fan pleaser, as BTMI! have really hit their stride with their past few releases.

Be sure to check out Bomb the Music Industry!’s Vacation when it hits July 26th. In the meantime, the ridiculously consistent band has a literal wealth of material to sink one’s teeth into, so what are you waiting for?

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Album Review: Beau Navire - Hours

Beau Navire’s Hours hearkens back to the emo of yesteryear, a sentiment that should have any genre fan chomping at the bit to get a taste of what this band has to offer. Sure, one can hear a dash of Orchid, and a dash of Saetia, but the real sweetener here is what the band manages to do on their own, and that is craft a wonderful, immense album, worthy of putting them ahead of their peers.

Hours is an intense album, to say the least. Fast, powerful, and emotional, the album is in no way for the faint of heart. Yet therein lays the beauty of it, as Hours is a return to the veritable passions of emo’s storied history; a record that perfectly captures the exhilarating nature of the music before the negative connotations, and before the grossly disproportionate stereotypes.

Album Review: There For Tomorrow - The Verge

There For Tomorrow has always been a band lumped in with the wrong category of acts. Touring with bands such as We The Kings, Mayday Parade, Every Avenue, and All Time Low may have scared of some of the band's more suitable potential fans, as There For Tomorrow never fit within the genre of that group of bands. On the band's Hopeless Records debut self titled EP and LP A Little Faster, the band showed a knack for crafting contagious hooks while surrounding them with powerful, crushing guitar riffs and lead singer Maika Maile's outstanding vocals. With The Verge, the band attempts to break out of their pop-rock image, drastically improving the instrumentals and musicianship, while Maika's vocals improve from excellent to unbelievable. But something seems missing in The Verge, as the charm and appeal of the band's past work seems to have disappeared.

Nazca Lines

It's hard to believe the talent and skill of some groups of people. Nazca lines are pictures drawn in the ground (some over 200 meters long) by ancient Peruvian civilizations. The crazy part is that these enormous pictures were done without pretty much any technology, or any ability to actually see the entire picture. Just like the Nazca people, Nazca Lines (the punk band) is a group of extremely talented individuals, showing off their skills in their artistic field. Reminiscent of bands like At The Drive In, Refused, and Fugazi, the band showcases powerful, heavy guitar riffs  along with emotional shouts a la Cedric Bixler or Geoff Rickly. The band also enlisted the musical genius of The Blood Brothers' guitarist Cody Votolato for extra guitar on a couple of tracks, just adding to the band's widespread sound. These talented boys will be releasing their upcoming album on August 23rd via Stressed Sumo Records, and be sure to check them out on the label's website.

Album Review: Title Fight - Shed

Kingston, PA based punk band Title Fight puts forth their first full length effort in Shed, released May 3^rd, 2011 through SideOneDummy Records. Despite their previous lack of a full length, Title Fight still has managed to earn a reputation as a hype band within their scene, mostly through the accolades awarded to the group by their peers. Title Fight’s previous efforts have solely been through EP’s and demos that date back as far as 2003, Title Fight delivers with Shed, proving their worth on a full length.

Another Free Alternativ News Sampler: A Pop-Punk Summer

It appears that the French have good taste in pop-punk. French webzine AlternativNews has already released one excellent sampler of pop-punk, punk, and hardcore music this year, and now have just put up another great one full of rising bands for free download. This sampler is perfect for summer drives, as upbeat pop-punk tunes of all kinds are accented. The poppier side contains I Call Fives, Handguns, The Offseason, and Washington Square Park, while fans of gruffer voices may enjoy Living With Lions, The Story So Far, Crucial Dudes, or Rust Belt Lights. Other personal favorites on the sampler include Carridale, State Champs, and Our Life Story, but there isn't a poor band out of the thirty three tracks. There's no harm in downloading or streaming, so you can check it out here. Put it on your iPod, click shuffle, and take a drive down abandoned streets with friends. This is what summer is all about.

The Dear Hunter-The Color Spectrum (Complete)

As bold as this may sound, The Dear Hunter’s multi-EP project, The Color Spectrum, is one of the most exhilarating, forward-thinking, and creative musical endeavors of the past several years. Casey Cresenzo and company have truly outdone themselves, creating a thematic package almost too grand in scope to be digestible. These pieces that make up the entire project aren’t half-assed demos thrown together to make a semi-coherent, pretentious concept, but rather, a fully realized, sincerely crafted collection of thoughtful songs. Some hit, while others miss, but regardless, The Color Spectrum has potential to be the soundtrack to almost anyone’s summer.

Artist Spotlight: Cassie

A rare gem in post-rock is finding a fantastically good vocal-centered band that still commits to the expansively broad, yet still duly familiar sound of post-rock bands we all know and love. Cassie shows us that it has everything it takes to do their debut EP, Something You've Always Wanted To Hear. The EP has the capability of changing the mood of the listener in a split second, and Sofia Thurén's harmonious, melancholic vocal addition makes the depressive EP bittersweet, but a pain absolutely worth trudging through, much redeemed by the gratuitous hope inspired by "Tin Cans and String". I was really hoping to hear more vocal experimentation in albums this year, and Cassie brought it upon me with a well-orchestrated gusto. I was fantastically pleased, and this is only the beginning for the band. They have the potential to take off in any direction they choose.
You can stream the album here, with a free download link on the page.

Best Of The Year 2011: My First Half Honorable Mentions

I just finished putting together my section for the Best Of The Year 2011: First Half Update post, and I figured it would be much easier to put all of my honorable mentions in this one post, rather than taking up lines of space and taking over the entire feature. This does not include every album I enjoy that I've heard so far this year; instead it is more of a "best of the best". Any record that I have heard this year that will be seen in the future with a 2011 release date is eligible for this list, and I would suggest for everyone to listen to any record on here that seems even somewhat interested. The first half update will be up on the first day of July. You can read my honorable mentions below, with my "first five missed" bolded.

Interview with Jeremy Larson

This is the second interview that was originally posted at TheAlbumProject.Net, which has since become the new music and streaming site liisten.com.  The interview was conducted just before the release of Larson's most recent album They Reappear.  In this previously unavailable interview, I got to talk to Larson about upcoming projects with Stacy Dupree of Eisley and Darren King of MuteMath, learning the violin, and how music blogs are taking over the industry.

Sweatshirt Weather - Getting By

Three years ago, my go-to site to find new music was Purevolume. I spent all day finding new pop-rock bands that basically died out within the year. After a while, every band simply started to sound exactly the same to me, as none of them ever stood out to me. While Sweatshirt Weather isn't a game changing band, they're damn good at what they do, which is constructing extremely catchy hooks alongside perfectly mixed synths. "However We Can" ditches the synths for piano, creating a track that Andrew McMahon would be upset he hadn't thought of first as well as the highlight on Getting By. Many pop-rock bands struggle to obtain sustainability with their tracks, but Sweatshirt Weather has constructed one of the most memorable pop-rock EPs since Holiday Parade's This Is My Year. The EP will be out on July 5th, and you can follow the band on Facebook here.

Album Review: Helms Alee - Weatherhead

Allow me to profess my undying love for Hydra Head Records. Created in 1993 by then high school student Aaron Turner (of ISIS fame), the independent label is now home to a bevy of well respected acts, all hailing from different ends of the musical spectrum. Cave-In, Kayo Dot, and Jesu—legendary groups in their own right-- all call this label their home. Add another band to list of excellent and established bands, for coming out of left field is Helms Alee, sporting their superbly executed sophomore album, Weatherhead.

Album Review: Frankie & The Heatrstrings - Hunger

We’ve had a pretty depressing lack of good indie-pop here in the UK over the past few years. Sure, there have been plenty of bands breaking through, but none in the vain of Franz Ferdinand or Maximo Park who made the art of writing an irresistible hook sound effortless when the genre was in an altogether more healthy state little over five years ago. Nowadays, we’re stuck with bands who value brains above danceability, which has left us with a batch of interesting, but ultimately soulless music which takes far more effort to enjoy – effort which, to be frank, is better exerted elsewhere. What most these bands don’t seem to understand is that while technical rhythms and outlandish influences can occasionally work a treat, there is still little that beats a good, catchy tune, and that sometimes the simplest pleasures can, in fact, be the best.