AeroLynx Music Blog

This past year has been a big one for The Neighbourhood: two EPs, lots of buzz and a hit on Alternative radio, Scary Love. The first EP, Hard, was an eclectic Indie affair that was slightly better than the second EP, the very electronic To Imagine. And now we have this new song, Void, and the announcement of The Neighbourhood, their eighteen track, eponymous third album. It'll include both EPs, and is a bit weird as most bands' first album is eponymous, not their third. Anyway, let's get to the review, shall we? The instrumentals are some very spacey, modern and electronic, with keyboards similar to the ones all over Too Imagine and drum beats that are reminiscent of real drums but still very artificial. They set up for Jesse Rutherford's vocals, which are halfway between his normal style and a newer one originally shown on Stuck With Me, kind of waving to and through with the beat. The lyrics are very emotive, full of longing, and the vocals and song are well struct...

In the last two years, COIN recently released an excellent pop rock manifesto, scored a major Alternative radio hit with Talk Too Much, and I missed both of their recent shows. And both of those show were sold out, too, giving them enough popularity to launch a massive career in the future. And all of the future fame should be gained by hit singles like Talk Too Much, and here we have a new one, Growing Pains. Will it be able to bring them to stardom? Well, it certainly is pretty good. The instrumentals alone are excellent- a perfect mix of hard-hitting electronic drums, riffing guitar, driving bass, and complementing keyboards. The lyrics are clearly well formed and thought out, with the vocals putting them out there perfectly over the shimmering keyboards and funky bass. The structure is also pretty good, with well placed verses, choruses, and bridge that provides a great break between energy-packed choruses. Basically, this song is pop rock gold. Bad Suns and Hippo Campus c...

First of all, the name is a bit too long, so I'll just call it BPWRYL. It was preceded by the pretty good, almost throwback to their first album Lemon To A Knife Fight, the excellent indie anthem Turn, the psychedelic Cheetah Tongue, and Black Flamingo, which sounds like a song left over from Glitterbug. These four start of the album, but with Cheetah Tongue first, and the rest of them in the order they were released. After the muscular guitar and electronic beats of Cheetah Tongue, the classic Wombats of Lemon To A Knife Fight, the supreme indie guitar and craftsmanship of Turn, and the Glitterbug throwback of Black Flamingo, they finally launch into some new songs. Starting off the new ones is White Eyes has a great, driving almost-visible bass and narrative that The Wombats do so well, but has some vocal samples and mix of instruments that work, but are a bit disorienting. Lethal Combination sounds like a ripoff of an Ed Sheeran song, with a mix of instrumentals that partiall...

Two High- Moon Taxi Violet- Hippo Campus Sound Witness System- AWOLNATION Jealous Buffoon- AWOLNATION New Biome- Sure Sure Suicide Saturday- Hippo Campus South- Hippo Campus Vedette- Duck Fizz Dancing With the Nite- Duck Fizz Buttercup- Hippo Campus Duck Fizz is great- the best Mexican Arctic Ripoff Monkeys.

Hippo Campus Performing Hippo Campus is one of my favorite bands, and I've been planning to go to this concert for a while now. The night was pretty rainy, and I was happy when I got into Brooklyn Steel- my first time at this venue. They were opened by Sure Sure, pretty much an American Phoenix, who mixed various keyboards, guitars, and percussion to make some decent music. They made a few jokes about everything seeming like snacks, semi-engaged the crowd, and left after a couple songs. The Gigantic Brooklyn Steel Fan Then Hippo Campus came on, opening with their song Suicide Saturday. They had an amazing amount of energy, and their songs were much better live for two reasons. The first was that they played them very loud (a bass note that almost knocked me down was played after one of the first songs), and the second was their only touring musician, a trumpet player who perfectly complimented all their songs. They played almost an album's worth of new material, whic...

AWOLNATION have undergone a major change, in both lineup (the entirety of IRONTOM, a folk rock band replaced part of the old band) and sound, orienting towards a more natural and folksy sound rather than an electronic and techno sound. The first single for this album was Passion, an excellent rock anthem; the second the boring Seven Sticks of Dynamite; the third the fast, loud and eclectic but good Miracle Man; and the fourth and promotional single Handyman, a very folksy, yearning tune. So here's the album - what'll it be like? The album starts with the title track, a blaring electropop with a driving drumbeat and various instruments and time signatures weaving throughout it's eclectic tapestry, kind of a manifesto on what the whole album's about. Passion blasts some great, well crafted music out to the world, with Sound Witness System, an out of the blue rap that acts as a sort of outro. Miracle Man and Handyman serve as a bastion of two good, recognizable songs,...