Release Date: March 28th, 2011
Label: Undergroove Records
Website: www.libraryofjune.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/libraryofjune
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Hailing from the gentle surroundings of the Shropshire countryside, Library Of June (formerly Dials) are just one of a number of emerging bands on what literally nobody is calling the ‘Rural-Rock’ scene. Formed in 2008, their recent name-change and signing to Undergroove Records is the result of almost three years of hard graft, culminating in the release of their ’53 Weeks’ EP this Spring.
Tags: Library Of June
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Release Date: March 28th, 2011
Label: Universal
Website: www.thecharlatans.net
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thecharlatans
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Britpop, for the majority of people not concerned with it, is a genre that is the home to bands such as Radiohead, Oasis, Blur and Pulp. Plenty of other bands land in this genre, but because of the success of said bands, they tend not to go by noticed. The Charlatans are such a band. ‘Us And Us Only’ was first released in October 1999 and acted as a new chapter for the band, as it was their first release on Island Records, and was also their first album without keyboardist Rob Collins (who tragically died in a car crash in 1996).
Tags: The Charlatans
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Release Date: March 26th, 2011
Label: Underground Operations
Website: www.protestthehero.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/protestthehero
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Protest The Hero open their third album, ‘Scurrilous’, with ‘C’est La Vie’. It’s trademark Protest The Hero: odd time signatures, technical guitar riffs, bouncing bass lines, safe drums and the lead vocals of Rody Walker are as assured and awesome as ever. The song itself though isn’t any different from what we have heard before by the band, and sadly the rest of the album goes the same way.
Tags: Protest The Hero
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Release Date: March 26th, 2011
Label: Unsigned
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/talkischeapband
Rating:
In recent years, post-hardcore has taken quite a beating. Overwhelmed with a sheer lack of imagination, the genre is in grave danger of becoming as stale and annoying as hair metal was in the 80s. Having said that, hailing from Stoke-on-Trent, Talk Is Cheap are presenting their spin on the genre. Although they’re not being too musically groundbreaking, they’re doing their best to steer post-hardcore towards a more promising future.
Tags: Talk Is Cheap
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Release Date: March 25th, 2011
Label: Unsigned
Website: www.skinthepig.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/skinthepig
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English metal sextet Skin The Pig have finally released their first full-length album after rising through the ranks with their previous two EPs. The band have shown definite progression as a band since their debut demo ‘It’s Not The Truth, It’s What You Believe’, and have returned greeting us with a fairly substantial release. As a metal band, they’ve done everything it says on the tin. They’ve provided the listeners with engaging riffs, blasting solos and the odd breakdown here and there.
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Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
Label: Reprise Records
Website: www.greenday.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/greenday
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To say that Green Day have divided their fans in the last decade is a gigantic understatement. They were pioneers of the genre with ‘Dookie’ in 1994 and it resulted in them exploding onto the scene, and thus, developing a devoted and huge fanbase. However, ‘American Idiot’ is an album that you either love or hate (depending on when you got into the band), and even though I personally think it’s a piece of shit, it propelled the band to a level of stardom that not many bands reach.
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Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
Label: Sumerian
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/bornofosiris
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‘The Discovery’ is the second album from the Illinois deathcore unit Born Of Osiris. With deathcore really hotting up in the last few years, the genre is a very competitive one with bands trying to match the success of the big players such as Suicide Silence and Job For A Cowboy.
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Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
Label: Hopeless Records
Website: www.yellowcardrock.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/yellowcard
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Two years after they went on an indefinite hiatus, Violin laden pop-punkers Yellowcard are back with their seventh album, ‘When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes’. A title apparently inspired from a text message that lead singer Ryan Keys sent to a girl. With a new bassist in tow, it becomes apparent from the start that the hiatus has provided the band with a more refreshed outlook and a renewed sense of direction. Out of all the projects that the band members worked on in between, Ryan Key‘s project with new member Sean O’Donnell, Big If, has had the most effect on their more focused sound, with two Big If songs the up-tempo, hook laden ‘Hide’ and the off-beat, mellow ‘Hang You Up’ being reworked and put on the album.
Tags: Yellowcard
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Release Date: March 21st, 2011
Label: Rise Records
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thecolormorale
Rating:
The Color Morale have shed their pretty-boy metalcore that verges on post-hardcore sound with their new album ‘My Devil In Your Eyes’. Even though all the same structure is there, the overall sound is heavier and more polished. Compared to ‘We All Have Demons’, their first offering, it sounds as if the band have taken more time to assemble the songs, and it’s obvious they’re trying their upmost to stay away from the sound which plagued that album: too many of the songs sounded the same and by the time the album was drawing to its close, it was hard to distinguish when songs ended and began. At times, that album tottered too close to the sound of bands who influence them: early Funeral For A Friend are an example, and they also bordered uncomfortably close to better known bands such as A Day To Remember.
Tags: The Color Morale
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Release Date: March 21st, 2011
Label: Rough Trade
Website: www.thestrokes.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/thestrokes
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I’m not a fan of mathematics, but when The Strokes are involved I’m definitely intrested in angles. The band’s new album ‘Angles’ may have taken the band 5 years to create, but good things come to those who wait, and The Strokes have finally come back to conquer the music world all over again with a brilliant comeback record.
Tags: The Strokes
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Release Date: March 21st, 2011
Label: Relentless Records
Website: www.cagetheelephant.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/cagetheelephant
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The intro to opening track ‘Always Something’ sounds as if Cage The Elephant have been plundering Trent Reznor‘s beat bank, as the electro soundings give off an immediate Nine Inch Nails vibe. The song continues in a similarly stripped down fashion but it creates a strong intrigue as to what is coming next.
Tags: Cage The Elephant
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Release Date: March 15th, 2011
Label: Reprise Records
Website: www.mastodonrocks.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/mastodon
Rating:
Mastodon sound visceral and astonishing enough on studio-recorded material, so a live album should be a treat and something to be listened to with great care: listening out for the little things that make a live album great. The crowd singing along, the band performing songs that they perhaps wouldn’t at other gigs, the band pulling out all the stops for a live appearance, tiny flaws within songs that let you know the band are human, after all.
Tags: Mastodon
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