Bang Camaro -- Bang Camaro

The thought of having a large amount of singers on stage seems like a really fun idea to me. From what I've heard this band is amazing to see live because of that fact. Of course on the flip side to that fact as far as singing quality goes it's probably not that high, so in the songs where it's a bit slower or there's more notes for the singers to do, I find I like the songs less, such as in "Gates of Love" and "The Ballad". However when this band is doing something fast and pounding the gates of sound such as in "Push Push Lady Lightning" and "F.Y.T.F.O." then they are spot on. The guitar solos are quite impressive when they do come out. Overall I'm glad I listened to this album, it had some fun moments and I can see myself listening to the songs when they come up on random, but as an album it's pretty repetitive.

2 1/2 stars out of 4

Wax Tailor -- Hope & Sorrow

Wax Tailor is DJ and Producer. I like it when the title of an album shows you the emotion of the album. There are songs which you feel Hope from, and some which you do feel a sense of sorrow. There is a very nice mix in here and some very interesting stuff. The guests on the album sound like they did something out of their comfort zones in some ways, like Sharon Jones on The Way We Lived and The Others on House of Wax. They were directed well by Wax Tailor who seemed to know what (s/he) wanted. Wax also uses some good cuts from different obscure media forms to get across the mood she wants.

This is an interesting album, and anyone who wants to listen to something which goes to different levels and has lots of different feelings to it, you might want to try this one out. I really liked it, but I do have a strong love for DJ mixed music. Really a cool find, check some of it out here. (Provide Link if Possible).

3.5/4 stars

311 -- Soundsystem

When I first got this album I didn't like most of it, but for some reason every time I gave this album I liked a new song on the album until one day I found I liked most of the album. There isn't a song on this album I dislike but there are definitely and order to how much I like each song in comparison to the others. Like my favorite songs which are among my favorites by 311 include "Large In The Margin", "Evolution" and "Livin' and Rockin'". Whereas my least favorite is "Eons". This album is a really good mix of 311's songs and it comes at a time in which I think they reached their peak of musical expression. They've grown up in this album but still feel young enough to rock.

This has the best mix of chill and rocking 311 songs of their albums so far. If you like or want to try 311 this one would be a good one to check out. 311 has a distinctive sound though so either you'll like them or not. As for me, I tend to like 311.

4 out of 4 stars

MC Chris -- Life's a Bitch and I'm Her Pimp

The oh so memorable MC Chris, if you've heard him you'll always remember him, after all, who can forget a 5 foot tall fat white rapper who raps like he's a nerd gangster. This is his first EP, and it's just eight tracks with only four songs. In between each song is just little snippets from his answering machine or something he thought was funny, all of which aren't worth listening to. There's also a song called DQ Blizzard which isn't really all that great either, but it's in the other three songs he excels. First is the Star Wars ode "Fett's Vette", which is a rap about Boba Fett, with such great lyrics such as, "See my name is Boba Fett, I know my shit is tight, start not acting right you're frozen in carbonite, got telescopic sight, flamethrowers on my wrist..." Wow. Then comes the great song "The Tussin", a song about getting hooked on a drug called Robotussin. "She don't know I'm on a robotussin trip". Then finally a song entitled "F***in' Up My Christmas", which if you were curious from what the chorus tells us, "F***in' Up My Christmas is a new way of saying F***in' Up My Shit, this is not so much a holiday concern, as it is an exclamation of dismay at the sight of a beautiful woman." These three songs are the best the album have to offer, and after you've listened to them enough for their camp value then they get old pretty fast. So overall it's an okay album, it's funny for a little while but it doesn't sustain itself through time.

If you're into nerdy stuff you might want to listen to a couple of the songs, you can download this album for free at his website. http://67.18.79.2/lab/ Careful cause it does have the swears. 2 out of 4 stars.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars -- Please Describe Yourself

If I were to Describe DDIHC, it would be one three letter word. Meh. This album is boring and irrelevant. The first song is the only one that has any merit, and even if has a better version which isn't on this album. The song is called "I Love You 'cause I Have To", and it's a silly song that has a catchy tune and that's about it. All the other songs sound like that song but lesser and there's little to no difference between any of the songs. They all have the same droning singer singing exactly the same. Bah, this album is just putting me to sleep.

Boring boring boring. This album just plain sucks. .5 out of 4 stars.

Lifesavas -- Gutterfly: The Original Soundtrack

I like the concept of this album, as if it were an original soundtrack to a movie, and so all of the songs have a common theme to them. As far as the Lifesavas go, I really like their member Versatyl, but other then him I'm not big on the rest of the group. There are about 4 songs on this album which I can see myself going back to and listening again. Other then that nothing really impressed me all that much. Plus there's not much going on in the background, just repetitive beats on most tracks instead of finding some way to make it interesting. These guys seem to be on the border for me between the kind of rap I like and the kind which is more famous. I really liked however hearing one of the members of Digable Planets on this album, that was good to hear from him again.

I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone, it's got some good songs here and there, but even then there are many other rap songs which I'd rather listen to anyways.

1.5/4 stars

The Prodigy -- Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

On this the fourth album by The Prodigy, it took them seven years form their commercially successful Fat Of The Land before they released this one, and if it was this bad, they should have waited another seven. This album is a poor job at creating anything musical. Only two songs bring it out of that lack luster, and both are because they brought on other people to help. The first is the song "Get Up Get Off" with master of the mic Twista. He lends his vocals to a decent track which could have been made better by anyone else, but his vocals are on point and it makes me want to check out his own stuff. His fast rap is very intoxicating. The best song on the album is the pulse pounding "Hotride" with lyrics done by female vocalist (Name needed). The song is amazingly danceable and makes me wish the song was on a different album by someone different so that there would be more songs like it, unfortunately all there is, is early 90s feeling techno with little to no soul behind them. Just a couple of beats here and there looped and layered about four times. Nothing special, each of these songs sound like the rejects that an amatuer would throw away before getting to something more meaty. If this album is any indication on where they should take their music, it's towards being in the back for other stars to come in and do tracks with them.

Hotride is worth checking out, but other then that, the whole album isn't any good. Not recommended for anyone. 1 out of 4 stars.

The Bird and The Bee -- Please Clap Your Hands

Get ready Indie fans, I'm going to give a positive review for an indie album. I really like this album. It is only five songs but it leaves me wanting more by this group. (The Girl's) voice is so beautiful and it works well in both the slow songs and the upbeat stuff. This group knows how to do a proper slow song, and then mix it well with a good danceable song as well. Even after listening to this album a couple of times, I've gotten to like it more and more so it's replay ability is high. I really like the mixture they tend to do of dance music with a sweet singing voice, the first track describes it well in it's title, "Polite Dance Song". My only complaint is that it is too short, of course it's meant to be that short as it's an EP, so we'll see if their full length albums can measure up.

If you're an indie fan you already own or will own stuff from these guys soon. For everyone else, if you like girl singers with a light dance feel to it, you should check them out.

3.5/4 stars

Jurassic 5 -- Power In Numbers

I gave myself an easy one today. This album is easily one of the best crafted albums of all time. The songs flow together so well and there isn't any wasted space on the album. The songs are rapped by a great mix of the four MCs with the really well thought out beats of Cut Chemist and DJ NuMark. They ever have some really cool lyrics about rap life which are different then the usual stuff, for instance, "How many times do I gotta hear some fanatic in my ear tellin' me to keep it real when they ain't payin' my bills or feeding my kids, judging me on how I live, if my crib in the hood or if it's up in the hills." The other line I find great about rap life is, "

They even use one of the songs to tell a story through raping over the telephone to each other, there are such good songs on this album. This is by far and away my favorite rap album of all time.

I love this album and I think anyone should check it out, have an open mind if you're sure you don't like rap, cause it is a lot different then the kind of stuff you might be used to. 4 out of 4 stars.

Insatiable -- Inflatable

This is the only ska album that I have ever purchased and it's only because this band was a local band in Salt Lake City that I had seen live. They were a pretty fun band and put on a good show so I decided to buy one of their albums and this one was it. Now it's not like I dislike ska, it's that I've never gotten into the genre. I've never gotten around to it is more like it. I like the occasional ska song, but I never really saw any need to go out and buy any albums. This album though is actually really well done and an enjoyable one. It's not just ska but jazzy too and fun like how the band is live. The thing I found interesting about this album is I didn't find myself bored by any of the songs and the songs don't over do it. They keep the songs to a good length and don't over do the ska element of it. The other thing that's nice about the album is that it's at a good length, the only other ska album I was going to purchase was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones big one, but when I found out it was 30 minutes I didn't do it. Anyways, back to this one, I am not an expert on ska at all, but these guys make me like ska, so that's saying something.

If you like ska, or if you like local bands you should check these guys out. Not much more to say on it, for what it's worth it's my favorite ska album of all time. 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Sasha -- Airdrawndagger

Not often do I change a rating, but in this case I need to. When i first reviewed the album Airdrawndagger by Sasha I gave it 2.5 stars, but now having listened to it a lot more and grown to love it, it has become my favorite techno album of all time. The contemplative tone that goes over the whole album is one in which keeps me relaxed the entire time. So here I am changing this album to 4 stars.

311 -- Don't Tread On Me

For this their eighth album, the guys of 311 don't sound like they used to, they sound older, more calmed down, and they add a tinge of raggae and calipso to their sound as well. I actually like this album, it's very much on the lighter side, not really any hard tunes, the rapping section has pretty much gone away, now it's 2 singers and a band. It feels almost as if they've grown up had kids and yet still play in a band, making music cause they like to. This added to the song titled "It's Getting OK Now" gives you the sense that their settling down and making music for the heck of it. I got the album because I've been a long time 311 fan and I really like the catchy upbeat title track Don't Tread On Me. The rest of the album has some upbeat stuff like Speak Easy and Long For The Fowers. Overall it's a fine album.

I'd say only pick this up if you have nothing better to buy or if you need all of 311's albums in your collection. Not really any reason besides that to own, but if you do already own it, listen to it now and again for it's nice and breezy tones.

3/4 stars

Nine Days -- The Madding Crowd

You know it really gets me angry when a band comes out with their first album and the band tries to be incredibly righteous and pertinent to society as if their music is some sort of tool for making the world a better place. I can understand when someone established does this, but a band that has one album and they think they're so special. You might remember this group Nine Days, on this album is their famous song that was all over the place, it starts "This is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world..." Remember that song? Well the whole album is like that, self righteous and annoying. They also had a song on the album which got a lot of air play because it dealt with teen suicides. That's right they made a song about Teen suicides. You know what else they did? They did a song called Bob Dylan in which they say how Bob is playing Music in the basement. Also with the chorus starting off with "It's just like Bob Dylan says..." and then use a clip from one of his songs and then they expound on the clip. Wow. They really think they're important. Just two more lines to show how weird their stuff is. How about this line from the song Bitter. "If I could change anything I would change everything, these bitter days shall remain." Huh. Now for the best line on the whole album, "I wanna crawl inside your womb". Wow, what a fantastic album ladies and gentlemen. Ugh. This album has no redeeming value, it's lame, it's atrocious and it's pure self righteous written all over it.

Don't bother. Don't get this album. It's not worth your time.

.5/4 stars

Cake -- Comfort Eagle

Cake often times is too ordinary for me. They do a specific style and very rarely change their sound in any way. So if you like their sound it's great, but for me, I'm not a big fan of their sound and so it's hard for me to get into them. Among their style, they sometimes make really good songs, of which tend to be their radio hits and those tend to be the ones I end up liking. This seems to be the case with this album as well as there are only three songs in which I actually enjoy listening to and could possibly listen to again. The first two are the first two songs on the album "Opera Singer" and "Meanwhile, Rick James..." both of which excel at the formula in which Cake keeps themselves in, however my personal standout song on the album and by far and away my favorite Cake song of all time is the title track of the album Comfort Eagle. They switch up sounds in that one and give you a pulse pounding beat and what sounds like a really tight mandolin and put it together in a good catchy song. It's in all three of these songs that they stray from the usual sounds they tend to make and that's when I think they shine.

The thing about Cake is if you like their music then you should get all their albums. I think everyone should give a listen to the song Comfort Eagle but other then that if you don't like Cake just skip it all together. 1.5 out of 4 stars.

The Prodigy -- The Fat Of The Land

I was excited when I picked up this album recently because I had been a big fan of the two hits off this album Firestarter and Breathe back in early high school. I had hoped there would be more good to this album when I picked it up but I didn't find too much else. I had known they were more to the techno side as I listened to one of their early albums back in high school so listening to it now, the album has some good songs, and they are famous. I like the beats when it comes to the song Smack My Bitch Up, but I still can't get down with the only four words in the song. The only other song which I thought had a little promise to it was the last song Fuel My Fire. Otherwise the whole album is faulty and repetitive. The way techno shouldn't be, but most of the time is.

Like I said, I still love those first two songs, they have some coolness to them and they deserved to be hits when they came out. So anyone who wants to get these two songs, if you need to get the album to do so, then get the album, otherwise there's no need.

1.5/4 stars