Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Hey guys,

My apologies, I won’t have a review up in time for this installment of Big Rock Finish. From Saturday until Wednesday I will be at NAUCC, the North American Unicycling Championships & Convention, entering in various racing, trials, and team events. And I swear having me go on vacation anywhere is the organizational nightmare only war generals would understand.

As such I’ll have lots of CD’s in my car for both the 6 hour drive there (with a detour) and the 5 hour drive back. I will do all my best to have one for the next scheduled spot being August 4th!

Enjoy your summer! Turn off the internet and breathe some fresh air!

NOW!

<3 always
~rokky

Name: Hemant Rao Album: Sunshine Runaway Released: 2004 Members: Hemant Rao - Vocals, guitars, violin Lindsay Belloc, Ron Roach - drums Doug Brown, Ken Gilbert - bass guitar Anthony Kerr - bsas guitar, organ, piano Website: www.hemantrao.com Record Label: Music Minnow Records Favourite Song: Loner (track 5)

I’ll be honest. I don’t like secret tracks that don’t really add any music to an album. And I was severely disappointed the first time I popped this in and realized the second track was 51 seconds of ocean noises. The rest of the album makes up for it though, so I guess it isn’t TOO bad. It just will force me to rip the CD, and burn it minus track 2. I hope the the singer isn’t offended that I would likely do that.

Pop, Powerpop, Rock. I’ve completely sucommed to having Myspace dictate what music genres the band should be labeled under. That and the fact the band picks what they are going to display. What’s the difference between pop and powerpop anyways? I feel like I’m watching Home Improvement with Tim Allen’s whole “More Power!” thing as the electric-power-crazed father we all grew to love over the span of too many years on sitcom TV. Whatever powerpop is, I like it. It’s fun and catchy, and hopeful and uplifting.

For being self-proclaimed pop music, each song is different enough to know that you’re listening to music written by a musician working on diversity, rather than a musician working towards a formula striving for 100% success. Oh commercial radio, when will you learn that formulas only work for so long and that’s what creates so many one/no-hit wonders. I hear sometimes common elements between songs, but it’s still refreshing to hear that each track is an individual.

I could chill out listening to Hemant Rao. Currently the idea of chillin’ out on the back patio with a girlie fruit-filled alcoholic drink and hanging out with some of my best friends while this gets blasted through the house just loud enough to be able to make it a good audio backdrop sounds extremely pleasing. It’s also boiling hot right now when I’m writing this. Non-offensive music rocks because you can play it anywhere. And this is the supreme of non-offensive.

Name: The Chillbilly Band Album: Back Home Released: 2006 Members: Bradly Dean Bill Dietrich Nicklas Dickerson Michael Pearce Dave Harris Website: www.thechillbillyband.com Record Label: Dean & Dietrich Favourite Song: Byoswc

The Chillbilly Band plays good natured, laid back country, and that’s just about all you need to know. They don’t challenge your sensibilities or make you ponder the tough questions. There are no crazy time signatures, 16 minute jam sessions, and there are certainly no depressing songs here. It’s just straightforward country, but it sounds more genuine than the stuff you see on CMT these days. They sound sincere without trying to sound too down-to-earthy, and their rhythms are all good news. It’s relaxed and it puts you in a good mood, good for just bobbing your head and hanging out with an ice cold brewski.

It does tend to dragged down a bit when they slow things down, such as on ‘Beautiful Disease’, which sounds a bit out of place on an album like this. I suppose it’s their attempt to try and show both sides of their sound, but they it sounds like they haven’t quite grasped the other side just yet. No harm done though, a few slower songs, and the rest of the album picks up where they left off.

I don’t feel any more analyzing will do any good, it’s everything that it is right on the surface: no frills, just good ol’ boy country music. I myself have never been a huge fan of the modern country music scene, but this is certainly one of the more enjoyable records I’ve picked up from that genre in a long time, if ever. So, if you’re looking for good music for hanging with your buds, just put this on for a spin and you’ll be set for a while.

Note from rokky: Sadly when I assigned Tyler this band, I couldn’t share with him the chocolate bars that I received with the album. I must say, a way to a reviewer’s heart is through their stomachs, and both the milk chocolate/caramel and the dark chocolate/rasberry were well received!

<3 ~ PollyPlumps

Name: Out of Options (now Bombing Neverland) Album: Scattered Released: 2004 Members: John Fielding (lead vocals/guitar) Davey Knight (bass/vocals) Mike Lawson (lead guitar/vocals) Jesse King (drums) Website: www.myspace.com/bombingneverland Favourite Song: Her Song (track 9)

Nothing is as exciting as discovering a band in a strange way. And after you hear this story I’m sure you’ll think me to be quite the strange person. I was at Value Village. To those who don’t know, Value Village is similar to a charity shop where items of no use to one person but are still in working order, will be donated, and sold off for low low prices, with the money generally going to charity. Except I do believe Value Village is a for-profit venture with the monies collected going into pockets of investors whilst being run by people who are too materialistic and throw away too much.

I digress. I was in the CD section seeing if I could relive any of my teenage teenybopperisms, when I passed 3 or 4 copies of new never been opened CD’s. Curious, I pulled one out to be met with a band name I’d never heard of, “Out of Options” The back cover said they were from Burlington, and the picture showed 4 pretty cute lads with a good amount of well done and well placed piercings stretched to various sizes. I figured for 5 bucks how much could it hurt, and took the guess that it was a band that had since broken up hence why the CD’s were in the bin.

I was quite thankful I fell in love with the music. Moreso thankful for the fact I found out the band had NOT disbanded. (Although some months after my discovery, they have since changed their name to “Bombing Neverland”)

Well since the band changed their name from Out of Options to Burning Neverland, I can’t find exactly what their myspace said. So back to the guessing. My iTunes says they fall under Alternative & Punk. I will say they are both rock, and pop. Such generic terms I use. It’s good rock music.

People who listen to the album with me agree that Out of Options sounds/sounded like their influences. I don’t listen to commercial music much so I really don’t know what their influences sound like. It’s clean and simple, just everything you expect in a rock-sounding band. Drums, electric guitar, bass, and some singing. Beautiful in it’s simplicity really.

Of all the times Out of Options played in Toronto I’ve never been able to see them live even though I’ve really really wanted to. Now I’ll never get the chance since the band no longer really exists. And even though Bombing Neverland I believe is all the same members, the music is shifting in it’s style (no really, it’s true) but I wouldn’t mind seeing them either. As for this album? I play it in my car often.

Bombing Neverland will be playing at The Ford Plant in Burlington on July 12, 2007, and at The Bovine in Toronto on July 14, 2007.

Name: Foreign Film Star Album: Dim the Lights and Leave for a Better Place Released: 2006 Members: Nick - mostly drums Bailey - mostly guitar Yunker - mostly bass Jamie - mostly vocals & guitar (they list instruments on a song-by-song basis!) Website: www.foreignfilmstar.com Record Label: Cowboys In Cardigans Music Favourite Song: Eversense (track 3)

Pre-Script (The other P.S.) Meh, it was Canada Day, so I was a bit late posting. Whatever, I’m posting on CASINO DAY (07/07/07) So common, that makes up for it!)

Alright, so I’ve been listening to this album for a while now trying to get an accurate review on them but every time I load it up I end up getting sidetracked. Hence why by this point I’ve got no idea what to classify Foreign Film Star. Psychedelic / Alternative / Shoegaze. There. I’ve classified it. Now that I *SEE* them saying they’re Psychedelic, I can see where that came from. It’s pretty trippy. I wonder what it’d be like to listen to this band while high. Not that I do that. Seriously. I’m as edge as one can get without the urge to always carry straight-razors with me, giant X’s tattooed on my hands and the need to beat people up all the time.

I’m not a big giant fan of instrumentals, or songs that carry little to no lyrical content and contain very little in the way of vocals. This band does these songs nicely, but not my cup of tea. The other songs are varied towards songs I want to listen to and almost head bang to… ALMOST. And songs I want to groove to. That means nothing to anyone else but me since I’ve been known to groove to some pretty ungroovable music.

I wouldn’t mind seeing how a band pulls off lots of instrumentals in a live performance. Also the amount of hand-clapping and foot-stomping that goes on during their recording sessions. How does one record a foot stomp? I digress. There’s no ideal place I don’t think to listen to FFS. Just a lot of casual places that it might possibly fit in.