Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Name: Top Crime
Album: Monster Love
Released: 2006
Members: ??? It’s not on their myspace and I can’t remember if I had a physical copy of their CD!

Website: http://www.myspace.com/toppcrime
Favourite Song: Fallen for Before (Track 5)

Topp Crime is from Milton Ontario! Old Milton apparently. I don’t care. I love Milton. It’s such a cute little city. I frequently unicycle in their Christmas parade. Hey Topp Crime! If you see a handful of unicycles riding through, wave! Because I will probably be in the pack!

Myspace: Rock, Acoustic, Alternative. iTunes: Other. I should start making a category for “Other” just because of this. I would find that hilarious. There’s always a rock sound to almost everything I listen to so I don’t even think that should be a category anymore. But they’ve got a nice sound, I definitely like listening to their tracks. Even their myspace tracks, and I hate listening to things on myspace.

I love the mix of the electric rock sounds that is common throughout much of the music industry, and the acoustic instruments that is also common throughout the music industry, but rarely do the two meet. I found the songs on Monster Love to be a bunch of fun-loving songs. Nothing too serious and just a good time with a bunch of guys writing some songs. Hopefully that’s how it all happened.

Just stick it on random. Random it at a party with drinking. With a title like Monster love, maybe a Halloween party is in order. Why not. Anything goes!

Name: Hobbyhorse Album: Break in the clouds Members: Annie Aronson Phil Campbell Website: www.hobbyhorsecafe.com Favourite Song: Break in the clouds

Folk Rock, Psychedelic, Indie. That’s how Hobbyhorse describes themselves and I won’t argue. Well, I’ll go as far as saying I have no idea what Psychedelic music is supposed to sound like, because the word itself makes me feel like when you start listening to Psychedelic music you don’t listen to it anymore, you smell it or something. All sorts of new-age hippie thoughts run through my head. Perhaps I should listen to Hobbyhorse while high. I won’t though because drugs are bad mmm’kay?

The songs on Break in the Clouds are really mellow sounding. That’s probably the folk-rock coming out of them. Almost lullaby sounding, if I weren’t so amped up on caffeinated drinks I’m sure I would have fallen asleep writing this review. It’s nice. I might try it when I can’t sleep. I have to dig pretty deep but the lyrics are pretty inspirational. No one particular lyric, but just… Hobbyhorse paints stories with music notes. Quite nice.

I would really recommend listening to Hobbyhorse when grumpy and/or pissed off. You can’t stay mad listening to them. I would also really recommend listening to them right before bed. Perhaps while doing a few yoga poses that help the blood go to the head so you will sleep better. I don’t mean to say they’re boring, but it’s the kind of relaxing that could very easily let someone slip into a blissful sleep.

Name: Alyson Greenfield Album: Six Songs Released: 2004 Members: Alyson Greenfield – piano, acoustic guitar, vocals Website: www.alysongreenfield.com Favourite Song: Sexual Identity Crisis of a Duke (track 6)

Bet you didn’t know I played the piano for 8 years of my life. Eight of the most wretched painful years of my life. I was never happier than the day my mom finally said “Okay, you can stop playing if you really want.” I’d wanted to for the past eight years of my life! But really, if I could play like Alyson could play, of course I wouldn’t have given up on it. But really, while my family will always think of me as a quitter, I keep thinking, if I had any talent don’t you think I would have showed it after EIGHT YEARS?!

Alyson oozes the feeling of “solo artist”, not that that’s a bad thing. But I can’t picture Alyson with a full band behind her or anything like that. Seeing a show I would see a grand piano, a woman in an elegent outfit, and a microphone on stage. And the microphone isn’t even always necessary. When I first opened the CD I wondered why only three of the six songs had lyrics printed… yea, so not all the songs Alyson performs have words. Just proves her musical ability.

The instrumental songs are pretty awe-inspiring. I don’t know how people write songs at all, I never had that creative streak in me, so it’s just amazing to watch people write something, and how simple they make it seem. Just comes out of them and they can put an instrument to use and make something sound like how they wanted it to sound. But to write an instrumental song… something that isn’t meant to have words sort of break it up, where all of the feeling and emotion comes through the instruments themselves… breathtaking.

I would absolutely <3 to see Alyson live for a show. I love acoustic shows and this would definately be awesome to watch. I still have a fear and loathing of pianos due to my childhood traumas, but therapy is facing your fears, and seeing someone be able to take a hold of such an instrument and actually make music, rather than painful noise as I was prone to making, would definitely help appreciate the arts more.

Name: Adam Hill Album: Four Shades of Green Released: 2007 Members: Adam Hill Website: www.myspace.com/mradamhill Favourite Song: Next Stop Winona

I have to say, the sweetest thing I’ve ever received in a band package is a hand-written note. And the absolutely most endearing thing about it is, Mr. Adam Hill (I like calling him that now, after listening to the tracks, he just seems like a Mr.) wrote my note on the back of some sheet music. And I’m curious to see what it is, if I could bother remembering how to read music. And to see one guy bombarding himself with so many instruments… I think I heard a jug in there somewhere.

Acoustic. Jazz. Folk. I would dare say country, but I guess Folk would do. I wonder what the difference is, they both sound very “American” in terms of the out-back country feel. Nice and simple, nothing overly complicated, and that you feel you can join in at any time with very little musical training. I think I like this kind of music best because it just invites people to join in, and make the song their own.

The songs on Four shades of Green have a way of making me smile. It’s a lot of what sound like really happy types of songs. Nothing really harsh sounding, and nothing really mean sounding. Inspiring on a spiritual level, because the world is too serious these days. It’s nice to kick back and just listen to what feels like some wishful thinking. I’ll admit, it’s not always something I will want to listen to, I prefer high energy, which Adam doesn’t give a whole lot of. The kicking back, he gives lots of.

Driving through country roads, long stretches of not a lot of traffic and wide open spaces. I think I would feel most inspired listening to Mr. Adam Hill during these types of excursions. Any other time, I don’t think I would appreciate it nearly as much. There’s just a good old country charm that you can’t appreciate while driving in the city.

Name: David Steen
Album: Life
Released: 2007

Members:
David Steen – Vocals, Guitar

Websites:
http://www.davidsteen.info

He’s from Atlanta, Georgia, He began guitar lessons in sixth grade and knew from there he wanted to play music. He wrote his first song in the early 1990′s called “try this love” which he saids only took him 15 minutes to write.

His new cd called “Life” which you can purchase now at cdbaby is his second cd. His cd before which you can also purchase on cdbaby is “Out of the blue”!

Now to David Steen’s music on his new cd Life!

You know how there’s nice dance type country songs where you just want to get up and sing along so loudly and do a dance to a song, well On this cd there’s quite a few of those songs but also songs on this cd is the slow “can I have this dance?” as a couple songs. The songs are like totally about where you will go in life and who you will want to be with. This is why I love the whole cd is because it’s like I never knew how to answer my own question about where I will go and how I will get there, and who it’ll be with until I heard the song “I remember texas” to me this song tells me you can remember where you are from and it’ll remember you but you can leave your footsteps in other parts of the world with somebody by your side.

Now onto my favorite song. Not saying all the songs aren’t my favorite ….but…. Nights like these! Man this song it has a nice tune and how he sings it, it’s like heaven so softly, It’s like the only thing you can hear is his voice singing to you these words in the song. Heaven threw us down an angel named David Steen.

You know I’ve listened to this cd in the bathroom before lol it sounds weird but while taking a bath it’s just nice to hear some peaceful and then dancefull country music playing while relaxing to me, that’s the perfect relaxation. lol sounds weird? yea of course, but it’s true. also just sitting at home and listening to it on a computer and playing a game is the best way to hear this music

This review has been written by Connerz!

Name: Rayna Album: Empty Room Released: 2006 Members: Rayna – vocals, accoustic guitar Andrew Lauzon – bass, electric guitar, keyboards Michelle Hallenbeck – electric guitar Ian Macchiusi – drums Website: www.rayna.ca Favourite Song: one day. (track 5)

More and more I’m using the artist’s myspace page to be able to properly classify their music. Because I’m really not much for labels, and considering there are so many labels, and I’ve heard rumours that some artists get offended if you mis-classify their music, that this is just safer. Rayna describes her music as Acoustic, Alternative, and Indie. Good enough for me! Not to mention that I agree with the Acoustic, and Alternative. I’ve yet to discover what true “Indie” is, since I was always under the impression that Indie stood for independent, which is what *all* the artists I review are in my description of an independent musician as someone who is not signed to a major record label.

I need to stop listening to this album, for the sake that the more I listen to it, the less I want to write about it. Or the less I can write about it. The fact that it’s slowly rendering me speechless is likely a good thing, since I’m getting more into just listening to the music, as opposed to listening to it for the sake of writing an entry. I can say Rayna’s music is hopeful. I may have unlocked a theme of learning from the past while running towards the future. I have to say I love tempo changes, and it’s pretty awesome to have one song end pretty slow, and the next song starts up pretty fast.

I almost grow tired of saying I listen to music in my car. My car is almost the only place I actually listen to music, since it’s the only place I am isolated from the world in my own metal and fabric covered bubble. But Rayna will definitely graduate to my “car stack” of CD’s for a rotating set of “what I feel like today.” I would most likely be very tickled by the idea of seeing Rayna live. So far with music such as hers, I’ve found live performances to be pretty mind-blowing.

Name: Reno, Album: Learning to speak Human Released: 2006 Members: Reno Silva: Lead Vocals/Guitar Daniel Gama:Guitar/Background Vocals Paulo Gama:Keyboard/Background Vocals Carlos Arevalo:Bass/Background vocals Page Rodrigues:Drums Website: www.renosmusic.com Favorite Song: “U”. It’s very catchy.

Reno is a pop/rock band based in Toronto, Ontario. They play their own instruments, They are Portuguese/Canadian so they sing both in English and Portuguese. They write their own songs and record them on their own.

Their music can be heard by all the age groups… children to elderly people and you can see that all will sing along to the songs with the band.

The songs on the CD is almost all upbeat songs where you can just get up and sing along and then some are slow dance songs. The songs on the album sounds like it comes from relationships and where to go in life. Which I honestly think that is the best thing about the songs.

The CD can honestly be heard anywhere; backyard parties, inside at a computer, when you sleep so when you wake up you hear the songs playing and are fully awake by the reno songs. While watching tv having the songs play on low volume but still enough to hear it is also fun.

Since this cd, band members Paul DeRosa and Sergio Santos have left the band and new bass player, keyboard player and another lead guitarist Paulo Gama on Keyboard, Carlos Arevalo on bass, and Kevin D.(I’m not quite sure how to spell his last name but we can call him Kevin D) and well Kevin is the other lead guitarist.

<3 ~ Connerz