Donoma - Falling Forward (2017)

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Written by Bradley Johnson, posted by blog admin

Kenosha, Wisconsin’s Donoma are one of the most unusual bands I’ve encountered in quite a long time.  It is impossible to predict what type of ear damage they will employ on any individual track across their sophomore album, Falling Forward’s 12 unnerving tracks.  They’ve got the hearty guitar riffs and beefed up bass/drum interplay of a good rock/blues combo, the twitchiness of NYC noise-rock, a strange penchant for weird lab creations involving several genres and some country soul.  I’ve heard other bands trying to cook up a similar dish of vittles but they usually ruin the entire meal.  Donoma, somehow, makes it work.

If you’re only judging how the album begins and how it ends, you’ve still got two entirely different bands.  “Sick” is a rampart-storming, rock n’ roll affair with powder keg bass grooves blowing apart rollicking tom beats as the guitars whip through a hard rock/country/blues strut on high octane.  Singer Stephanie Vogt holds nothing back in the vocal department in terms of the lyrics or her ballsy presentation of the material.  Closer “Come with Me” is a minimal folk dirge that’s beautifully off-putting (calling to mind a more tuneful Earth).  These descriptions only cover the bookends of this record and what’s sandwiched in between is even more exciting.  The scream along Armageddon of white-washed math rockers “Jack in the Box,” “Splinter” and even “Deep Beneath the Woods’” noisy, digitally manipulated pulsations are the kind of work that would have put this band on a bill with the Cherubs, Boredoms or Painteens.  While “Memory,” “A Change is Gonna Come originally recorded by Sam Cooke,” “Another Light,” “Unfortunate One” and “Otherside” could have set these cats to warm up for Dax Riggs and Sturgill Simpson.  Hell, they’d scare the pants off of Lana del Rey courtesy of the evil jazz/singer-songwriter fluxing of “He Loves Me Not.”  This is truly no-holds barred music that gets up in your face and throws you against the wall; harassing you to beg for release from their musical chokehold. 

Donoma won’t be for everyone but Falling Forward is worth more than a passing glance in the crowded music world today.  The album doesn’t always fit each unique piece of the puzzle together but as a collection of songs it really gets under the skin.  Despite all of the mayhem, several of the songs are catchy enough to even find their way into some sort of Internet radio airplay, thanks to adventurous minded DJs who let their podcasts run wild.      

Heavy America - ...Now (2017)

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

Massachusetts has been a rich breeding ground for powerful rock music since the Eighties.  From the classic rock leaned metal of Only Living Witness to Sam Black Church’s snarling metallic hardcore or even Waltham’s soaring alternative anthems; good music in the area has been in no short supply. The latest in this grand lineage is power trio Heavy America’s blues-tinged mixture of hard rock groove, dirty Seattle vibes and folky rustic Americana.  After a series of singles and an EP, Heavy America presents …Now, a searing full-length brimming with atmospheric, earthy jams benefitting from a weighty guitar presence, gritty melodic vocals and a rustbelt rhythm section full of push/pull dynamics.

Opener “Proud Shame” kicks off with Mike Seguin’s hazy fuzz guitars and rough-hewn melodic vocals ebbing atop of Dan Fried’s pounding backbeats and Budd Lapham’s walking bass lines.  Elements of Son Volt and Woven Hand float to the surface, but knife-edged 70s rock riffs present a grandslam of heft that puts the band in line with some of the more offbeat luminaries from flagship stoner rock record label Small Stone.  It’s a good place to be with results that are retro and refreshing yet original.  “Bleed Mary” toys with softer electric guitar textures colliding into subtle pocket rhythms.  The entire band blends in with back-up vocals to fill in Mike’s lead while musical bombast always lurks on the horizon.  It appears in the form of a barbwire power chord mash-up during the infectious chorus hook.  At 3:45, Lapham presents a mesmerizing little bass lick with the rest of the band dropping out, before hammering their way back in with a crunching rock n’ roll attack and a jangling, exotic guitar solo.

First single “Pray for Me” goes right into the riff meat right from the get go with staccato, sludgy grooves and noisy minor key clatter cutting through the density.  Fried’s drumming is given a real chance to standout here with taut, neck-snapping work on the snare.  The immediacy makes this an obvious choice for single, especially with its punk rock brevity.  Heavy America’s bluesy influence is at the forefront of “Sweet Kisses’” vintage wah pedal squeals and slinky old school boogie, allowing “Casting Stones” to split the different between balladry and bullrush for a unique dichotomy of stylistic sand shifting from Neil Young to Sabbath to Blackfoot.  “Goliath’s” crunchy, chunky stomp keeps the energy high until courses are recalculated into the cosmic, ethereal psychedelic rock of “I Can Take It,” a tune that showcases the band’s affinity for tricked out pedal boards.  Returning to rural Neil Youngisms, “Heavy Eyes” is a laidback jam with country twang, clearing the way for “Achilles Fail” to smash the riff-y guitar rock one more time. 

…NOW is a killer piece of work from a band who removes the static silliness of trendy retro rock for a real deal feel that separates the men from the boys.  A few more hooks will push them into the stratosphere but Heavy America is already in the pantheon of greatness.

Grade: A-

Kelly McGrath - All That I Want (2017)

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

Vocal sensation and powerful songwriter Kelly McGrath has emerged with her latest single “All That I Want”, a stellar follow up to her previous country smash “You and Me Today”. The commercial momentum engendered by the aforementioned track’s success is carried over with this new release – a brightly arranged musical piece striking up considerable tension thanks to its interesting juxtaposing intense lyrics about a fraught interpersonal relationship with exhubrant, powerful backing from some of the best musicians working in the genre today. The production highlights the song’s strengths by imbuing it with muscular flair, but there’s a fundamentally solid piece of songwriting working behind all the modern gloss. McGrath is never anything less than an absolutely convincing singer and the arrangement gives her a massive platform for getting over her story.

There’s little mistaking the arrangement for what it is – five star AOR rock surging with brash authority. Much of its propulsive success can be laid at the feet of powerhouse drumming that, despite its hard hitting contribution, never overplays. Everything is cut close to the bone on this musical performances – these are clearly musicians capable of stepping into the spotlight and showing off their chops, but material like McGrath’s demands a more artful response and their efforts serving the song enhance it. The track is tailored to an ideal length for the song’s subject and form – listeners will never feel like they’ve been cheated. It’s no mere placeholder for McGrath’s vocal.

Her vocal is exceptional enough to dominate the song, but McGrath is smarter than that. She modulates her vocal according to the lyrical demands and the result is an uptempo, but thoughtful singing performance that helps the performance stand out even further. Her lyrics aren’t high flown poetic musings, but she instead shows the clear vision of a storyteller and knows how to entertain her target audience. This isn’t a track, however, with narrow appeal. Kelly McGrath sings the track with such convincing authority it will only increase the chances potential new listeners will relate to her work. Her ascent through the firmament of popular music continues unabated thanks to the high quality driving releases like this. “All That I Want” is sure to entertain and speaks to experiences shared by nearly every adult who has ever felt yearning in their heart. It’s a memorable performance cutting across genre lines and further solidifies McGrath’s standing as one of the best vocalists working today.

Dru Cutler - Hometown (2017)

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

Dru Cutler’s brief two song release Hometown manages to encapsulate reams of emotion and feeling within a duo of songs many musical artists struggle to achieve and maintain over the course of a full length album. The Tampa, Florida born Brooklyn transplant crafted this release as a way to speak to both our roots and examine the miles traveled since we take our first hesitant steps away from the cradle of youth. It is both a remembrance of things past fond and slightly chagrined. As the great American novelist Thomas Wolfe famously titled one of his novels, Dru Cutler realizes you can’t go home again. The production highlights an approach equal parts expansive musical textures alongside visceral guitar lines and Cutler’s charismatic vocals put over the material with both grit and just the right amount of panache.

The title song comes first. Cutler’s lyric inventions have a direct, picturesque quality never lacking in concrete imagery. The clear, confident vocals he brings to bear aren’t without emotion, but he wisely never overplays his hand and opts instead to let the text work alongside the music and speak for itself. The arrangement hinges on the marriage of sparkling piano lines, hard hitting drums, and well recorded acoustic guitars percolating strongly through the mix. There’s an understated melodic quality coming through in this performance – Cutler dispatches the composition in a breezy manner without ever reducing it to pure pop and the substantive values it retains mark it as something different from your standard fare. The equally understated vocal harmonies, particularly on the chorus, are another highlight of the piece.

There’s a tangibly bluesy feel to “Infinite Moons”, but it also sounds vaguely reminiscent of something one might hear from David Gilmour on the pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd albums. This track, surprisingly, bears a more elegiac quality than the release’s title track and there’s a definite Beatles-eque touch to the performance Cutler never over-exaggerates. Harmony vocals certainly play much more of a key role here, but it uses electric guitars in an equally compelling fashion. The electric work comes in a largely orchestral manner – there are no grand instrumental breaks where the instrument steps to the fore and takes over – but the playing definitely makes itself felt in a variety of melodic and dissonant ways. It is quite a contrast to the aforementioned title cut, but the contrast is never jarring. Instead, the pairing sounds like two sides of the same thematic coin Cutler never fails to deliver with immense style and full command of fundamentals.  Dru Cutler’s Hometown is a winning effort capable of getting under a listener’s skin without exerting undue effort thanks to the artistry of its guiding artistic force.

Grade: A+