By Art Michalski, on January 19th, 2012
 The M Machine opens for Paper Diamond Saturday at Clutch Cargo's. Nope, it’s not a reference to the University of Michigan and hitting a game at Michigan Stadium (I know Spartan fans, roll your eyes—-NOW! And deal with it). But when you see the big block “M” associated with the San Francisco based group The M Machine.
The M Machine are the progressive DJ trio of Andrew Coenen, Benajmin Swardlick and Eric Luttrell and are releasing new music at a pretty good clip these days. Back in October, the guys released the double single for “Promise Me a Rose Garden” and “Glow”, which showcase the M Machine’s highly infectous “chillwave” brand of electronica. But the group’s cornerstone is the 12 minute “Trafalgar”, which more than keeps the listener’s attention for the full time. The group was recently signed to OWSLA, which is the new musical label imprint from new electronic music heavyweight Skrillex.
Continue reading The Block M At Clutch Cargo’s
By Art Michalski, on January 10th, 2012
 Kyng brings their style of heavy to Royal Oak this Friday night. (Photo courtesy of Katherine Guerrero) After the band had done tours with Drowning Pool and Wayne Static, you would think the guys in the California based band Kyng would be taking a short break to start the new year. Guess again. After releasing their debut “Trampled Sun” back in late September and wrapped up their 2011 touring, the band quickly made plans as they will be opening for In Flames during a winter tour about to get underway.
Founded when former members of the band Ankla, Tony Castaneda and Pepe Clarke Magana left to strike out of their own, Kyng moved away from the full on metal of that band for a wide ranging old school sounding hard rock record. Whether it’s the groove of tracks like “Pushing & Pulling” or the Alice in Chains-esque “Takes It’s Toll”, Kyng makes a play for big rock radio with the songs on “Trampled Sun”. Perhaps the best show of the wide ranging sound is the nine minute, two part track “Beauty at the End/ Shorelines Pt. 1 & 2”, where the band starts the song with a serene acoustic number, before moving into a hard charging hard rock cut. When I spoke with Castaneda over the summer, he described the band’s sound and influences as “California Heavy”- which is a blend of classic and modern rock, latin music, hip-hop which gives the band their diverse sound.
Continue reading Kyng Tramples on Royal Oak
By Art Michalski, on December 26th, 2011
 Machine Head is #1. See Revolver, we got it right- unlike you guys. 10. Animals as Leaders- Weightless- If Dave Davidson is the up and coming thrash metal god, Tosin Abasi is the virtuoso of the new school. On the group’s sophomore album, the intricate guitar work on “Odessa” and “Earth Departure” don’t bash you over the head, but comes off more like a metal jam band and shows that technical metal doesn’t need to be pretentious to amaze fans.
9. Suicide Silence- The Black Crown- When I spoke with lead singer Mitch Lucker this summer, he said this was a “make or break” album for the band. They certainly didn’t break on their third album, as tracks like “Slaves to Substance” and “Smashed” beat your skull in and sent pits ablaze at the Mayhem Festival. We’ll see if the band rises to the top of the metal heap in the future, but “Crown” bodes well for the band.
Continue reading Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011 (that I listened to…)
By Art Michalski, on December 26th, 2011
 Yeah, not much of a shock- Rammstein's show was easily #1 this year. (In Descending Order)
5. Deftones & Dillinger Escape Plan- The Fillmore Detroit: As a massive Deftones fan over the years, I am hyper critical when it comes to this band’s live shows. And quite frankly, the past few times I had seen them had been a bit disappointing. But the band was on fire during their packed show at the Fillmore in early May, kicking out the classics as well as the cuts from “Diamond Eyes”. For at least one show, the Deftones made me feel like I was back in the old State Theater in the late 90’s, raging out to one of their sets.
4. Volbeat- St. Andrew’s Hall: This is a band that is criminally undervalued band in the American market. The Danish band has a unique style of rockabilly, metal, and blues that had the fans at the sweaty St. Andrew’s in late March. Sure, fans might have seen them open for Metallica before, but on their own- the band put together a great 90 minute set. The tour paved the way for the band to play the States more and perhaps not have to rely on Nickelback and Shinedown for arena rock shows in the future.
Continue reading Top 5 Shows I Went To in 2011
By Art Michalski, on December 16th, 2011
 Enter Shikari hits Royal Oak tomorrow night. The guys in the U.K. based electro-metalcore outfit Enter Shikari may have not released an album since 2009’s “Common Dreads”, but that doesn’t meant that they haven’t been busy touring. After doing some major stadium-size shows with The Prodigy over in the U.K., the band made their return to the States by opening up for A Day To Remember in 2010, before joining up with the Warped Tour this past summer.
But with “Common Dreads” now fully seared into fans’ heads, they are getting ancy for fresh material from the band. So, the band went into a Bangkok studio this past May to start the recording of their third album, “A Flash Flood of Colour”. Due out January 10th, the album may or may not harken the hijinks of a “Hangover 2”-esque recording session, but will feature the band’s signature sound of electronic metalcore that is easily shown on the first single “Sssankepit”. But if fans cannot wait for the new album, you can always pick up the band’s live CD/DVD set “Live from Planet Earth”, which came out this past summer.
Continue reading Enter Shikari Floods Royal Oak
By Art Michalski, on December 13th, 2011
 The Devil Wears Prada are sure to pack the Royal Oak Theater this Saturday night. The Devil Wears Prada were one of those bands that early on in their career, they were on every metal tour you could think of. The Dayton, Ohio band spent more time on the road each year than they were probably home, just trying to get the word out on the band. After a few years of touring, the band were shocked to see their 2009 album “With Roots Above and Branches Below” narrowly missing the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Charts. But the band knew their heaviest effort was still yet to come and with the recently released “Dead Throne”, the band finally cracked the Top 10, selling 35,000 copies during it’s opening week.
Fans and critics alike are heralding the album as the band’s heaviest to date and tackles false idols as it’s main lyrical focus. To help give the album it’s stepped up heaviness, the band listed Killswitch Engage wildman Adam Dutkewicz to produce the album and has become another sign the band is far from done.
The band is currently out on the road right before Christmas with Enter Shikari and Whitechapel for a scorching night of new school metal. But before a show in Maryland, the band had a little bit of down time when I had a chance to chat with guitarist Jeremy DePoyster. Jeremy and I discussed Dutkewicz’s production techniques and the things he misses about the band’s early days on touring.
Here’s my interview with Jeremy:
Continue reading Interview w/ Jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada
By Art Michalski, on December 12th, 2011
 The Parlor Mob plays a free show at the Pike Room this Friday. The guys in the New Jersey based band The Parlor Mob know all too well about the downside of the music industry over the past several years. With the band signed to Capitol Records and a merger between a few different labels, many bands were dropped from the labels, causing them to release their music elsewhere. The Parlor Mob found this out through an email of all things and in a moment of frustration to be heard, the band released their EP on the internet.
Well, someone listened to that EP, because the band was signed to Roadrunner Records shortly there after and released their debut, “And You Were a Crow” in 2008. The band decided to switch gears majorly with the writing and recording of the album that would become their sophomore release, “Dogs”, which was released this past fall. The album is a celebration of the band’s perseverance and trials dealing with being a band during this time in the music industry.
The band is on the road at the moment, but during an off day back home in Jersey, I had a chance to talk with guitarist Dave Rosen about the band’s journey to their second album and some of the more economically downtrodden places that the band has played in recent time.
Here’s my interview with Dave:
Continue reading Interview w/ Dave Rosen of The Parlor Mob
By Art Michalski, on December 12th, 2011
 Check sure to check out the multi-cultural sound of Enjera at their Bandcamp site. Ok, not to get it confused with the Ethiopian sourdough dish, the newest project from metro-Detroit native and multi-instrumentalist Alex Wand, Enjera plays on Wand’s African music influences and shows a different light from his work with Light in August, the band he’s been a part of for the past several years.
Self-released in late September, Enjera’s debut EP is a four song collection of such electic instruments as the bansuri, table and tuning fork, along with the sitar. When checking out the songs on the EP like “Samsura” and “Tabla Rosa”, the texture and range of songs comes out and provides quite the mellow and relaxing experience. Also included on the EP is Wand’s take on the Beatles classic track “Within You Without You” The EP is borne out of Wand’s passion of Indian and African music, which he has been studying in detail at the California School of Arts for his Master degree.
The EP was recording in the school’s Dizzy Gillespie’s studio and gives the listener a throughouly enriching experience. As of now, Wand does not have any tour dates planned around this project, but that could always change. But if you are in the mood for a evening with the sitar and other sounds that you may not always here in music- at least around here- check out Enjera’s EP and appreciate the musicianship.
Enjera’s EP is available for purchase at www.alexwand.bandcamp.com.
By Art Michalski, on December 11th, 2011
 "El Camino" is another strong album in the Black Keys catalog. Back when I first saw the Black Keys in 2004, they came out of the garage rock era that housed 20,000 other bands trying to pull off a similar sound. But what stood out about the band was the fact that they didn’t try and pull of that disinterested cool look like The Strokes did, or didn’t need five guys to pull off that sound. The duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney showed a lot of vigor and pulled off a big live sound with just themselves and proved to be a force to be reckoned with. But, I never, ever suspected the band would get as big as they have.
On their seventh album, “El Camino”, the band re-enlisted Danger Mouse (who produced the stellar 2008 album “Attack and Release”) for perhaps an even bigger sounding album than that one. Most of the bluesy material from their still pretty damn good 2010 album “Brothers” and brings back the heavier drum sound and quick strike method of songs that might have been missing on the previous album.
Yes, look no further than the first single “Lonely Boy” for the best indication of the band getting back into that groove again. But where the album really excels are on tracks like “Gold on the Ceiling” and “Money Maker”- which blends the bluesy and garage rock sounds together to it’s full effect.
Continue reading Album Review- Black Keys “El Camino”
By Art Michalski, on December 11th, 2011
 Jeff Rains brings his band to open up for Five Finger Death Punch Friday in Plymouth. This Christmas, the guys in the band Rains might want to send a thank you note to the guys in Rev Theory. Early in November, the band behind the hits “Hell Yeah” and “Justice” had a unfortunate accident when one of the band’s guitarist suffered a hand injury and was forced to drop off the tour. This opened up a well coveted spot on the large hard rock tour headlined by Five Finger Death Punch.
The band from Fort Wayne, Indiana didn’t hesitate in accepting the opening slot on the tour. The band has been touring pretty relentlessly since the 2009 release of their album, “Stories”. The album is a deeply personal collection of songs, detailing the life of frontman Jeff Rains. With the band doing tours with many big names in the rock world during that day, this current tour with Five Finger Death Punch could be their biggest to date.
Before a date in Massachusetts, Jeff was getting a bit of a break before they played that night when I had a chance to speak with him. We discussed the dilemma facing the band when they got the offer for the tour and how the band ended back up releasing musically independently.
Here’s my interview with Jeff:
Continue reading Interview w/ Jeff Rains of Rains
|
|
