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Artist: The States
Title: We Are the Erasers
Website: http://www.thestatesonline.com
MySpace: myspace.com/thestatesonline
Style: Rock/Indie/Alternative
Rating: 4/5
By L. Anne Carrington

September 22, 2009 will be the day to watch when The States release their five-song EP, We Are the Erasers. On the lines of short, straight and to the point, this collection of songs is a not-miss.

According to a blurb on the band’s official MySpace, their ‘inventive songwriting has earned accolades from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Grand Prize Winners) and the International Songwriting Contest (Winners), and it has been featured on MTV’s ‘The Hills’, ‘The Real World,’ and ESPN’s ‘Baseball Tonight.’ Q104.3′s Jonathan Clarke recently included The States in his list of the Top 10 New York bands.

Their much-acclaimed talents and experience can be heard throughout the album, with the strongest cuts being “Our Time is Up” and “Erasers.” The song titles may be eccentric to some, but the music, productions, and vocals are outstanding.

The States are much deserving of radio airplay, and We Are the Erasers is just another good reason they should make the jump from indie to mainstream music. Check out this collection of work once it hits the market!

Artist: Loomis & The Lust
Title: Nagasha EP
Website: http://loomisandthelust.com
Style: Rock/Pop/ Funk
Rating: 8.9 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

Band Lineup: Noah Babcock- (bass), Jeremy Berisha- (drums, vocals), Will Loomis- (lead vocals, guitar), and Thomas Masker- (guitar, vocals).

This Santa Barbara, CA. band made up of four guys ranging from 18-24 years old in age have only been together for one year but they’ll already built up a big reputation playing in their home base area.

Nagasha is the band’s debut release. The EP features 5 songs that have an old school rock n’ roll sound with just a dash of a funky edge thrown in to the mix.

Track-1, “Bright Red Chords,” has an upbeat fun time summer rock sound that laments about the days of vinyl records. Track-2, “Break on Love,” deals with having a girlfriend that won’t give you any breathing room, always checking up on you to the point that it feels like you’re a prisoner of love. The song had a sound that kind of reminded me of some early Rolling Stones songs.

Track-3,”Sweetness,” had a White Stripes feel thanks to its use of persistent, heavy drum beats, that drove the song. The lyrics talk about having a girlfriend that you know isn’t right for you but for some reason you just can’t break free from the hold that she has on you. Track-4,” “Cure for Sale,” is a mid-tempo number.

Everything wraps up with, “Girl Next Door,” the most all out rocking track found on the EP. The song is filled with fast driving rock beats and lyrics that talk about dealing with the cute girl next door.

Having been together for only a year this band has managed to really put together a tight sound. This EP offers up some really top-shelf music that should help to make this band a household name all across the U.S. real soon.

Artist: Essex Chanel
Title: Love is Proximity
Website: http://www.loveisproximity.com
Style: Folk/ Pop
Label: Sweet Goodness
Rating: 8.3 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

Travis Lee Wiggins is usually a solo multi-instrumentalist, but for this musical project he brought on board nine other Chicago musicians (Allison Trumbo, Stephen Dranger, Aleksandra Ledere, Micah Travisonno, Brian Koehler, Joseph Khalifah, Luke Krause, Mike Regan, Angelina Lucero, and Sara Ma).

The idea behind this Love is Proximity project was to make a collection of ultimate love songs. Love is Proximity, which releases on September 29th, 2009 (you can preorder it now) is the first of 4 disc that will be in the set. The release schedule for the remaining three discs is, Love is Proximity Sessions Disk 1: November 24th, 2009, Love is Proximity Sessions Disk 2: January 26th, 2010, Love is Proximity Sessions Disk 3: March 23rd, 2010. The 4 disc together makes for a total 42 love songs.

What you get on this first disc in the set is a collection of 10 songs that explore love in many different ways. When I first heard this release described as a collection of love songs I thought that it would be filled with sappy, feel good type of love songs, but thankfully it isn’t. The songs take an honest look at love, both the good and the bad aspects of it.

The songs for the most part have a folk pop-rock sound. As I listened to the songs words like, melodic, rhythmic, and earthy came to mind. The songs are filled to the max with instrumentation, while the vocals are left sparser and in several songs they even take a back seat to the instrumental parts.

You’ll find lots of string parts, especially from the violin in the songs, with many of them even driven by those violin sounds. You’ll also hear a good bit of trumpet music scattered throughout them.

My favorite track is the first one, “Skinny Dippin,’.” This upbeat song has a New Orleans meets folk music style found on it thanks to the really strong trumpet and violin parts on it.

There is also a summer and fall tour happening in support of this release. You can check out the releases special website for tour dates along with some goodies (song book, videos, and free songs) related to the project.

Artist: Ben Cooley Hall
Title: Owning Up to a Life
Website: http://www.bencooleyhall.com
Style: Indie/ Pop/ Americana
Rating: 3.5/5
By L. Anne Carrington

In a week of writer’s block, book editing hell, and other things that had to be done, one of the best ways for me to be able to unravel from it all was Ben Cooley Hall’s Owning Up to a

Life.

It’s a mellow sound, yes, but it has a modern twist. Cooley Hall’s music is reflective of Woodstock, but he adds his own unique flavor. A former member of the Boston-based trio, The Mary Reillys, Cooley Riley has branched out to a solo career to display his abilities as both artist and musician.

The messages on this album come through clearly: be yourself, do your own thing, and don’t care what anyone else thinks.

A few of the songs, such as “Dream Excerpt No. 2,” “Ginger Ale,” and “Sunny Day” mix up some musical genres, making the overall album even more fascinating.

Owning Up to a Life may not be for everyone, but for those that are into music artists that dabble in experimenting with different vocal production, this could work.

Artist: Groove Kings
Title: Blood Red
Website: http://www.groovekings.ca
Style: Blues/ Rock/ Soul
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

The group Groove Kings is comprised of Howard Forman, a multi-instrumentalist whose instrument of choice is guitar. Forman is also a songwriter and producer, having written all of the songs found on this release, along with wearing the producers hat on it. The other half of the group is vocalist Irene Marc. Marc is equipped with a wide vocal range that’s able to work on just about any style of song.

The two of them met at a local hotspot located in Montreal, Canada. Forman was performing with a soul band when Marc sent a message to him through the club’s manager to see if she could set in with the band. She blew the room away with her singing and the Groove Kings was born.

Stylistically Groove Kings uses a mix of, rock, blues, and soul to form their sound. The theme of the songs found on Blood Red are on an adult level, as they deal a lot with love in real life relationships, along with real life lessons.

Things get started with the releases title cut, “Blood Red,” a medium tempo blues rock song that deals with the need to overcome superficial things and have real meaningful human connections in your life.

The next two tracks, “Real Love,” and ‘Temporary,” invite horns (saxophones and trumpets) to join in on the fun.

Track-4, “Chore,” is a soulful ballad that deals with casual sex and offers up a really nice, Carlos Santana like, guitar part. “In the Rain,” is a sultry jazzy blues song that also offers up nice guitar work similar to B.B. Kings sound.

Tracks- 6-8 (“That Lie,” “Bury Me,” “So Real to Me”) are upbeat rockers filled with lively guitar and horn parts. “Bury Me,” also feature slide guitar and piano parts on it.

Things wrap up with “What Did You Think I Would Do?,” a melodic R&B track that deals with being tired of waiting for someone that you love to make their move, while “What’s Real,” is an upbeat seductive rock number, on it vocalist Irene Marc show she has strong rock n’ roll chops.

Blood Red offers up an interesting and very well done collection of 10 songs with vary styles that showcase the group Groove Kings’ talent.

Artist: The Sun Harmonic
Title: The Sun Harmonic
Website: myspace.com/kalebhikele
Style: Singer Songwriter
Rating: 8.3 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

Kaleb Hikele is a singer songwriter musician from Toronto who in the past was part of the bands, Far From Freedom (screamo/ punk-rock), and The Capital (alt. rock trio). Kaleb has also released several solo albums, but this is his first release under his new stage moniker of The Sun Harmonic.

What you’ll find on this release is a collection of 9 songs that Kaleb wrote that are mostly singer songwriter in style with just a light touch of an alternative rock sound that can also be found on it.

Kaleb, who also produced the release, went for a raw edge on the recording being careful to not over produce the music. The recording took place at a restored church that was turned into a recording studio located in the countryside.

Right from track-1, “On A Blank Sheet,” you can feel a real passion that’s heard in Kaleb’s vocals. The song also starts out with a 1 minute acoustic guitar intro that sets the mode perfectly for the song.

Other notable tracks include, “Oh, the Flame Burns,” that features a rich sound thanks to its cello and saxophone parts.

For me the release went a little bit off course with the transition between tracks 5 & 6. When track-5 ends and before track-6 gets started you’ll first hear about 20 seconds of nothing then a piano starts to play for approximately 4 minutes. This part of the release is labeled as the, ‘Intermission.’ While this idea gets points for being inventive it really broke the flow of the release up since all of the other tracks flow seamlessly together.

After that little hiccup though things got right back on track with the remaining several tracks ending up with, “Simple Thing,” featuring whistling and “The Last,” a song filled with a piano lead part and very heavy drum beats that alternates between soft and loud moments.

This release offers up a nice collection of songs that push the singer songwriter envelope in a good direction.

Artist: Aly Tadros
Title: Things Worth Keeping
Website: http://alytadros.com
Style: Folk/Acoustic
Rating: 3/5
By L. Anne Carrington

Among an array of self-released albums in what appears to be gradually becoming a ‘do it yourself’ world these days, Aly Tadros has joined the ranks with her new CD, Things Worth Keeping.

The album consists of bouncy beats combined with strings plucking over them, soft vocals that are bluesy yet flowing, an overall throwback sound from the 1960′s. “Paper Mache,” and “But a Memory” are two of the strongest tracks on the album, clever tunes that are a bit more modern than the folk sounds of previous decades.

Unfortunately, as good as this album is – from the well-written songs to Tadros’ own vocals – the entire folk theme is not all that original. On the other hand, Things Worth Keeping is a well defined work for a first time, self-released effort.

Artist: Over the Hill
Title: Looking for a Spark
Website: http://www.myspace.com/overth
Style: Experimental/ Bluegrass/ Post-Punk
Label: Monofonus Press
Rating: 8 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

Band Lineup: Morgan Coy (lead vocals, guitar), Jasio Gasyna (drums), Bridget Evarts (bass), and Doug Ferguson (synth, organ).

The band’s debut self-titled release (2007) went for a more traditional Indie rock sound but this one pushes the musical envelope. To say that this band’s music is eclectic could qualify as the understatement of the year.

The bands mixture of bluegrass and country with experimental and punk music elements creates one very unique sound that will keep your ears in a mild state of panic as they try to decipher what they’re hearing. It takes awhile to adjust to hearing the sound of a mandolin set against a mixture of synth sounds.

Morgan Coy, who is band lead vocalist and one of the founders of the multi-media arts label Monofonus Press, describes the band’s sound as, “a spiritualist gray grass rock album,” (think of) “bluegrass meets (Blue Oyster Cult’s) “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Morgan Coy’s vocals have a defined crackle to them that works well when set against the song’s instrumentation. The songs deal a lot with darker subject matters, but the band always includes a little ray of hope that also comes through in them.

Some of the more notable tracks include, “Instrument,” a 1:49 instrumental featuring a really deep bass line highlighted with synth parts, “Sunrise,” a track featuring pump organ and pronounced sitar parts, along with a choir like vocal chorus found in it. The release ends with the haunting string filled song, “Over There,” that to me played like an anti-war song.

If you’re a fan of top-40 radio then you’re going to hate this release. If on the other hand you like to take a walk on the wild side with your music, then Looking for a Spark will take you on a musical journey through a dark thick forest with just hints of sunlight occasionally breaking through the darkness. Enjoy the adventure!

Artist: Pill Hill Radio
Title Pill Hill Radio
Website: myspace.com/pillhillradio
Style: Roots Rock
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
By Senior Writer C.W. Ross

Band Lineup: John Rafferty (acoustic guitars, harmonica, vocals), Mike Giugliano (drums), Tommy Casatelli (bass), Eric Stolze- listed on album booklet (electric guitars), Julian Deych- listed on band’s MySpace site (guitars, vocals).

This N.Y.C. band got started in 2007. Several of its members are involved in public service, John Rafferty is a former NYPD officer, while Tommy Casatelli is a retired NYFD firefighter, and Mike Giugliano is still active with the NYFD.

This self-titled release is the band’s debut. The band’s music has a classic roots rock sound that’s mixed with a folk element, ala a Bob Dylan sound. Think of artist like Tom Petty, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen.

On this release the band goes for a simple, not over produced style, that works well with their roots sound. Out of the 9-tracks found on this release the first several offer up a roots rock

style while tracks-4 & 5 (“Whiskey Pride,” “The Last Beauty Queen”) move more into a country mode, complete with a mandolin part provided by Mike Layton on, “The Last Beauty Queen.”

The release wraps up with a well-done acoustic guitar ballad titled, “Mary.”

This is a solid effort from Pill Hill Radio, while it didn’t blow me out of the water, their sound offers a lot of promise and I look forward to hearing their next release that the band says should be out in the fall of 2009.