Meg & Dia caught my attention not long after the 2007 release of their first full length Something Real.  If I remember right, my friend Tom had me listen to his side project with Meg, aptly named MegaTom.  From there I picked up Something Real and definitely enjoyed it.  After finding out how many of the songs were based on classical novels such as Indiana by George Sands and East of Eden by John Steinbeck (plus many others), I fell in love with the album.

Meg & Dia consist of sisters Meg and Dia Frampton.  Early on the girls were joined by Carlo on guitar.  His solo’s are really something to see live.  Then later Nick on drums and Jonathon on bass joined the MaD family.
Over the years, I have seen Meg & Dia play numerous times.  My favorite thing about seeing them live is that it is never the same show.  They often rewrite songs for particular tour.   They have put out a handful of EPs over the years, my favorite being If You Are Broke, Find Something to Sue Someone For which included rewrites they did for Warped Tour 2007.   I think it says a lot that a band can take a song that was good enough to record and release in the first place then push it further.
The first song I heard from Here, Here, and Here was Black Wedding during their 2008 tour with Angels and Airwaves.  It was so catchy and different from anything else I had heard from them.  It was only a small spark  of how great the album would prove to be.

Finally in April 2009, the album was released.  Every single one of the thirteen tracks tells such an amazing, vivid, and interesting story.  It is like the sisters collided their own lives with the essence of the classical books they have read and distilled them down to these songs.  The result is truly unique lyrics and complex music.

The songs range anything from lyrics about boys, to rape, to political statements, to religion (or lack thereof), to simply describing the sisters’ lives.  If you get a chance to go to Meg  & Dia’s myspace, definitely read the blog titled The Story of Here, Here, and Here – By Dia.   It is about how the album came to be.  It is framed with a story about pumping gas, there is very specific descriptions of how each song was written (I cried at her description of Kiss You Goodnight), and it is entwined with a completely honest story of trying to get through a breakup.  It is one of the best pieces of writing I have ever came across.

This is another album that I have trouble picking out a song or two to recommend to people to check out.  Each song is so very different in both sound and meaning.  One nice thing about the album though is that it is coherent sound wise.  The music is easily distinguishable as being Meg & Dia on every track. That I would say is thanks to the band . Even though the sisters write all the lyrics and music to a point, it is the boys that truly bring it to life. They are what gives the band their classic rock sound mixed with more modern indie-pop.  The guitar parts in particular remind me of Bryan Adams or Blind Melon.

Meg & Dia will next be through Portland (more accurately Hillsboro) for Warped Tour.  Go buy the album, fall in love with it, and then come sing along to all the songs like I will be doing.

In February 2008, Lanman hit the music scene with his debut album Asphalt Roads.  A read through the blogs on his myspace page (which are quite funny and eloquently written by the way) will give the readers some insight into Lanman’s determination behind his first release.   It may not have been recorded with fancy equipment or with a famous producer but it definately was a well put together release.

The album consisted of thirteen tracks that ranged anywhere from catchy club tracks to heartfelt songs sure to make all the girls swoon, although Lanman’s smile alone would probably do that.  The diversity of the tracks makes the album easy to listen to over and over again without getting bored.   While the album has many absolutely beautiful moments, there are some places where it has a debut album feel to it.   For other artist, an album as captivating as Asphalt Roads would be something to aspire to but after listening to it I still felt like there was potential for Lanman to do even better.

Lanman’s newest EP, The Guesthouse Sessions certainly proved my instincts to be dead on.  The EP features two new tracks, three remakes from Asphalt Roads, and a cover of Crazy Love by Van Morrison.   The remakes are where you can see the biggest jump in Lanman’s writing talent.   I think it says a lot for an artist to be able to take a track that was good to begin with it and transform it into something new that fans will still love.  Meg and Dia do that for their songs for each tour and that is exactly why I keep going to see them.

Categorizing Lanman’s music would be a bit of a challenge.  Listening to songs from either albums remind me of all different kinds of musicians.  At some points it fits in the veins of people like Gavin Degraw and The Honorary Title while at others the songs also have a very gothic feel that I would put more in line with The Smiths and Heavens.   These albums could be for fans of about any genre of music.  Okay maybe not rap so much.

Currently Lanman is based out of California (and possibly working on the score for Homeward Bound 4).  I was lucky enough to catch Lanman’s show in Seattle earlier this month with local musician Gabe Mintz.  Sidenote, Mintz is a musical genius.  Check him out.  To quote Lanman’s praise, “Gabe Mintz is savage.”  Lanman hopes to tour in Portland later this summer.  Keep an eye on the show listing sections here on King Banana for more information.

While I was writing this review I was listening to the EP on repeat trying to pick out one song as the you-have-to-listen-to-this track.  Honestly, I cannot pick just one.  The EP is FREE at www.jameslanman.blogspot.com Why wouldn’t you check out every track?

You can thank me for helping you find your new favorite artist below.  Just saying.  Hey, leave us a comment telling us what track is your favorite though.  I’m sure Lanman would love to see what Portland wants to hear when he comes through.

On the same note, there is nothing I love more than a show where every person there, musicians and fans alike, are passionate about being there.  That is the exact feeling I got at the Kevin Devine show that took place at the Hawthorne Theatre on May 20.  It seemed like every person in the crowd genuinely wanted to be there and every person on stage was grateful to have their music be heard.

Taking the stage first was local artist Bryan Free.  Although much of his music is with a full band, Free played solo this night; just him and a piano.  His sound reminded me a little of  The Format.  Personally I really enjoyed it and found myself thinking that it was something I would have to check out.  The crowd didn’t respond too much when he was talking on stage but they did seem to be listening which the music was playing.  There was however one little boy that looked to be maybe six or seven that was very excited to see Free play.  Even Free seemed surprised by such a young dan shouting out request for a certain song.

Next up was Brian Bonz and The Dot Hogs.  Despite his young looks, Bonz is a very talented musician whose songs often take on dark but real undertones.  A perfect example of this is his most recent single, Dee the Dinosaur, which includes lines like “I’m just next in line with the sharpest knife and the desire to make these children die.”  If I remember correctly Bonz once stated that the song and music video that was recently released online was meant to imply that some people just don’t grow up.  Every song I have heard by him, I truly think is beautiful and has something important to say. The whole set was comprised of indie songs that had many people in the crowd singing along.  Bonz is slated to return to Portland on July 6 with Nightmare of You at the Satryicon. I know I will be there!

Miniature Tigers were next up which was a set I had been looking forward to.  They are a band that I had recently been hearing quite a bit of buzz about.  Having gotten busy I wasn’t able to listen to them before he show so had no clue what to expect.  People had told me everything from ‘they sound kind of like Weezer’ to ‘their music makes me think of the seventies’.  The set did not disappoint. They were just as good, if not better, then everything I had heard.  Tigers are definitely a little bit different than other music out there right now but good different.  Plus I couldn’t help but laugh when many of the guys from the other bands took the stage in wigs for a song.  Having now looked up the band’s music, the only thing I can say was missing from the set was their cover of Abba’s Mamma Mia.  Here’s to hoping they play it next time they come through!

Last up was Kevin Devine.  As far as I know, this was Devine’s first headlining tour on this side of the country.  Having seen the Brooklyn boy so many times, I was very happy to see a nice long set consisting of both new and old songs.  For this tour Devine, who sometimes plays solo, was accompanied by The Goddamn Band, aka the guys from the previous bands.  On both tour and on albums, Devine is often joined with musicians from bands like Brand New and Manchester Orchestra (to name a few).  The thing that blew me away about this particular night was the crowd.  It is amazing to have seen Devine go from five years ago being the guy that no one knew, to the guy opening for Rachel Yamagata and Jesse Lacey that had the whole crowd saying they were going to check him out, to now having fans singing along to every word and relentlessly requesting their favorite songs.  The song most in demend was Brother’s Blood which Devine closed with.  Devine’s fifth album, also titled “Brother’s Blood”, has been getting quite a bit of press which is well deserved.  Both live and on the album, Devine’s music is attention grabbing with it’s raw and real lyrics and easy to get stuck in your head melodies.  This performance in Portland was definitely spot on.

Overall, I would say this is one of my favorite shows I have been to in a while.  Not only did each band put on a great set but they were also excited to go out and play along with the other bands.  When they weren’t out playing they were watching from the side or out talking to the fans.  Like I said at the beginning of this review, this was a show full of people passionate about music.  I loved it.

*Want to see additional pictures of all the bands?  Just contact me at finleyphotography@gmail.com

Opening was Hillsboro locals Mangfald. The band’s performance was on the generic side without much excitement. While they were playing I remember thinking they were okay but by the time the second band started I couldn’t even remember what Mangfald sounded like. It just wasn’t a very notable set.

Next up was The Photo Atlas. Hailing from Denver, the band’s sound was akin to that of At The Drive-In and Jonoah. Having played with bands such as Alkaline Trio,  Say Anything, and Thrice to name a few, the band seemed to know how to put on a good show.  Unfortunately there was more members in the band then people watching. Given the chance to play in front of a full crowd, I think this band would be one worth seeing.  I know I’ll be keeping an eye out for if they were coming through again.

The Forecast took stage next which I found surprising considering this was a stop on their headlining tour.  Finally the venue filled in with a few handfuls of kids happy to see the Midwestern band that had not been through Portland in years.  Touring in support of their newest EP, Alive For The First Time, The Forecast rocked the stage with a mix of new songs and old classics that had many people in the audience singing along. If you haven’t checked out the EP yet, I definitely suggest it.  The band sounds better than ever on the new songs and the acoustic versions of songs from their last album are just as good as the originals. Plus how could anyone not love a band that sales pint glasses with their logo on them?

Second to last was the band that surprisingly seemed to have the biggest draw of the night.  The Standoff, who is from Portland, had feet tapping and heads nodding all over the club as they played songs with a little twag mixed with folk rock. The folk band even played one song that they said was meant to be played at an Irish pub. This seemed to be the crowd favorite as most sung along and some people even danced. The band wasn’t really my thing but if you are into folk they might be worth your time to check out.

Last up was another Portland band, Nickel Arcade. Normally, Nickel Arcade gets a fairly decent size crowd of kids singing along to every song. A time slot so late did not agree with the band whose fan base largely consist of high school students that can’t get enough of their catchy songs.  Despite the small crowd, the band still gave a great performance that even included a Jimmy Eat World cover.  The pop rock band was fun to watch as always. Guys, I’m still waiting for you to play that Allister cover for me.  Just saying.

Additional photos from this show can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbanana/

Warped tour 08 was my favorite warped tour of all time. (04 is a close second with Alk3, Underoath, TBS, Coheed, Yellowcard, and Senses fail all in their fucking prime) I don’t think i spent even a second at one of the two main stages. Once i got there and got my backstage press pass i took to the opposite way then the rest of the journalists who started to creep the buses and stake out key spots on the two stages where the big names were making their name heard by the mass of kids who just planted their bodies for a Paramore spotting or a Cobra Starship sighting, I instead booked it for the Smartpunk stage, put on my shades and got fucked up to A Day to Remember, Sky Eats Airplane, Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, Evergreen Terrace, and this little English Metal outfit called Bring Me The Horizon. I remember being slumped in the corner during a load out/load in and these kids bomb onto the stage and just fucking explode into spastic little party machines. These kids tore shit up, The second they got done playing i made a run for their merch tent and picked up as much BMTH shit as i could fit into my already brimming bag full of free shirts and cds. Let me say this, the couple of Bring Me The Horizon Shirts that i got that day are some of the only shirts i have paid money for in quite some time, usually i just get the shit for free from labels or bands as thank yous but these kids got even my money, a rare feat to pull these days.

So i haven’t Heard past Bring Me The Horizon efforts but this one brings some fucking avalanche type landslides to your body in the form of brutal riffing and breakdowns. This could easily be a rehashing of their old material and i would never know it but if you are picking up this as your first BMTH release than rest assured you will have some damn fine catchy British metal to explode to. They suffer from the one crippling fact of metal which is every song is played in the same drop tuned power chords so of course all of their songs are going to sound the same, but the energy and aggressiveness they put behind each song picks up any slack left buy common signatures or progressions. Songs like “The Comedown” and “No Need For Introductions, Ive Read About Girls Like You On The Back Of Toilet Doors” show just how fucking brutal metal can still be. If you are into metal than get into these kids cause they can get you to that point where you smash your windows out on accident. They arnt nearly as technical as most of their peers are these days but they can fucking trench their way through the beats just as well and put some heavy ass lows into what they do and how they do it.

Young metal is taking over all sorts of games these days with bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Arsonists Get All Of The Girls, and I Wrestled A Bear Once, the only question is do you listen to this sort of Armageddon Operatic Noodling shit or do you rock some David Bazan? My question is, can’t you do both?

When i First heard The Sounds of Animals Fighting it was the mastery of “Tiger and the Duke” that blew my mind away, It was this post punk progressive piece of work that combined the Guitar prowess of Finch and Rx Bandits with the vocals of Saosin and the newly formed Circa Survive. The songs ripped, the verses shredded, and the beats were in some of the greatest time signatures ever. It just owned me and everything i was thinking about music at that time. Then with their next Release “Lover the lord has left us” and it falls under the classification of “It Grows on you”, i hated that thing for lets say the first 100 spins, but i did eventually give in to the art aspect and started to dig it for the effort put into the originality and the musicianship.

This new album is a complete mix of the Tiger/Duke and Lover/lord. Ocean/sun Has moments of insane riffing over unique drum signatures like in the song “The Heraldic Beak Of The Manufacturer’s Medallion” which could have easily been on Tiger/Duke, while it also gives into the art aspect of finding a distant melody and stretching it to its tensile lengths like in “The Leather Lung” where reverb and delay and echo run game over single note picking eschewed leads. And Ocean/Sun seems to split itself into two states of mind, the first half of the album is more akin to Lover/Lord while the second half plays out as an annex to Tiger/Duke, There is something here for every TSOAF fan.

Overall i would say that this could be their most well rounded album offering up all sorts of audible goodies for anyone whose willing to drop the 10 bucks and put an ear to the stereo for an hour. If you like either of their last two albums then you must continue on the mystic journey of this Clandestine group of musicians who would have you test your boundaries for what you may or may not think is art.

Plus 14 year old girls love Anthony Green, HAHAHAHAHHAHA.

The only pleasant part about writing this review for Escape the Fate is that i get to retell the delightful tale of that idiot Ronnie Radke, The former meth snorting former front man for ETF (probably still snorts meth, definitely doesn’t have a career left in the music industry). So Ronnie was widely known in the Circles that us Music journalists run as a toxic Element, basically dude was a drugged up asshole who said stupid shit and did dumb things and thought he was cool cause his “Album” (loose word usage there) was in Hot Topic. Well the idiot fixed his situation for the rest of us normal human beings from being involved with him anymore when he set up a fucking old school duel out in the Nevada desert, Apparently 2 kids he knew were fighting so he set up a street fight among the cactus and jackrabbits on the outskirts of Vegas. Everyone brought guns though and one of the kids died, Great idea Ronnie. So then law enforcement catches wind of this and goes after Ronnie and the dude that killed the other kid, Well the dude that committed the murder killed himself out of guilt i am assuming and left Ronnie on his own so what does he do? Thats right he doesn’t turn himself in, he goes on the lamb and evades the cops for like 6 months or something. Dude is the equivalent of human trash. He eventually gets caught and arrested for the crime and get sentenced, Where in prison he makes an ass out of himself in poor taste and blames the dead kids family for him getting arrested and says its their fault that he is in prison getting rapped. Ronnie is then kicked out of the band to his very public displeasure. Thats where Craig from Bless the Fall came in, Oh yeah!

I can say what i want to about Escape the Fate being Garbage cause they were but they at least used to have an understanding on how to pander to the kids musical tastes, I don’t know if this is a natural sophomore slump album or if the addition of Craig did it, but the music is just generic and the vocals are horribly stagnant. This album could have easily come out in 2003 and been considered outdated. There are no real Engaging riffs anywhere on the record and Mabbits Lyrics are soooooooooooo …Dumb. I don’t know a more precise word to describe his lyrics, maybe juvenile. Someone should forward him that memo that got sent around 15 years ago that said your choruses were no longer aloud to use the words (baby, love, girl, heart, and crazy) cause the dude didn’t get the copy that was left on his desk. The only thing i can say about this album is that it fails from laziness, they are bands that still do what these guys do and keep it relevant. It is possible to do this and not suck, and these dudes are competent enough musicians to pull off a second rate My Chemical Romance thing, they just don’t. It seems that they are content with sinking to the bottom of the emotional rock lake and affix themselves via chain to a giant rock to spend the rest of their days where the sunlight is thin and the fish talk shit on Fashion whores.

Avoid this if you can at all costs, instead invest your time in one of the millions of other relevant Epitaph record artists such as Thursday, Gallows, Our last night, Bring me the Horizon, Story of the Year, or New Found Glory.

I was stoked on this new release, possibly more stoked on it then i should have been, And when the band started to fall apart, it hurt me a little bit more then it should have. Kerith and Brian (who i originally thought were brother and sister but ended up being married) Got all Mark Whalberg in there and Departed. And with them went a big part of the sound that caught my attention in the second place, The violin and the synth were pretty much done for, and the female backup vocals were now in jeopardy. But still i anticipated this album with beaded sweat. Boy if future Brenden could only quantum leap back in time and tell old Brenden to move on and forget about this band i could’ve saved like a collective 20 minutes of my life waiting for this album.

Its just not the same. “Those We Leave Behind” just doesn’t cut the cake. I’ll tell you what it leaves behind is the fans of the band. They didn’t replace the violin sound and the female vocals are still there but not as prominent. That was a HUGE part of their sound, and not its just completely absent. The album still tries to go for the dark thespian roll with huge melodies and vocal lines a plenty dedicated to dark subject matter such as zombies and graveyards (two things I’m a sucker for). But overall the album just seems like a lackluster attempt at creating their debut. This is a stereotypical sophomore slump album. The guitar is more produced leaving out some of the crunch that gave the word metal some validity when it was brought up on their past releases.

If you were a fan of the first two I Am Ghost albums then leave it at that friend. This release is forgettable and will just soil your thoughts on what this band should be. Maybe they will learn from their mistakes on this album and grow a little bit, mature their sound, and get a violin back in there.

This album is just harmless fun, if you can’t appreciate the joke then you are too into yourself and most likely would frown on the idea of grabbing a family size bag of Funyons, some Ecto Cooler Hi-C juice boxes, a House of Pain mixtape, and heading to the river for a day. And if this is the case then i invite you to suck it.
The two bros of ISMFOF have created a great little parody of your stereotypical screamsing core band and in doing so make something that i would rather listen to then the original product. This kid matt has fairly impressive control over his screaming range pulling off everything from inverted screams and squeals, to mid range/high range and cookie monster vocals, and Nabils work on all other instruments raise the eye to exactly how much of a joke this is to him. If i was Nabil i would want to save some of these technical riffs for something more akin to a real project, but the level of musicianship he displays here is a breathe of fresh air.

This album is just a great joke on your average rise records or tragic hero records. Its got rap songs on it (their cover of “Crank that (Soulja boy) and their original “HxC 2 step”) its got skits, its got those vocoded and autotunned vocal stylings that are so popular with todays youth. Breakdowns? yep. It is just a goodtime that you can put on and some of your friends might think its funny and some of your friends will complain about how long the new postal service lp is taking instead of listening to a single note.

If Weird Al Yankovic took a jab at the alternative music scene you might get something simillar to this, although i think these two do a damn fine job at picking your average swooping haircut/white belt apart and showing the fun to still be had with music.