Saturday, August 23, 2008

Starclock - Progressive Power Pop?

StarclockYou have absolutely got to get Starclock by Starclock!
From Not Lame's description:
Imagine Toy Matinee or The Bears doing "Skylarking" by XTC with dashes of 70`s progressive rock and mid-70`s hard rock riffs all glossed up with pop perfection. Lots of Owsley / The Semantics or PFR or the poppy side of King`s X produced by Prince. And how bout The Merrymakers and Sugarbomb? Well, there you go! Starclock combines great studio sonds and, more importantly, highly admirable and catchy songs that dig a hook into the back, hold the listener up for all to see and wondering what`s around the next corner. Peppy and incredibly melodic, beginning to end. 13 complex but incredibly easy to enjoy and digest pop songs and most assuredly, Extremely Highly Recommended.


From Starclock's MySpace page:
Starclock is the solo project for Chris Bradley, bassist for Look What I Did. The self titled debut was released in 2002 on Chris' own Clockrock Recordings. It was written, performed, engingeered and mixed mostly by Chris.


Not Lame: http://www.notlame.com/Starclock/Page_1/CDSTAR2.html

CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/starclock

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Castledoor

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="192" caption="Castledoor"]Castledoor[/caption]

Anyone looking for a band with energy, amazing talent, and incredible song-writing should look no further than Castledoor.  If you're in LA, you should go see them, as they hail from Silverlake and play a lot around those parts.

Tonight I saw them for the 3rd time -- at {open} in Long Beach for their EP release party, and each time the show they put on is tremendous.  The EPs are great too, their first, "Follow The Dove" can be had on iTunes. The 2nd, newly released "'Til We Sink" can be procured on 7" purple vinyl, couresty of the 7inchproject.

If you see these guys on a marquee of a club near you, go, you won't be sorry.

--UPDATE--  I wanted to try to describe Castledoor's sound and why I dig'em.  This band has the making of a typical Power Pop band, but theyr'e not, they've got their own thing going.  They have multiple mics for viocals and there are great backing vocals with the bum bum bum's and the doooo wahhh's, but it's not in a bubblegum sorta way, it'll make you move.  It's hard to describe, but infectious, and just saying that is a testament to the niche that Castledoor is  carving out for themselves.  I wish they'd write more music!