And here I go again, Before I start, I’d like to say that this, will probably be one of the longest posts I’ve ever written to this blog, (Which means that I’ve written longer posts elsewhere like Venstre.no and so on) but this is a music post, and I’m not going to ruin it.
Some info about what Bands I’ll be covering:
- Faster Faster
- Ashbury
- The Hint
- Fireworks
- Hands
- The Wonder Years
- Oh, The story
- The Swellers
- Crash Kings
- Streetlight Manifesto
- The Number 12 looks like you
- A willhelm scream
I think that’s all for this post, and I’m afraid that I’m in work some hard blogging work. I predict that this will cover some of the songs they have published, I even made it so that you can download the EP from Sea of Stars for free! and personally, I’ll say that it’s worth it. So do it, do it now! I’ll include a few links and stuff on the bottom, too.
Faster Faster
A band that dosn’t resemble anything I’ve ever heard before. The sound like a blend between School Boy Humor, mixed in a shaker between Counting stars and Taking back Sunday. Which turns out to be a better mix than I’d first imagined. The vocal; Kyle does a great job singing sweet lines, in a comfortable tune that don’t sting too much in your ears. and sound more like a comforting brotherly voice that resemble something like Fred Mascherino and Antonio Longo’s vocals in Taking Back Sunday and Chris Kasarjian from Count the stars.
It’s a really effective sound that’s gathering masses on for example myspace and facebook groups that’s dedicated to spreading the sound across the globe. But I’d like to take the word and say that this music can also be used as relaxant music, basically because of Joey, Aaron and Randall’s way of playing (bass, guitar and guitar), that’s perfect together with Stu on the drums and Kyles way of singing. I find them a quite interesting bunch of artists, and I wish them the best of luck.

Ashbury
This is the second band I’m going to cover today. Personally I can’t put this band in a category, It’s a mixture between Pop, Rock, Power-pop, Emo and Indie, which is not the easiest mix I’ve seen this month. They sound more like the cool songs from Panic! at the disco mixed with the early albums from Fall Out Boy, which is a nice mix for me, really. Ashbury use the same effects on the guitars that Fall Out Boy used at the song “this aint a scene, it’s an arms race” that goes in intervals, making the vocals more dominant.
They have currently over 150 000 plays only on their official myspace site, and that’s quite impressive for an unsigned band. Through the entire list of songs that’s on their myspace site, the band sound amazing and really hit the spot with precision guitars and vocals combined with perfectly refined bass and drums to create a genius mixture that’ll get you high in an instant.

The Hint
The Hint is a three man band that sounds fantastic as a relaxing sound that’s clearly influenced by Depeche Mode and Alkaline Trio, where the vocals sound like a more positive and lighter version of depeche modes vocalist Dave Gahan. The band also include a great use of other sounds that the most commonly used instruments, and it works really good together with the distinct vocals. Among the other instruments used in the songs are sax (or something that sounds verry much like one) and keyboards. Just like the original crew of Depeche Mode.

FireWorks
Fireworks really live up to their chosen name, having a much more aggressive sound then the last band, The hint. Having a faster and harder sound combined with a faster beat and obviously strong influence from older Punk Rock bands like Sex Pistols. The band use a vocal that’s pretty much like The Early November’s vocalist Arthur Carl Enders only with a little jump with only a few notes higher.
The combination makes perfect sense and clearly show that you don’t have to scream to make punk music. And it also makes the band show of their skill of making great music with hard beats clearly visible.

Hands
This is a band that’s dragged me in, and it’s done it good, the first song that you meet when entering their myspace site is Hope, which have this great intro that starts of with silence, going over in static and slowly working it’s way up to climax from where the growling vocals of Shane Ochsner takes the music to the next level. They are impossible to place in a musical category, for me at least. But they might be compared to maybe a more lay-back and slow version of Sevendust.
The musical type is more of a melodic type of metal, meaning that it’s not like the other bands that’s been more in the power-pop and pop-rock categories. The sound they provide is pretty obviously inspired by a religious and deep-meaning thought showed by their love for churches and artistic appearance.

The Wonder Years
the wonder years is more of a power-punk band, sounding like another mixture of Taking back Sundays vocals, but this time the counterpart is not going to be a usual power-pop band. Billy Tallent is more of a suiting mixture this time. Just subtracting the political texts. But the sound is still there.
They have a undertone of techno (not the bass elements, but great use of guitar-powers that sounds like the old 8-bits gaming systems) that creates a more playing around – ish feeling over the music. But it’s quite effective as a grabber of the audience. When they take of like they should, with the usual vers, chorus, vers building the songs. Where the chorus clearly is the place where the band show their best side.

Oh, The Story
I must admit, this is one of my favorite bands at the time, showing that it’s always possible to do something new with the already established sound. They have their own feeling, with a great flow in the way they sing and play, including a whole arsenal of other instruments in their music, which have a great effect that drags you into their music like a magnet to metal-dust. James Larson’s voice is incredible, having a fantastic powerful tone and a really large specter of sounds he can use and still sound great.
He can be seen in comparison to Panic! at the discos Brendon Urie and School Boy Humors Phil Evans in how powerful his voice is. This together with the rest of the band; Chris, JW, Scott, John and Josh the sound is fantastic. it’s not often I do this, but I’d like to tell everyone to give them a try.

The Swellers
The Swellers are one of the more individualistic sounding bands around, only comparable with Silverstein where the vocal sound very alike, with a strong tune that’s only answered with the skill from the guitarist; Ryan Collins and his – in song – solos that’s rocking all over the song. when it comes to this part of the music the band creates, it seems like some of the bands strongest influences are Silverstein, as mentioned before, and Avenged sevenfold.
The influence from Avenged sevenfold shows clearly from the feeling you get when listening to the solos that come around on different songs, that can only be compared to synister gates and his work. The lyrics are quite easy as going through the texts the band have, where it usualy goes through feelings and experiences the band members have had throughout their lives.

Crash Kings
This is a band that OBVIOUSLY deserve the indie label they’ve got. The band itself sound a lot like as if Jack White went on a solo project and came up with a more rocked version of the White stripes songs. The band have a great thing going here, whit a low pitched guitar that makes the vocal stand out as a more masculine counterpart. The use of (or the lack of digital manipulation) toned down drum, making it sound more like a live performance drum than a studio recorded drum, is a genius way to create a personal feeling over the music itself.
The powerful voice of Tony the pianist makes perfect sound that could be considered a perfect piece of art together with the wonderful use of classic piano and dark guitar. It’s lovely.

Streetlight Manifesto
Finally a band that can stand up to the band “Less than Jake” that basically is everything you can find in this sound category. The way to spot a band like that, is the use of trumpets, speedy beats and “the morning after whiskey” kind of voice to drive it all. They have a lot of catchy songs that borrow a lot of elements from Latino musical types like flamingo that’s built upon the same elements; beat and instrumental mixture, as Street Light Manifesto have.
As the songs carry on, the elements borrowed from different Latino music categories become more apperant with the voice of Thomas Kalnoky joining the rest of the bands beats together with Matt Stewart (Trumpet), Mike Soprano (Trombone), Jim Conti (Sax and Tenor), Mike Brown (sax) in making a great mix of Latino and western music types.
I urge everyone to check out the two bands mentioned and see if you find a difference between them. because they are both great bands, so do it, do it now!

The Number Twelve Looks Like You
this band seems to end up in the category of artistic looking people, where they keep a great use of guitar as the leading instrument, together with drums, going in a rollercoster, varying between different speeds and ways of playing the music they do. It’s obvious that the guitar, bass and drums are dominant in the music, where the vocals seems to drop behind in quite a few of their songs.
The Artistic indie label is more suiting here, where the band can’t be put in any form of category as I see it. The guitars remind me about the older songs from buckethead combined with Fall of Troy, using advanced techniques that makes the sound just as complex. The way the music is executed makes it perfect for mosh-pitting, and I can see it in front of me, how this band takes of on stage where Alex is the main character.

A Wilhelm Scream
Well, at last a well established band that’s been around for quite a while. Personally I’ve been listening to this band for a long time (2-3 years) now, which really isn’t all that long of a time, considering they’ve been around since the early 1990’s. With their heavy vocals and obvious influence from post-hardcore bands have really struck people hard, gathering a huge mass of fans, that’s working hard do promote the music (promotion groups and so on). On their fairly new myspace site, they already have almost
2 000 000 plays total on four songs.
Nuno Pereira does a great job making the vocals sound like a post-hardcore version of Drowning Pools former (now dead – god bless him) vocalist Dave Williams. Which does the trick with getting you into the music. The band is easy to like, and even easier to enjoy. making them a perfect way ticket for people that’s new to the genre.

Well, that’s all for tonight kids,
please, be kind and leave a comment!
Links:
Faster Faster : Myspace : LINK
Ashbury : Myspace : LINK
The Hint : Myspace : LINK
FireWorks : Myspace : LINK
Hands : Myspace : LINK
The Wonder Years : Myspace : LINK
Oh, The Story : Myspace : LINK
Crash Kings : Myspace : LINK
Streetlight Manifesto : Official Site : LINK
The Number Twelve Looks Like You : Myspace : LINK
A Wilhelm Scream : Myspace : LINK