Music review - The Last Dinosaur

Hailing from the metropolis of Newark, Delaware, The Last Dinosaur is a band ready to take on conventional alt/pop with some new sensibilities and true angsty rock songs.

Their latest EP, Tales, is a melodic blend of guitar and vocal driven post-rock. The team puts together a nice blend of off-kilter beats with pleasantly repetitive guitar hooks and vocals that range from melodic to passionately raised yelling. To be clear, this is NOT screamo. They do yell, but without resulting in screeching or growling.

Tales kicks off with with the upbeat and (dare I say) dancy "Fractions". This immediately sets a mood for the rest of the EP and gets you in the mood to move with the music. The title-track is more introspective and is perfectly placed in the middle of the album, and is quickly followed by "Sway" which is bit more experimental than other tracks with a heavy keyboard riff flowing throughout the song. "Sway" is a bit of a departure, but you will be sucked right back in by the high energy closer "Loughton".

Each song is well written, well balanced, and well produced. I can see The Last Dinosaur becoming much bigger than their hometown in the near future, if some wicked smart record company will scoop them up quickly enough.

Where to hear them:

• Tales is available for free download at Mediafire


• MySpace


• YouTube

RIYL: Athletics, Head Automatica, Rival Schools

Music Review - The Fairweathers

The Fairweathers are a 3 piece alt/pop outfit based in the small town of Caledonia in Ontario. Their self-titled EP will be coming out shortly, and I gave the songs a listen after hearing about them on reddit

The music offered up by The Fairweathers is a blend of upbeat pop with other influences that seem to change from song to song. For example, "Give My Love to Her" has a clear country twang, whereas "Just Jenny" is an attempt at something more punkish.

Each member seems to be pretty good at playing their instruments: a capable drummer who keeps the beat, a bass player who ably follows the guitar line, a guitarist who plays chords rythymically in line with the song, and vocals that are clear and concise. But there is something lacking here. It seems almost that the songs are too poppy, too simple. Listening through each song I realized I would forget almost as soon as I heard it. Each song, while wholly different, blends into the next and by the time you are through listening to all four tunes, you're ready to hear something else.

The tunes are likable, but the feeling that these tunes belong in commercials and not on my headphones can't be escaped.

Where to hear them:

• Sound Cloud


• The Fairweathers website

RIYL: Jonathan Richman, Sledding With Tigers, The Goo Goo Dolls (Superstar Carwash and later)

Music Review - Ember Wreath

Ambient music is by far a hard place to nail things down and critique. I must admit, though, my first problem with Ember Wreath's latest release, Ember Wreath II, wasn't the difficult concepts of the constructs of the music, but the use of a line from that ridiculously predictable television show, Lost. I watched that show for a good 10 episodes, gave it a chance, and never looked at it again. This album is likely to go the same way.

Ambient music, for those unaccustomed to it, is not just a bunch of sounds mashed together with a Jackson Pollack like randomness. Their is a purpose to it, and Ember Wreath definitely shows direction and some semblance of idea. The problem, other than gratuitous use of crappy television quotes, is in the production value. There is a definite hiss on most tracks which, to me, indicates use of less than quality equipment or a lack of knowledge on ow to edit those sorts of sounds out in production.

If there is a saving grace here, it is the track "sleeping with the lights on". On this track the cacophony overrides the hissing (or masks it really) so that a listener can enjoy the music and not think, "Is this recorded on my dad's old TASCAM?". There are also some nice parts of "prodigal" but over excessive tubular sounds demerit the darkness of the other instrumentation.

Where to hear Ember Wreath:

• BandCamp


• Last.fm

RIYL: Mogwai, Ghosts by NIN, Godspeed You! Black Emperor