Jazz and classical styles travel through a different dimension when Axon-Neuron gets ahold of them. Formed in Akron just last year, the band has changed up its lineup to create a “version 2.0” consisting of five members who create complex cabaret tunes with a rock edge. The band's latest release, “Dreamstate,” contains nine spaced-out tracks accented by jazz forms of the 19th century mixed with futuristic keyboards and swelling guitars. The production quality of “Dreamstate” is crisp and precise, and every little musical inkling can be heard crystal clear in the release. From Sa...
Hailing from upstate New York, the foursome that comprises Take One Car makes music that spans across the states like invisible aural wires that wrap around whomever it comes in contact with. The band's 2012 release, “It's Going to be a Nice Day,” is a collection of ambient rock tracks that fuse a myriad of musical elements together. The result is sonic magic, and with some tracks rounding seven minutes in length, it seems as though they could ring on forever. The album's title track kicks off the 12-song release, and with its instrumental stylings, it creates the perfect soundscape for...
Torchlight Parades emerged out of Akron in 2008 as a two-man musical side project, but as the group expanded and the songwriting progressed, a full-fledged experimental rock band was born. This year, the group released its debut album, “Catatonia,” a sometimes dark, melodic sonic voyage through life and death. The disc's opening track, “We're Here and There” is an instrumental piece that follows a soft to loud formula that ascends to crashing noise and harmonies. It is followed by “Birth Trauma,” this time introducing skilled vocals and illustrative songwriting by Darron Ball an...
THE INDY-BASED BAND ON TOUR NOW! HERO JR. OFFERS FANS A FREE MP3 OF THEIR TRACK "NAKED" CHECK OUT HERO JR.'S NEW "NAKED" VIDEO! Remember when rock'n'roll seemed to have it all? Passion, power, chemistry… and timeless songs that people could relate to? Hero Jr. does. And their forthcoming full-length debut Backup Plan is the perfect document to prove it. FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD & POST HERO JR.'S NEW TRACK "NAKED" http://soundcloud.com/pavement-pr/hero-jr-naked HERO JR. TOUR DATES Oct. 19 Cafe Bourbon St. - Columbus, OH (w/ The Hawkeyes) Oct 20 OSU House Party - Columbus, OH...
Troubadour Blues is a journey into the world of well-traveled singer-songwriters like Peter Case, Mary Gauthier, Chris Smither, Dave Alvin, Slaid Cleaves and many more. Filmmaker Tom Weber spent nearly 10 years gathering material for this feature-length documentary, which provides a revealing look at the heartbreaks and joys of these modern-day wandering minstrels. The 95-minute film premiered Oct. 14, 2011, at the Buffalo International Film Festival. It features live performances of 40 songs by the artists who wrote them, including Case's "Icewater" and "Entella Hotel," Gauthier's "Drag Qu...
Kristen Ford is a storyteller. A few parts Kimya Dawson mixed with Tracy Chapman, Ford's poetic lyrics take the listener on a ride like sonic pages of an epic biography. An Ohio native, Ford has traveled around the country making herself at home in six different states, and through her travels she has gathered suitcases full of personal stories and experiences to translate into songs. Her latest EP, “Air Pl4ne,” highlights these themes of a jet-set lifestyle with folksy musicality and sweet, sometimes somber and sincerely imperfect vocals. Ford's acoustic guitar playing is skilled, and ...
Vacuum cleaners, five gallons of water running down a drain, stomping on steps, things being dropped, sweetly blown saxes, screeching six-strings, bopping bass and crashing cymbals. This is Mints, and Mints makes music. Coincidentally enough, that also happens to be the title of the six-piece's debut record, “Make Music.” The group describes its free-form project as a “hypnotic, discordant, progressive instrumental rock outfit.” Despite being a mouthful, it is really the only accurate way to describe Mints’ aural anarchy, the controlled cacophony of composition. The group came ...
It was only moments into his set before he said it. He told the full house at Peabody’s on Sept. 15 something they already knew, and they loved him for it: “Bitch, I’m from Cleveland.” It’s only four words, but for King Chip, formerly known as Chip Tha Ripper, and his loyal horde of hometown fans, it’s a verbal pound on the chest and a declaration of hometown pride. And now this battle cry is being heard all over the country, because Chip (real name: Charles Worth) has been crowned. After a run of seven mixtapes that began in 2007 and culminated with the well-received “Tell Y...
Very few musicians can claim they've influenced the genre their music belongs to. Even fewer can claim their music altered said genre within the short time frame of a few albums. Pop music had Michael Jackson, hip-hop had Dr. Dre — for grindcore it's Pig Destroyer. As many grind fans will tell you, Pig Destroyer may not have started the grind movement but they certainly made it into what it is today — fast, brutal and scary. Reasons like these are why a band like Pig Destroyer can wait five years to release an album and still have fans chomping at the bit. Pig Destroyer's long-awaited f...
Where Are You Houston is that special kind of post-punk that blends heart-tugging melodies and distorted guitars to embody a certain component of youth we can all remember and identify with. The six-man ensemble from Canton released its latest full-length album, “Prophecies & Poetry,” Sept. 28, and the disc is full of well-composed anthems for the disaffected. The 14-track release begins with a spacey vocal introduction that goes “On & On & On...” as the title suggests. It glides nicely into “Wake The Dead,” a fittingly haunting song accented by ironically cheery key...
Song naming can be hard. “Pizza Farts,” “Succulent Sexy Sauce” and “Waffle Fries (For Free)” are just a few of the titles found on Akron instrumental-jazz/rock Mints’ debut LP "Make Music." But titles don’t have to matter much when you take six university-trained musicians – JCK (guitar), Egan Ammerman (keyboards), Kevin Klemm (drums), Taylor McIntos (alto sax), Matt Riley (tenor sax) and Tiernan King (bass) – with a penchant for unique, sophisticated compositions and hit ‘record.’ The six tracks that comprise this LP, which clocks in at under 30 minutes making...
Staring at the cover art for Gradient Prophet’s debut album – a minimalist, iPod ad-like illustration of a comfy-looking lounge/living room – makes me wish I had a cleaner apartment. Thankfully, the 15 tracks inside "Living Spaces" help make that task a little easier. Dressed in the downtempo grooves of Nujabes and loose song structure of jazz, this kind of music is typically reserved for the backgrounds of parties, deep thinking and, well, cleaning one’s apartment. But the intoxicating and varied instrumentation of Cleveland musician Alex Schrock, aka Gradient Prophet, pushes its...
Grunge never really died. Sure, it went through some transitions like getting hijacked by commercial radio, which forced Nickelback down our throats. But grunge done right has always had a home with mainstream and indie audiences alike. Cleveland quartet Eclectic Mayhem’s new self-titled album is assurance that the genre made famous by Kurt Cobain is alive and well. Singer/drummer Pat Conley even sounds a little like Kurt with his gruff, beaten down voice. His vocals soars across instrumentation by brother Dan Cooley (guitar), Nate Dreher (bass) and Jonathan Khouri (keys, guitar). ...
A sparsely attended Beachland Tavern was not going to slow down Chicago’s premier electro-rockers Gemini Club. Hot off the heels of the trio’s second EP, "Here We Sit," Gemini Club – Tom Gavin (lead vocals, guitar), Gordon Bramli (synth) and Daniel Brunelle (synth) – made Cleveland its last stop on a long U.S. tour. Though Gemini Club is a hybrid that only could have come out of the 2010s with its mix of dance beats and retro synths, its energetic live show felt more like a rock band thanks to a live drummer Gemini Club brings on tours. Kicking off the set was “Candles,” a...
Instead of Sleeping, a four-piece indie rock ensemble from Pittsburgh, have established themselves as a true band to watch in the last few years. Touring with the likes of Fuel, fun. and Hawthorne Heights, their star is certainly on the map, and it is undoubtedly rising with each new release. “The Reds, The Blacks, The Grays,” the band's latest five-song release, is an atmospheric jewel with those clean pop-punk-inspired vocals and melodic, jangling guitars. The opening track, “Indian Giver,” begins with a sparse and unassuming acoustic guitar which leads in to a booming entrance fr...
Ohio native Scott Paris dishes up a the first of a four-part EP series, “COLLISIONS (Part One),” a mesh of the artist's own raw musicality and a little help from those he admires. Paris calls the disc “collisions of influence, ego, charm and inspiration,” all stemming from his own songwriting and those artists he invited to play what they feel. The EP's third track starts off as a bluesy number with raspy vocals that sound both booze-soaked and weathered. “The Astral Projector” is a little Johnny Cash mixed with some Mark Lanegan – a mix of old and new influences that shine th...
One-man band Chris Hatton delivers a whirlwind of sounds on “The Beard Album:” crunchy guitar riffs, grooving bass lines, subtle acoustic guitar, tight drums and even saxophone. But throw out all connotations you have with these descriptions. “The Beard Album,” Hatton’s fourth release, is a rock record delivered with soul and attitude that results in a refreshing, well-paced collection of songs. No other track delivers on this promise better than opener “Electrical Child.” Here Hatton unleashes a wall of heavy 70s classic rock guitars that quickly slide into a funky verse. Pe...
Five years after their first EP "Porch Full of Pirates," Akron veterans Freez-R-Burn return with this summer’s "Abandon Groove" EP. Here another six songs of twangy guitars, four-part vocal harmonies and catchy hooks dress up tracks like the blues-meets-jazz “Come On Over” and Beatles classic “Eleanor Rigby,” which this five-piece plays with an updated indie rock edge. But don’t call Jimmy Thomas (vocals, percussion), Paul McCoy (bass, vocals), Kevin Pahlau (drums), Kevin Thomas (vocals) and Brian Thomas (guitar, vocals) a cover band. Though a general Beatles influence looms t...
"I was frustrated by Miami. It's a DJ town. They'd rather pay a guy to sit behind his iMac than have a musician. It's frustrating," says Diablo Dimes, a man who yearns for the days when the blues made an impact because, he says, "nowadays, nobody gives a shit." Any man who lives as a myth is hard to pin down. Dimes is no different. He's asked that his real name not be disclosed in this article, and it won't be. He wants to remain mysterious, but where exactly does a man like Diablo Dimes come from? The crushed bones of jazz legends of the past, reanimated by some voodoo doctor? Perhaps. Dim...
If you're a live-music fan living in the Akron or Cleveland areas then you've probably experienced the high-energy Zydeco romp that is Mo' Mojo. The band's garnered a reputation for good ole' jam-band, Cajun-inspired fun. Unfortunately with many jam bands – yes, I would consider Mo' Mojo a jam band – something is lost in translation from live performance to recording studio. Even The Grateful Dead felt limited when restricted to the four walls of a sound booth. The spontaneity suffers. Mo' Mojo, however, doesn't fall victim to the confinement of the studio. The band's latest album, "Tog...
