Driven Far Off

The latest on the indie, alternative, and rock music scene including news, music, contest, interviews, and more. Best described as your favorite place to find new bands.

New Atlantic – The Streets, The Sound, and The Love

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New Atlantic

Artist: New Atlantic
Album: The Streets, The Sound, and The Love
Label: Interpunk
Release Date: April 10, 2007

Overall: 8.0
Music: 8.0
Lyrics: 9.0
Production: 7.0

Here’s a band that has done nearly constant touring since they have banded together few years back. All the while they were unsigned, and still managed to get the deserved recognition of most signed indie bands. Managed by The Starting Line’s  guitarist Matthew Watts, they have also managed to share the stage on tour with bands such as The Starting Line and Cartel. Now they have released this album on Eyeball Records, which is their first album released on a record label.

This cd starts off with “Cold-Hearted Town”, which is one of my favorites.  It starts off with an upbeat/rock-like tempo with soaring guitars and smooth perfect on pitch vocals that just layered over the guitars and rhythm to the song. The next song “Wire And Stone” I am quite sure is their single or most popular song, is another great pop rock song, which will most likely be some kind of a hit among the band’s listeners. For most fans of Cartel you can notices that Will Pugh from Cartel sings the backup vocals in the chorus.  There are other great rock songs like “Now That You’re Gone” and “I Won’t Be Back”, and there are some  more slower emotional songs like “What It’s Like To Feel Small” and “Safer Times”. The title track ends the album with gathered atmosphereic vocals with a bridge chanting ‘Give it up’, which makes for a great closing track.  From what I can tell there is only one older track, “Late Night Television”.

My favorite things about the album are mainly the vocals, catchy melodies, and pretty much the entire style of music the band puts together. The only complaint I have about it is really production quality, which is easily overlooked due how great the music is. New Atlantic maybe an old band to some and new to others right now, but before much longer this band is going to blow up.  If you have never listened to them, this album is the perfect chance to jump on the bandwagon and check out a new amazing band before they get big. This is a great album and I am very impressed with what they have done.

Stand Out Tracks
“Now That You’re Gone”, “Wire And Stone”, “Cold-Hearted Town”, “I Won’t Be Back”

Tracklisting
1. Cold-Hearted Town
2. Wire And Stone
3. Now That You’re Gone
4. You Get Me
5. What It Feels Like To Be Small
6. I Won’t Be Back
7. So If You Try
8. Safer Times
9. Late Night Television
10. The Ever After
11. The Streets, The Sound, and The Love

Article #19 – Internet Radio [May Be Dead]

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Internet radio is this sleeping giant of sorts. Most people have at one time listened on the internet to a radio stream, and some make it a daily habit to tune in online. While having millions and millions of listeners, internet radio still has an underground feel it. That may be partly because that there are a lot of independently run “start ups”. When The United States Copyright Royalty Board proposed a rate increase in the royalties payable to performers of recorded works broadcast on the internet it caused a grassroots movement of sorts to stop the seemingly greedy injustice.

The new ruling which would bill based on the number of people listening rather than a potion of the profits. So what does that mean? Very simply it means the more people that tune in the more you pay. Does that make these new fees a popularity tax?
There is a great breakdown on Saveourinternetradio.com/about, to show how this could hurt the small broadcasters. If a station has 1000 listens (which is not much) the royalties for the station would come out to $134,000 for the current year along with having to pay for the previous year on top of that. How is an independent station supposed to make what would essentially be $11 a person (if we use the $134,000 figure).

An interesting point in all this is that major radio such as clear channel (eww), and NPR, is just as upset with these new fees as the person that runs an online station from their house. NPR, along with others, works on a non-profit base and thus does not push advertising heavy, if at all. Little or no advertising is one of the things that attract many people to the online streams.

Unfortunately there may not be much that we can do to change the increased fees and thus can’t save many of the online stations that will shut down because of funding. There are still many sites out there trying to make a difference and so we do encourage those who feel obligated to do so.

http://saveourinternetradio.com

http://savenetradio.org

http://www.petitiononline.com/SIR2007r/petition.html

Sherwood – A Different Light

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Sherwood

Artist: Sherwood
Album: A Different Light
Label: Myspace Records
Purchase: Flipside Industries
Release Date: March 13, 2007

Overall: 9.0
Music: 9.0
Lyrics: 9.0
Production: 9.0

Sherwood is a band that simply made a huge music career lately with the online music scene. This album is going to take them from online listeners to a whole new audience. All the songs are just pop-gems dying to be ate up by the mainsteam radio crowd. It’s been a while since I have listened to such a full sounded pop cd such as this. I am very impressed with the album production. Everything is so clean and the guitars are very crisp with the distortion and clean levels. Not to mention the pounding kick drum and bass that drives the rhythm for all the songs. One of the things I love most about Sherwood’s music is the style and feel. They are a pop band that gives off a very happy vibe, unlike most of the depressing emotional pop songs of bands popular in this indie internet scene.

The album kicks off with their single “Song In My Head”, which starts off as a slow song but kick in with the keys and turns into an upbeat pop rock song. The next few tracks have the similar style, which are upbeat and filled with catchy melodic choruses. Then there is “Home”, which slows it down with a hard punching emotional chorus. Then the cd changes up with songs like “Alley Cat” with a lot of key-created drumbeats and soft vocals. For those of you who are familiar with the bands “Summer EP” released on Absolutepunk.net last summer, you will notice three songs from it like “Middle Of The Night”, “The Only Song”, and the softer closing album track “I’m Asking Her To Stay”.

Overall this band has really manage to impress me more than I thought they could. If you are into classic pop rock songs this is definitely the album for you. Even if you aren’t still give it a try, because it just might convert you to a new style of music. This is definitely going down for my nominations of Top Ten albums of the year. Sherwood is a fun rock band that will not only inspire future bands of this genre, but also change the face of indie music all together.

Standout Tracks
“For The Longest Time”, “Middle Of The Night”, “Song In My Head”, “The Only Song”

Tracklisting
1. Song In My Head
2. The Best In Me
3. Middle Of The Night
4. For The Longest Time
5. Home
6. Alley Cat
7. Give Up!
8. Never Ready To Leave
9. The Only Song
10. Alive
11. The Simple Life
12. A Different Light
13. I’m Asking Her To Stay