Trevor Bivens

So a month or two ago, Bryce tells me about this band called Kenotia . Well, due to my obscenely slow internet connection, I had yet to check them out. While lurking at The Masquerade in Atlanta last night, I happened to catch the last four songs by this Marietta, Georgia five piece(it was their new drummer’s second show, I believe.) I was blown away by how good they were. The first thing that automatically caught my ears was their singer Carly’s stellar voice. She sounds better live than a certain Fueled By Ramen band’s front-lady and everyone should know this is extremely rare and high praise coming from me. A double dose of Ryans brought on intricate guitar parts and their rhythm section rounded things out nicely. They have various demos up on their myspace and purevolume pages, so I’m now anxiously awaiting a proper release.

Myspace – Purevolume

Julie Watanabe

November marks the dawning before the dead season of December drought. What this means is that the notable releases will be few and far between throughout the month until December rears its head and NOTHING will be worth spending your Christmas money on. There will be attempts to cling to the paltry threads of November releases for recommendations, I suspect +44 (11/14), Brand New (11/21), and Incubus (11/28) for the die-hards, but don’t expect to hear so from me unless The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me tears a black hole in time and space. Since I don’t see that happening soon let me introduce California’s Ultraviolet. Fronted by the one-woman riot Sarah Hudson, Ultravoilet is Sarah and three of the hottest eletronic-centric musicians to hit the avant garde dance scene in 2006. The band’s latest EP Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control is four songs of heavy-hitting synth jams and grungy electro that remind me of the four-track days. Sarah’s voice is naturally high, which normally would annoy me, but in this case fits quite flawlessly with the dark, twisting milisecond pulses and artifical sound of the music. The lyrics are timely in a “in-your-face-punk” kind of manner and will surely hit a sweet spot with people who like songs written about the enamour of music. If you enjoy the plastic dancebeats of bands like Shiny Toy Guns and A Kiss Could Be Deadly catch yourself some Ultraviolet.

MySpace

Bryce Jacobson

The band I’m going to recommend is one that you probably already know you’re going to listen to or you just might pass. If you were a fan of Blink 182 then you’re going to want to at least take a listen to Mark & Travis’s new band Plus 44. I have to say that I didn’t anticipate this album as much as Angels & Airwaves but for the most part When Your Heart Stops Beating delivers in more ways then one. The album has a closer sound to Blink 182 then Angels & Airwaves but I wouldn’t be happy with this album if it was a new Blink 182 album. Mark’s vocals are the best they have ever been and the guitar and bass ring of Blink on every other note, so whats not to like right? Well let us know who your favorite of the two bands are in our new poll, and if you don’t like either of them, let us know that as well.

MySpace

Reema Desai

Chances are that if you read this site then you allready listen to and love Brand New, but my recommendation for this week is to pull out Deja Entendu again and revisit them for a while. I got to see them play twice yesterday, once acoustically and once full band and I was truly blown away. Aside from loving their sets I was reminded that there is a force behind this band that draws people in like almost no other musician today. I couldn’t tell you why they reach people the way they do; I couldn’t even tell you why they are my favorite band but it is certain that whatever that untouchable force is, they still have it.

Tyler Hayes

Everybody seems to have written a novel for the recommendations this week, well I will keep it short and sweet. If you like even the slightest hip hop feel on songs then please check out Mat Kearney. He has a hip hop, almost rap feel to some songs while others are mellow rock.Ԛ  I don’t typically enjoy any rap, mostly because the content makes you a little bit dumber, but Mat Kearney is different in that way because it’s full of content. Listen to one song and you’ll be hooked. (this is longer than I thought it would be.)