Fitting snuggly within a loosely defined set of epic-minded solo troubadours is the solo project of Richard Aufrichtig, The Lost Shores. Constructing narratives from very personal material, tracks like ‘Blue Skies in the Afternoon’ and my fave ‘I’ll Surround You’ from his full-length ‘Green Leaves,’ attach lush but simple folk arrangements under his heartbreaking tenor. A reluctant protagonist, you know Richard’s never going to get everything he wants, but you’ll find yourself rooting for him anyway.

See him on Sundays when he plays at his residency at Pete’s Candy Store this month. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Hold on tight, ’cause it’s about to get loud up in Brooklyn. On Tuesday (8.21), sibling duo Unstoppable Death Machines will be releasing its first full-length album, the (ironically) named ‘We Come In Peace‘, and as it drills through your skull I can already picture it tipping your neighbours over the edge. Mine anyway (perfect!). Now, if amateurs might create hardly more than inaudible cacophony out of such a surge of sonic aggression where punk, metal, gritty industrial and pounding dance beats converge, the Tucci brothers are dexterous and experienced noisesmiths; their loud basslines and smashing drums have brought a unique sound to the city’s messy DIY parties for a couple of years now, and they sure know how to skilfully turn such a cocktail into a terrifically stimulating and abrasive burst of decibels that’ll get you grinding your teeth and banging your head at once.

You can already find a taste of it on their Bandcamp page, but for the full effect, get down to XPO 929 on Saturday (8.18) for the pre-release party, followed next Thursday (8.23) by the official release party at Shea Stadium.

Photo Source: Robin Dupuy

The Absolute Monarchs are hitting the Seattle Center stage this weekend on Friday, August 15th. They, along with Wayfinders, are opening for the seminal band Love Battery.

This four piece released their debut LP this past spring on Good To Die Records; the name of the album is 1. Its hybrid, in-your-face jams carry a lot of punch, driven straight to your gut with fiery shouts and yells.

Consider the opening track "Attack," which lives up to its name, blistering all the way through. Beginning with a twisting and shimmering riff, it quickly shifts into an immensely powerful shouted chorus. This song will knock the dust right off your old speakers.

"Fell in Line" starts off with an off-kilter and chugging guitar line before switching into a head thrashing anthem. The Absolute Monarch’s medley of abrasiveness and catchiness does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Post-punk, noise rock, alternative rock – you could stamp their music with these descriptions and more. What they do ecstatically bring to Seattle’s sonic round table is an infectious sense of melody told through a kaliedoscopic view of loud music.

Catch The Absolute Monarchs at the Mural Ampitheater this Friday the 17th starting at 5:30pm. The Concerts at the Mural series is a great summertime opportunity for fans and musicians to come together for outdoor performances. Admission is completely free! Listen to "Fell In Line" below and then check out their bandcamp to stream all of 1. You can purchase a copy on cd or vinyl courtesy of GTD.

– Cameron LaFlam

The Brixton Riot is the kind of good natured power pop that could only come out of my home state of New Jersey. Like the bands I used to see at Birch Hill back in the day, before it turned into a country club of sorts, Brixton Riot finds the heart in otherwise embarrassing experiences, tying together these experiences into relatable anthems so you don’t have to.

From ‘Hipster Turns 30,’ to ‘Strange Matter,’ singer Jerry Lardieri echoes his awkward journey into adulthood for all to hear. No matter if he prefers to ‘Keep It Like A Secret,’ as their album’s closing track implies with its peaks and valleys reminiscent of some of the Lemonheads’ best work. Check out the quartet’s debut full-length ‘Palace Amusements’ on their Soundcloud page and see them when they play at Maxwell’s (Hoboken, NJ) on August 25th. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Night Creep is the seventh in a series of twelve songs that Brooklyn-based electro-pop band Rarechild began releasing each month via Dimension Arts at the start of 2012. From the first few seconds there’s definitely something creepy about it, that something being an eerie high-pitched synth melody that is just a little off, a little twisted, you’ve entered the haunted house, what next? Well, it all tunnels in, the synth parts get denser, that strange melody still subtly echoes in the back but by that time you’re already so familiar with the track and its big beat that you’re quite possibly dancing to it. Below, the video to Night Creep, directed by Steve Nolan and Eddie Costas; expect strobes, ghostly apparitions, and furry tails hanging out of little black shorts.

Rarechild’s next show will be at the Big Snow Buffalo Lodge on August 28th, with Treasure Teeth & Shad[]wB[]x.

Straight from Brooklyn’s DIY scene, Bad Credit No Credit marches onto the stage in a wave of cheerful provocation, combination of socio/political consciousness and a blatant lack of inhibitions. The groovy brass-based septet is fiercely led by its charismatic singer/sax player Carrie-Anne Murphy, who seemingly can sing but would much rather scream and roar her discontent, telling tales of alienation, misogyny and other delights to the sounds of punk-infused jazz and instrumental freakouts. Which is just fine, as it makes for a most convincing (and entertaining!) performance.

Having raised enough funds to ‘kickstart’ their debut album ‘The Whole Buffalo’, which has been in the making for the last two years and is now about to be released, BCNC left us a little treat for the road, dedicated to their generous donators: a cover of Joe Cocker’s popular take on ‘You’re So Beautiful To Me‘. They will be playing with Ancient Sky, Gross Relations and Turnip King on Friday (8.17) at Brooklyn’s Cameo Gallery.

WaMoo Papez in many ways represents both the old and new schools at once. His use of chopped up elements brings contemporary Brooklyn DJ’s like DJ/rupture into focus, but there’s a stateliness here that reminds me almost of RZA’s ability to pull hypnotic repetition together from minimal sources. And like RZA, Papez is known primarily as the producer behind a group of similarly named emcees: Warrior Monks.

The producer’s hypnotic adventures propel the listener through torrid explorations of hard-hitting bass drops projected under time-stretched vocal and string samples that become something entirely different when heard outside of an emcee’s verse. Papez’ new instrumental full-length ‘We Float’ finds you lost in the middle of some dream woods. ‘Golden Wishes’ and “Little Fish’ especially reach freakout territory; but all is held together by Papez’ knack for perfectly elastic beat flows. A deeply felt cluster of songs, it’s great to hear how well everything comes together in ‘We Float,’ even without an emcee there to lead the track. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Starbolt 9 comes at rock with the enthusiasm of the unrealized sexual fantasies of a million restless teenagers. New York has plenty of rockers cut from the cloth of the Strokes and Interpol; mopey musicians too cynical to truly get lost in their music. Not so with Starbolt. This has all the naive optimism of glam rock in its finest freakishness. Bordering on Broadway anthem on occassion, Starbolt gives an innocent pleasure with the roaring guitar solo of ‘Bottomless,’ and keyboard vamps of ‘Say Yes.’ These are episodes of largess that would make even Michael Hutchence blush. But hey, that’s what makes rock fun.

Check out their latest album ‘Human Strings and Mechanical Things’, excerpts from which are available on their Facebook page, and see them when they play Mercury Lounge on September 2nd – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

(Photo by Steve Gardels)

The Quivers‘ new EP, aptly titled Gots To Have It!, serves up 13 minutes of raucous music that you can dance to, straight up!

Track 1: “Blue Light”
Abe Haddad’s push and pull Stratocaster guitar intro on “Blue Light” is like the turnover of an old dormant Studebaker that has finally been untarped for a summer of hot, late night love runs. Bernie Dugan’s backbeat sets the idle on this Midwestern tavern dance number that also reveals lead vocalist/bassist Terra Peal’s ability to blend her strong, soulful voice—which somewhat resembles Pat Benatar’s—with her patent banshee screams that could have crumbled the former Iron Curtain, had it not been for David Hasselhoff’s embryonic Berlin Wall performance…

Track 2: “He Had It Comin’”
With its reserved country pickin’, hip-poppin’ diner waitress vocals, and county fair carousel keyboards, “He Had It Comin’” will keep your feet movin’ and your hair swishin’ back and forth, even if the lyrics aren’t really appropriate for either. Haddad’s honky-tonk guitar work, Todd Grantham’s playful keyboard licks—all infused with traces of soul—make delightful, each time the refrain comes around so you can sing, “He had it comin’… He had it comin’…”

Track 3: “I Sleep Here”
“I Sleep Here” may musically sound like some kind of mash up of Huey Lewis, Booker T., and Tommy James & the Shondells, but it very much stands on its own as pure Quivers’ canon…and a song that you can’t help but grin ear-to-ear and wiggle to. Grantham sings lead on this ‘upbeat’ ballad, assuring us, “It’s pretty clear. I live alone with bravado, and ignore the phone.” And yes, that is Terra Peal growling out “Lordy, lordy!” in the background, tougher than Billy Idol ever was. That redheaded vixen sounds very much capable of damaging something if provoked.

Track 4: “What Went Wrong”
Peal struts her country vocal sensibilities to the pattering player piano saloon riffs in “What Went Wrong,” a song that will surely leave a dance floor full of boot scuffs and whiskey splatters. When Peal confesses, “I’ve been bad all my life,” it can make for some anxiousness, because her singing lends to many desires in the minds of many. Musically, perhaps the most contemporarily solid track on the EP, The Quivers show off their prowess and versatility, yet again.

Track 5: “Gots To Have It!”
“Gots To Have It!” bursts forth in purely fun, sock hop n’ roll fashion. Heavy snare hits (surely with some drumstick points toward the crowd), jogging keyboard chords, stacked vocals, and a tipsy rockabilly guitar solo that gets all up in your face and absolutely gets it done. This closing number burns a candle in the Church of Eighties Ending Credits Movie Songs … Wait. It didn’t appear at the end of a John Cusack movie? Well, it should have!

The Quivers play rock n’ roll that is sometimes soulful, sometimes rockabilly, sometimes country, sometimes…well—sometimes it’s hard to classify just what they do best! One thing is for certain; they are the perfect entertainers for pretty much any given night. You will smile, and you will quiver, when that band—the one straight from the garage on Sex Appeal St.— thrusts upon you when you – Gots To Have It!

You, too, can be rocked by The Quivers tomorrow night, August 15, at Aftershock for the KC Wednesday Night Jamboree. They’ll be performing with The Cave Girls. They’ll also be playing at Greaserama on Sunday, September 2.

–Christian Anders Liljequist

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Generator Ohm formed now two years ago, as Willie Chen and Ernest D’Amaso finally found in Mike Morales the drummer they’d been searching for to pursue a collaboration that began with Chewing Picks in 2008. Drawing influences from punk, grunge as well as hard rock/heavy metal, they put together a first album ‘Upon The Me Om I’ which, if quite the gripping ride, is neither as heavy nor as invasive as one could expect from a band with a defined taste for restless drums and powerful guitar work. Their sound is on the contrary very open, unclettered, however certain it is that they’d ‘never miss a beat‘, rolling steady through complex arrangements with a fluidity that finds them as committed to the aesthetics of prog-rock as there are to delivering effective rock’n’roll to the NYC crowds. Speaking of which, they’ll be playing a handful of Brooklyn shows before the end of August, the first being this Thursday (8.16) at The Trash Bar’s WilliFest, followed by XPO 929 on the 17th and Bar Matchless on the 31st, avis aux amateurs. – Tracy Mamoun