THE BRIGGS - BACK TO HIGHER GROUND published October 25, 2006, The Owl Mag

Sometimes you hear a record and think how perfect it would be as a high school movie soundtrack. This is really one of those albums. The brand of punk rock that The Briggs deliver with Back to Higher Ground is, among other things, peppy. It's clean and simple: all neutral qualities depending on your taste. On the upside is Joey LaRocca's vocals successfully managing to sound mature, not too guttural and aged like so many past-prime punk singers.

Basically, a band like this will remind you of other bands like Rancid and then... make you want to go listen to them again. The sound is appetizing yet in the end unsatisfying, lacking the added power boost that has made other punk bands transcend from genre typical to stylistic. From the surface it appears that everything is there: right tone, right singer, even the classic group-sung choruses and power cords. But something is missing, and if this band finds it they could go far.

THE DECEMBERISTS @ THE WARFIELD October 19, 2006 published in The Owl Mag and Filter Tour Zine

There is something about the people who go to shows at The Warfield that never changes. They are so unchanging, in fact, that you may never be able to tell what band is about to go on by surveying the scene. By the looks of this crowd, it could have been any other run-of-the-mill rock show and not the folk fest that was Lavender Diamond and The Decemberists.

Lavender was the opener for the night. Trying her best to friendly up the crowd, singer Rebecca Stark, in her pastel prom dress, cooed to the attendees in between songs like she ate half a blue dolphin. When she wasn't reminding audience members how beautiful they were and that "we are all Lavender Diamond," her mildly operatic voice just itched to remind you of a sunnier Paula Cole who finally found out where all the cowboys went. This band is just too fuzzy-wuzzy to be indoors. They belonged at Ren Fair, at a protest, anything but a dark club in the filthier part of San Francisco.

The Decemberists were well met with the audience, which is ironic since the opening song was probably their worst. This is a band whose live performance goes from a slow burn to a steady, crackling fire. At their best moments, for example, during "We Both Go Down Together," The Decemberists painted themselves as the archetype of Folk 2006. The sound was rustic, rich and earthy but atypically dark at points. Singer Colin Meloy was absolutely charming in both performance and interaction. His storyteller vocals were reminiscent of early Beatle-era John Lennon and his banter evocative of Eddie Izzard, telling us about how he knows where to get crack in the city in case we would all like some. This is definitely a band worth watching this year.

CHORDS ARE DEAD - THE SIREN EP published October 11, 2006, The Owl Mag

Not to sound like a total philistine, but I usually turn my nose at any band that comes out of Berkeley. It's really hard to take a mush of bands as seriously as they take themselves when they all sound the fucking same. That said, Chords Are Dead are a refreshing shock. The sound is still oh-so-Berkeley, don't worry. But along with that is a poppy energy made respectable with the right amount of grit.

One thing is for sure: the androgynous voice of Amelia Terry is the answer to the prayers of any retired riot grrrl who hasn't been moved by a female vocalist since Kathleen Hanna. However, Chords Are Dead are more the image of Sleater-Kinney than Bikini Kill with their more gentle approach. This is the kind of band I loved as a kid: simple and sleek with just enough edge to make an impression.

COBALT PARTY REVOLUTION - OK CONSUMER published September 26, 2006, The Owl Mag

Trust me. I'm all for the 90's nostalgia and its quotient of cheesiness. Yet there are times where OK Consumer dangerously teeters on the line between playful cheese and embarrassing cheese. There are moments when the upbeat tones, scratching and rapping with a vocal hook makes you think back to old school skateboards, Levi 501's and Airwalks. Then there are others that bring visions of Coca-Cola commercials, The Real World (New York, of course), and dare I say it, biker shorts.

Then there is always the inescapable cheese you encounter when you hear white boys rapping. It just happens. There have been too many bad examples of the white rapper to leave the rest of them untainted. When all these obstacles are overcome or forgotten, OK Consumer can almost be cute in its quirkiness.

SHOTGUN MONDAY - READ, COMPARE, ADJUST published September 20, 2006, The Owl Mag

If first impressions are key, then Read, Compare, Adjust blows the house down. People may agree that one of the most missed bands of the early '00s is At The Drive In and the first song of this album is the spitting image of Vaya, one of ATDI's best albums.

From there is a relief of variances because, hey, there is a difference between utilizing influence and ripping off style. Further listen into the album is like slipping deeper into emo quicksand, complete with '80s synth. Topping off Read, Compare, Adjust is the bizzaro voice of Jon Kelson, who at times will convince you that he is the adopted son of Cedric Bixler and Jello Biafra. That might sound pretty annoying, but somehow it works. The varieties of textures in this album really give the band depth which is a rare commodity in this genre. Shotgun Monday is the needed emo element in any eclectic musical catalog.