Here’s another update in regards to Unsigned Underground. I’ve been getting sporadic queries from artists wanting reviews and net-play and I want to say that we will be back soon with an updated format. I’m still looking into exactly what that format will be.

In the meantime I will be re-broadcasting past episodes via Twitter. Follow me at www.twitter.com/darrygregory

Stay Tuned!

~Darryl

I will not be accepting any new CD submissions at this time and I will be instituting a new submission policy.

So stay tuned for new shows in the coming weeks.

~DG

When I got the new WATTS CD in the mail for inclusion on Unsigned Underground, I was immediately drawn to the cover. It made me think of an old album cover from the ‘70’s. I loved the “Rock-n-Roll Poses” that the musicians were taking. I loved the simplicity. I had a pile of CDs to look through… I opened this one first.

From the get-go, Watts hits you with a wall of guitars and a driving bass-guitar/drum combo that locks in a gets yer ass up and movin’; apropos of the name Watts – taken from the surname of Charlie the rock-steady drummer from the Stones. I hesitate to refer to this as a retro-sound because it definitely has a modern feel to it, but you can sense a lineage that runs back through the NY Dolls, The Stooges, Ramones, Bram Tchaikovsky, and The Clash. The CD is expertly recorded and mixed by band member Dan Kopko and delivers a big sound with minimal time in between tracks which gives the CD a nice feeling of continuity.

I dug all of the tunes on this CD but two stand out as songs that speak to the style and to the age in which we live; an age where kids grab on to a styles from the past and call it their own without really knowing anything about it. Watts tries to set the record straight.

Catastrophe is a song that takes a power chord riff look at a shattered relationship. Starting out with a single guitar playing a Ramones-like half-step slide, the rest of the band tumbles in like friends at barroom brawl.

This is my catastrophe
Welcome to it
I took a chance but I guess I blew it

The other song that caught my ear is Start a Riot. This is definitely an anthem to true rockers out there that know the difference between punk and Avril. John Lynch’s drums beat out a cannibal call as John Blount and Dan Kopko duel it out on guitars.

It’s all been done before
The record’s broke
And I’m so bored
The kids don’t even know
They call it punk – a fuckin’ joke

When did the self-destruction
Turn into mass-production

This CD is definitely worth every penny – buy it, download it, listen to it and then go see Watts live. If I had a star rating system I’d give these boys a gold one. Cheers!

~ Darryl

Title: Down This Road
Artist: Dahlia Wakefield
Release date: 2007, Squirrelly Girl Music
Available from: CDBaby.com
Artist website: www.dahliawakefield.com

With a sexy-smokey voice and an aggressive delivery that says you’re-gonna-love-me-now, Dahlia Wakefield puts the hammer down on nine original tracks of country rock on her new release “Down This Road”. Dahlia also does a sweet cover of “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, that old Nik Kershaw single from the 1980’s.

The CD dances on that thin line between rock and country, but in my opinion owes more to rock than C&W. Jim Stoeber as producer/engineer plays one man band and delivers a cohesive sounding album of power guitars, and rock steady drums and bass. The synth-programming adds just the right touches to really well orchestrated arrangements that just scream radio-friendly. Dahlia pens heartfelt lyrics and her imagery is vivid and tangible.

For good or bad, one might compare Dahlia Wakefield to Gretchen Wilson just because on first glance they resemble one another and there is a bit of similarity in their vocal delivery. But the comparison stops there because Dahlia definitely rocks the house and is not as country as Wilson has been forced to be. Let’s hope that Dahlia’s music breaks out and all comparisons fall by the way.

Title: Surprise Party
Artist: Bob Burger
Release date: 2007, Big Brave Music
Available from: CDBaby.com
Artist website: www.bobburger.com

It was a privilege to receive this CD in the mail. Rare that I say that these days, but true about Jersey-boy Bob Burger’s new CD entitled “Surprise Party” which turns out to be a real rockin’ disc. From the get-go it’s a cool album that did not make me think of any bands around today (thank goodness). In fact I immediately thought of Bram Tchaikovsky, the mercurial artist of the late seventies who penned “The Girl of My Dreams”, just because of the feel of the songs: great melodies played over intense rock grooves and bass lines, soaring/biting guitar licks and well placed solos.

Nothing more, nothing less and everything where it should be, Bob Burger knows how to write a rock song. With writing creds for the likes of Styx and Donnie Iris, Burger knows how to please. It has been a long time since I enjoyed listening to an album in its entirety. There’s usually a clunker in the mix, but not so here and after the third listen I found myself singing along to a few of the tracks. If I were to pick a track for a favorite it would be “Opposite Reaction”. The verses flow nicely into the choruses and there are great musical platforms that evolve out of the orchestrations allowing the song to eddy and flow and build to very satisfying climaxes. This track also has that late seventies, underground FM sound that made me think of listening to WMMS back in Cleveland when I was a kid.

The CD features renowned players including Jimmy Leahey (John Waite), PK Lavengood (John Eddie), Bobby Bandiera (Bon Jovi, Asbury Jukes, Bruce Springsteen), Joe Bellia (Asbury Jukes), Jerry Gaskill (King’s X), Rob Tanico (Highway 9) and Plink Giglio (Glen Burtnik) just to name a few. Burger also recorded and mixed the CD along with Plink Giglio so we know this is the way he wants it to sound. Surprise Party is in my collection and on my iPod. I’m definitely getting on the mailing list to hear about this guy’s success!

Title: From the Ground Up
Artist: Cory Mervin Coons
Release date: 2004
Available from: Bent Music, and Cory’s website
Artist website: www.corymervincoons.com

OK, what is in the water up there in Canada that makes guys voices sit up in the soprano range? Let’s just recap: there’s Neil Young’s strained falsetto and of course Geddy Lee’s castrasti-like rock-opera warbling and then there’s Anne Murray, oh wait she’s a chic right?

But seriously, in listening to Cory Mervin Coons’ 2004 release, From the Ground Up, you do get the sense that he is one more voice in a long line of male singers that have the ability to cut through the power chords of a hard drivin’ rock band. I must say that when I first played the CD it took me a while to stop comparing him to Bon Jovi. The band that Coons employs rocks hard in an Austin, Texas, alt. country style and leaves no doubt that guitar is king. Guitarist Michael Kelly lays down some very sweet slide riffs and Bryan Deruchie and Francis Thibodeau lock in the groove.

Besides the straight ahead rockers, Coons throws in some nice melodic ballads that are high on sentimentality and straight out of the Hallmark rack. I feel that Cory should move on down to Nashville and start writing for Shania when I listen to songs like Unanswered and Love Don’t Come Easy. Now a reader could take that as a slam or a compliment depending on what side of the aisle they sit on, but what I intend to say is that the afore mentioned songs are very mainstream and would fit well with today’s AAA radio country singers.

This CD is definitely worth a listening to if you lean towards the sounds of Neil Young, Bon Jovi, John Cougar Mellancamp, etc… I’m definitely looking forward to a new CD from the CMC Band.

Title: Rockwood Music Hall
Artist: Andy Fitzpatrick
Label: Little Old Lady Records (indie)
Release date: Spring 2006
Available from: CDBaby, CCNow.com
Website: www.andyfitzpatrick.com

I found out about Andy Fitzpatrick through a friend. He’d been raving about this Irish guy who plays piano down on the lower eastside of Manhattan and telling me I need to go hear him. Well my time in NYC is past and I live in the ‘burbs now, but ironically, now that I’m out of the City I can now say that I’ve heard Andy play in a lower eastside club. Andy’s second CD, entitled Rockwood Music Hall, is a live album recorded over three nights at the Allen Street venue of the same name. The recording is superb with a nice balanced sound that doesn’t accentuate any one instrument like some live recordings and the disk really takes you into the club, sits you at a table and even offers you a drink.

To describe Andy’s sound is to look back at a hundred years of smokey bar piano players and their songs of lost souls and city-life salvation. From the first rolling chords of the opening song Fifth Avenue, we’re welcomed into a world of relationships and quick glimpses into an urban loneliness. Andy sings with a furtive out of breath quiver and has a simple vertical piano style. On this CD Andy is competently backed up by bassist Rob Sullivan and drummer Douglas Anderson who add jazz touches to Andy’s lounge style songs.

Besides the originals that Andy plays, he also throws in two Noël Coward tunes and a tip of the hat to an old ‘70s fave “Feelings”. But it’s the originals that are really the focus. Fifth Avenue a sad melodic story about what seems to be a homeless woman ranting on a street corner. The Sun is Down a song about not being able to go back home or even go back in time to revisit what we think we miss. You Care More For Your Hairbrush is a beer barrel song delivered with all the down and dirty gutter melodies of a Kurt Weill or Tom Waits song.

If I had a complaint about this collection of songs it would be that they are almost too simple. The piano arrangements are very four square with only an occasional blue note. But, it’s the whole package we’re looking at and the musical simplicity allows the poetry to be revealed and the songs to open up to possibilities.

~Darryl

I got a CD in the mail a while ago that I normally would not have given a second thought to. Because I try to be conscientious about these things, I threw it in the CD player and was pleasantly surprised. Note to self: don’t be so judgmental.

The CD in question is “Wave”, synthesist/composer Aaron Acosta’s second CD of “electro-acoustic / ambient” music. Although the disk starts out sounding like a dance mix with a looped techno-beat, Aaron deftly moves between musical flavors and offers a well thought out CD of tone painted soundscapes. Aaron uses a nice array of world influenced sounds like the bonang from Indonesia, tanpura from India and Rai influenced singing. These sounds are not used to beat the listener over the head and say – See what I know about ethnomusicology – but instead they are used to sweeten and spice up the arrangements.

It is interesting to point out that Aaron is a sound designer for the theater and for film. This in some ways is good, but in terms of what some of the pieces want to be, it may be a detraction because after the mood is set, we tend to stay in the mood for a very long time. On a few of the pieces I found myself wanting more variety, more surprise, more use of the automation that a modern composer can use to make the tracks seem not so static. I guess that if I were out on the dance floor listening and moving to this music it wouldn’t be an issue, but in listening to them as wholly contained pieces (concert pieces) they seemed a bit predictable.

With all that said I still feel that there is a lot of good stuff on this disk and Aaron does know how to create a mood and a soundscape with his instruments. So if you’re into the sounds of composers BT and Jan Hammer, check this disk out.

~Darryl
Unsigned Underground

Malcolm Holcombe’s latest CD “I Never Heard You Knockin’” is like a charcoal drawing of emotional landscapes executed by a well picked guitar and a voice that is a combination of John Hiatt and Greg Brown with lyrics that have that twang of country loneliness. When you check out Malcolm’s website you’ll see that he’s a pretty accomplished songwriter and has played alongside some of the great names in the biz like Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, just to name a few. You can certainly hear the various influences in Malcolm music, but there is definitely a flavor there that is all his own.

This is a disk of just a man and his guitar, no extra hoo-ha to muddy up the waters. This is a song cycle that tells of a man who is at a certain point in his life doing what he needs to do because that’s what he does.

old friends grow old and hard / like mangy barkin’ dogs / old friends know who you are / not who you’re thinkin’ of

I love hearing honest songs and voices that spell out an honesty that doesn’t come via some contest or the popular vote from cell phones. Each song on this disk rasps away at the veneer of unreality that we like to think of as our lives and lets us in on what really is.

who’s gonna love me when I’m old / cook my supper an’ sweep the floor / I’m a one of a kind a jealous soul / spoiled rotten ready for more

There’s nothing that I can say that will get you ready for Malcolm’s voice. It is that rasp that I spoke of and it is the tool that will open your soul. This CD is definitely worth the price you will pay. Highly recommended.
~Darryl
Unsigned Underground

I’m so sick of all these things/I keep so close to me/you’d think that they were my very breath/and I’m not sure you’d like to see/the man inside the real me/and I’m so scared that I really don’t deserve it

The CD has a very sweet groove to it and is well arranged and produced by Rick Brantley and the tracks are well played by a slew of fine session musicians. Jonah has a modern-sounding singing voice that you could easily hear leading one of those pseudo-punk bands that VH-1 plays ad nausea, but he tempers it with very well thought out melodies and band arrangements that complement the lyrical content. This is an excellent first effort and I definitely look forward to hearing what comes next as Jonah matures as a songwriter and musician. You can visit Jonah’s website for more info or get the CD at CDBaby.com

It’s nice to hear an unlooked for instrument every now and then and you can hear some fine udu drum playing from Josh Seurkamp and also an instrument called a didjibodhran which I had to research and was lead to a great site on clay instruments, thanks!

~Darryl
Unsigned Underground Music Reviews