JDP: The Legend of Good Foot Jones EP
Chicago rapper JDP has teamed together with producer DC to bring us a new mixtape and a new persona. The Legend of Good Foot Jones introduces us to a more soulful side of JDP via 5 new tracks that dropped this past Tuesday, the 2nd of August.
“III” features some delightful piano sampling with JDP’s voice rapping about how super fly he is. It goes straight into a chorus where the lyrics “So you’re a player? How’d you get your game?” is sung immediately followed by JDP spittin “Baby, see my shit is like a fine fixture/I’m fresher than a Catalina Wine Mixer”. From there, I have to say that Vic Spencer‘s appearance doesn’t dazzle at all. It seems misplaced in this track. Thankfully, D2G saves the end of the song flow wise.
The core of JDP and DC are the drive of this EP. Track “II” samples a latin jazz song and slows the tempo down a bit. The intro feels as though you’re listening to a latin party a few rooms over but you can tell it’s a banging party. As Good Foot Jones, JDP gets into how he was born with nothing and had to get everything on his own. The classic latin jazzy music mixes nicely with hip hop beats to give Good Foot a golden path to flow on. It culminates with an outro that jumps on a more Reggae feel.
Basically, the formula for The Legend of Good Foot Jones is to mix soulful, jazzy instrumentals over hip hop beats and allow JDP to sit center stage. The combination works very well and JDP and DC should both be thrilled with there work. There’s a smoothness to the EP that is different from the main stream songs in the genre. JDP acknowledges that this work is different than what you’re accustomed to hearing from him. I still think it’s a success and can’t wait to hear for more.
Rating: 7.3/10
MP3: JDP “II”
Buy: FREE!

Hafdis Huld: Synchronised Swimmers
I think it’s safe to say that when anyone thinks of female vocalists from Iceland the image of Bjork pops into their heads. I know it’s a rather small island but surely she’s not the only female vocalist from there. That’s where Hafdis Huld comes in. Her debut album, 2006′s Dirty Paper Cup, won her the Icelandic Music Award for Best Pop Album in 2007. Last year she released her follow up album Synchronised Swimmers.
The album displays Hafdis’s pleasant voice throughout. She carries herself well, though perhaps she could use some more oomph. The songs on Synchronised Swimmers could well be described as folksy pop: light and delicate guitar strumming, soft drumming, and piano play that doesn’t come close to breaking the strings. This leaves much room at the forefront of the songs.
Huld’s voice takes center stage, but with quiet music in the background, she doesn’t raise her voice past a quieted speaking level. At times she seems to be whispering the lyrics and that’s fine, but you can hear that she has the ability to really come out with some scorching notes. She’s more or less the anti-Adele in that facet. It left me curious to hear what she could really do.
Lyrically, the album is a bit of a mix. Hafdis does well to produce interesting narratives, similar to Cake. Opening track, “Action Man” is an interesting little tale of a crush on a man who is seen only through a window. Without adding any personal details about the man, the song is written in a daydream like fashion about this stranger only known as “Action Man.” He is out about his daily business though from Huld’s point-of-view he is out to save some damsel in distress.
“Oldest Friend” plays out as a person trying to deal with a troubled or ill friend. Huld sings, “Not sure what I’m doing here/but you’re my oldest friend/Things were so much easier in school/This grown up world is tricky/I’m holding out my hand/It’s unwritten/but it’s the rule.” She develops a little world that sucks you in and puts you there in this awkward situation where as adults we have to fight the urge to just accept that we’ve grown apart and try to help someone else keep things together.
Unfortunately, these entertaining, adult-focused songs do get lost amongst other songs that sound almost like they were written for a children’s album. “Kongulo”, which means spider, is a song about the “human spider” Alain Robert who climbs buildings with no safety devices. It seems like an unusual subject for a song but the way Hafdis sings it, I feel like it was written so much about him as a person, but a character. The music gives it this kid’s sing along feel as well.
Again with “Robot Robot”, the whole thing comes off very childish. She sings, “I’m gonna build a robot and I’ll name it after you/I’ve got everything I need using nuts and bolts and just a little bit of glue and some tin foil on his feet.” On it’s own, it’s alright but when these songs are interspersed among the
more adult driven narrative songs, the album feels off kilter.
In the end, Synchronised Swimmers is a good album. It’s teeter-totter feel with the folksy pop songs makes it a little hard to figure out what Hafdis is going for. Still, she sings well, and I think the world is used to Icelandic singers perhaps coming off sounding a little odd. It would be nice to hear her belt out one or two tracks, or hit some kind of crescendo at least for a moment in a song. Hafdis comes off a bit shy and reserved on the album, but that may be the type of music she likes to make.
Rating: 6.1/10
MP3: Hafdis Huld “Oldest Friend”
Buy: Synchronised Swimmers – Hafdis Huld

Stereoflower: It’s Alright, It’s OK, Satellite Commander
Stereoflower is a four piece band from Australia. They list their names as Alexander Peter-Pander, Marko Remarko, Rufus Marmaduke, and Doctor Blythe. I’m willing to guess that these aren’t their real names, but stage names. I wasn’t sure what to expect from their 2010 debut album It’s Alright, It’s OK, Satellite Commander, but I did fear that it would be a bit of a joke. I can honestly admit that I was very wrong.
The opening track “Satellite Transmission” is merely an intro that lasts about 40 seconds. Once the band starts, with the second track “Cocaine Bepop”, you’re introduced to a southern rock feel, weaving acoustic and electric guitars together. The song was quite appealing, even with Alex’s whiny singing. I found it a good song and wondered what else the band had to offer.
“Always On The Run” threw a harmonica into the mix that gave the song a country feel. ore than that, the sound of the music with the whiny lead vocals just shouted The Rolling Stones to me. The mellower tempo of the song, and slight somberness of the song immediately brought to mind The Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” sans the upswing in tempo of that classic song.
The rest of the album follows suit as song after song I couldn’t help but feel I was listening to a modern day version of an Australian Rolling Stones. Lo-fi guitars, distortion on the vocals, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was listening to music recorded back in the 70′s. All the while there was just a groove to the music that worked. In fact, I found it hard to find one song that I considered to be the best as I liked them all.
I recommend It’s Alright, It’s OK, Satellite Commander highly. If it weren’t for the “Satellite Transimission” and “Marko Remarko Arrives at Ruby St.”, two tracks that served as filler and failed to add anything positive to the album, I’d have rated it higher. Still, two slight blips on the radar don’t do anything to diminish the quality of the album. Stereoflower have something good here, let’s hope they can keep it going.
Rating: 7.8/10
MP3: Stereoflower “Always On The Run”
Buy: iTunes

Starry Saints: Serenade
Formed in Portland, Oregon, the trio known as Starry Saints make a lot of noise. Three member bands can sometimes come off seeming quaint, like something is missing. Utilizing electronic keys, drum machines, and guitars, Starry Saints make sure to fill up your time listening to their debut album Serenade. One listen and it’ll be no wonder that Starry Saints opened for The Killers.
The opening track “Angels” is a noise pop extravaganza. Elements of ambiance and electro come together to give the song a dance feel. It’s not overly poppy. It quickly brought to mind comparisons to tracks on Jeniferever‘s Silesia. It’s a little poppy, a little mellow, and a lot of good melody.
The group sound like The Raveonettes on “Go”. Simple guitars, a tamborine, and the garage rock feel of the song seems like something the Danish duo might perform. But again, the heaviness of the instruments all playing together comes along nicely. It seems like there are far more than just three musicians at play.
“Wild Horses” sounds almost like a cover song of a track from the 50′s or 60′s. It has this lovey-dovey feel to it with a laid back style. Take out the acoustic instruments and substitute the electronics of Starry Saints, modernize it a bit with our production techniques of today, and you’ve got yourself a track to groove to.
Overall I found Serenade to be a good album that does little in terms of giving us something new. I usually like this type of sound. Perhaps the fact that there are bands out there that have found a niche in performing electro noise pop, such as The Raveonettes, I was looking for something more. One way to describe Starry Saints based off this album is as a diluted The Killers. I can certainly see the two bands touring together, Starry Saints at this time don’t seem like more than a warmup for the more popular group.
Rating: 4.7/10
MP3: Starry Saints “Hello”
Buy: iTunes

Jeniferever: Silesia
When we last heard from Swedish band Jeniferever, they were releasing 2009′s Spring Tides. Though musically sophisticated, it seemed as one long, melodramatic track rather than an album. It was almost a somber rock opera, in some ways. The foursome return with this past April’s release of Silesia.
Straight from the get-go you can pick up a slight change from their last album to this one. The ambient-rock is still there, but it does start to carry more of a pop undertone.
The self-title opening track “Silesia” has an electro feel to that reminds me of downtempo. The keys and guitars go the way of laid back as opposed to the previously sad and upset feel of Spring Tides. “Waifs & Strays” may be the most cheerful Jeniferever track I’ve ever heard. It continues with the somber aspects I’ve come to know the band for, but it doesn’t sound overly depressing; there’s a smidgen of hope to it. A good comparison would be Death Cab for Cutie‘s “A Movie Script Ending”. The melody can be quite cheerful and laid back, but the mood of the vocals doesn’t have to be construed as elation.
Overall, Silesia is a bit different of a sound than Spring Tides. It was nice to hear something a little different from the band but unfortunately, the heaviness of the music still became difficult to digest. Several songs were over 5 minutes long, culminating with the closing track, a 9 minute long slow tempo-ed outro titled “Hearths”. It was precisely here at the end that I found myself looking for one or two tracks to spark some energy into the album a la Danko Jones type rock intensity. I’d have to describe Silesia as an ice cream challenge one takes with the bold choice of Bubblegum as the flavor. Eventually you reach a point where the stomach finds it hard to digest, when you’re past the simple trick of cleansing the palate in between bites. The melodies are there, quite easy to take in through the ears. Only, in time, your mind starts wondering why the sounds don’t strike some type of positive crescendo.
Rating: 4.2/10
MP3: Jeniferever “Waifs & Strays”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!

Lisa Savidge: Lisa Savidge
Lisa Savidge is a five piece ensemble of men. The group released their self-titled Sophomore album February 11th via Black Cactus Records. At twelve tracks long, you’d expect the album to be just about right lengthwise but five songs are at least two parts long which adds up on the clock.
Unfortunately, the multipart songs give the album a feel of a symphonic performance. That doesn’t have to be bad, but the movement of the songs doesn’t always need it. The opening track “Building Your Own HAM Radio (Pts. 1&2)” seems like a roughly five minute song. The medium tempo song rests on the cusp of something you’d hear from Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It has a layered feel musically, culminating with some great keywork by Nick Gortari. The other mulitpart songs go out the window.
“New Song (Pts. 1&2)” starts off with heavy guitars and distortion that make it seem like some hard rock is about to be performed but once the singing begins the song turns into some macabre phantasy. The guitars disappear and sadness and depression sap the life out of the song. About a minute and a half in, the mood changes and you really feel as though the next track has cut in; indie pop takes over what was once morbid and dark. I did a double take while making sure that I was still listening to the same song.
The album sounded best on the tracks “Holding Me” and “90 Pills (Live Mix)”. On the former, Lisa Savidge had a late 80′s, early 90′s rock sound. I could picture the song being played back at the turn of that decade. The latter sounds more like early 90′s rock with a pinch of punk added to it.
Overall, it became difficult to listen to the album. At various times lead singer Dan Somers’ voice just didn’t do the songs justice which is disappointing, as they make some very fine music. “Moment of Silence” was one of my favorite tracks and it was only an
instrumental. The rock and violin feel with the symphonic aspect bring me back to GY!BE. I guess it’s something about violins and electric guitars that gets me all worked up but as a whole work, I found the album to be quite ordinary.
Rating: 4.1/10
MP3: Lisa Savidge “Fire Exiting”
Buy: iTunes

Ringside: Lost Days
In 2005, Ringside had a virtual hit on their hands with the track “Tired of Being Sorry”. Momentum petered for the song, but it found new life as a cover by Enrique Iglesias who turned it into an international hit. The reason we haven’t heard much from the band since then is that singer and songwriter for Ringside, Scott Thomas, broke his back promoting the group’s first self-titled album. January’s release of Lost Days brings the band and their sound back.
Ringside is very much an indie rock band with a flair for pop. In some ways they remind me of Maroon 5- you’ve got your band aspect down with guitars (acoustic and electric) as well as bass and drums. Ringside incorporates keyboards and beats to give the music layers. What you get often sounds like a remix of an indie rock song.
The opening track “Starbrite” did little to impress me lyrically.  Thomas starts singing “Starlight. Starbright, I wish I may/ I wish I might make a moment last a life/ I, me, mine am yours tonight.” Musically, the track caught my attention; it’s driven heavily by drums, keys, and guitars and the melody of the chorus gives the track dance qualities.
The beats created for the band come from none other than actor, Balthazar Getty; he does a real bang up job. The first song where Getty’s work really steps to the forefront is “This Time”. Getty’s beat has a hip hop sound; a little simple but sets the mood. It’s laid over guitars that give the song a blues-like feel. Then the chorus hits and the pop feel of the band and the album take over.
In a nutshell, the album was very good. Thomas’s vocals sound a bit like Bono of U2 and he coolly croons through all the songs. The beats are enjoyable as well giving what would be regular rock tracks that exciting remix feel. Many times the band creates music with some sex appeal, as in “Money”. The song is a step down from what I’d consider stripper music. It sounds somewhere below guitar riffs by an act like Eagles of Death Metal, only not as wild. There is a definite hip shaking factor to their music.
The only complaint I have is that at 15 tracks the layout of the music could have been better. The songs are never played at a snail’s pace, but the first half of the album seems to contain all the swagger. The tail end slows down enough to feel as though the energy is waning. I found myself waiting for the tempo to pick up and the poppy/dance quality of earlier tracks to return.
Still, I highly recommend Lost Days. Even with my petty criticisms the band is a complete package. I only hope that the quality of Lost Days isn’t a result of the long time it took to complete. I don’t want to have to wait another 5 years to hear more from the band.
Rating: 8.2/10
MP3: Ringside “Lost Days”
Buy: iTunes or Amazon