Sell Out Records - A Music Review Blog

I have been a Matt Skiba fan for a long time. If I were to have one guitar player in my band, I would hire Matt Skiba, and that’s what Blink 182 did. Whatever the case is, this guy has so many musical outlets, it’s insane. What surprises me each time I hear about a new Skiba project is the fact that each one is tremendously well done. That’s what you’re going to get when you pick up “Kuts” , the latest release from Matt Skiba and the Sekrets. Holy crap, the guy can write a song, and the band is right on par with what you’d expect from their post punk, pop stylings. Not Alkaline Trio, But Close I’m not saying this in a bad way, but the record sounds a lot like you’d expect from The Alkaline Trio. However, the drumming and the guitar work is not as fast. This is not a fast paced, punk rock record like you’d expect from the trio. Instead, you get a more post rock, pop punk approach. That’s not a bad thing. The song writing is very well done, the bass tracks are layered in, and th...

2011, what a year. This release came out in October of 2011 and it was the fifth record from the band Jane’s Addiction. I have been a fan of the band since I first saw Perry Farrell in “Been Caught Stealing” and of course my affinity for Porno For Pyros is also well documented in my blogs. This record came out swinging with a whole new attempt at capturing the magic of the band’s earlier material, without sacrificing too much. Was it really worth it? Did the guys really come through on this one, or was it another miss in a long line of bad rock records that came out in the 2000s? The Heavy Bass Lines Makes The Great Escape Amazing “The Great Escape” shows Jane’s Addiction’s prowess for song writing . The music is well produced, and what I find to be absolutely astonishing is the bass work. Dave Sitek’s bass guitar playing on this record is not to be missed. If you’re a bass guitar fan, then you have to listen to this record a lot. It’s fascinating how the record pulls through ...

It’s seriously cold in Indiana. I moved from Los Angeles to this Midwest staple, and can truly say that it’s very cold. Whatever the case is, here’s another review flying at you, because I write for an audience of one or two. The band Cloud Nothings is a band that has come out swinging from the Midwest. They are from Cleveland and they play a brand of rock that you most likely want to say is “indie”, but it’s far better than that. The band has a way of making a post punk sound feel much more important. Perhaps it’s the drumming, the bass heavy rhythms and Dylan Baldi’s guitar work. Tie that together with the urgency of Jawbreaker’s debut, and you have one hell of a band. The opening track on “Here and Nowhere Else” should hook you, especially towards the end of the song where the drumming goes balls to the wall. There’s something incredible about the drumming in the opening track, and that pacing keeps things going through the rest of the disc. In this release from 2014, you are ...

Screaming Females just blew away the Taylor Swift song "Shake it Off" with a stripped down, punk rock ethos filled anthem with a bass line that rocks and vocals that truly....well...shake things up! Check it out below: Now this is the best! What do you think? Drop me a line, I won't bite...hard. Screaming Females, wow.

For those that don’t follow my site, or last.fm account, I’ll let you know that I spend 12 – 20 hours of music daily. Last weekend, I pulled a 36 hour straight run of writing, and my only entertainment was a long playlist of music that spans every genre. Lately, the punk rock tunes that have been pushing forward are a bit too polished, kind of derivative and tired. I wanted to love some of the new stuff coming through, but it’s just not that grand. After another boredom movement, I tuned into the latest release from Figures of Light, and faith was restored in punk rock roots. Figures of Light’s release of “The Nebraska Sessions” plays heavy on that hard rock sound that the early pioneers of punk rock pushed out when they first came out on the scene. The dynamic here is not what you’re going to hear on the radio, it’s a type of punk that made The Damned, Buzzcocks, and even PIL work back in the 1970s and 1980s. If you can imagine that type of raucous music, then you can kind of unde...

I recall going on a date once where a girl claimed she liked 1980s post punk and ska music. After asking a few questions, I realized that she didn’t know a thing about the genres and well, we never went out again. That has nothing to do with In Isolation, or their incredible single “Tears”, except for the fact that they are playing on my emotions with their vibrant creation of 1980s style post punk music. I swore I was being placed back in time to a place where rude boys ran the streets and the radio was iconic. Well, maybe that’s not exactly true, but this is one of the best tracks in that regards that I’ve heard by a modern act in a long time. Sure, there are a lot of mainstream bands that are trying to bring this sound back, but they fail to progress through the talent and production quality that is presented with this upcoming single. You’ll find that In Isolation fits directly next to The Cure and all your new wave favorites. They do so with seamless production, quality vocals...