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the songs are really good, whether rocking a runaway-train beat with reckless abandon on "The Truth" or letting Bolt's Falsetto take the wheel on "In the Night." A twangy surf guitar underscores the meloncholy "Mornings Were Never Good To You," while on "Lose a Disguise" it allows you to finally hear what would have happened if Pixies had recruited Smith and carried on without Black Francis." 4 out of 5 stars.

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on the spotlight, The Gaslight Anthem, is now on tour with Against Me! But there's another band on the label that has yet to get the attention they deserve, Monument, out of New York City. First of all, let me just say that Monument and XOXO Records put together the coolest press kit i've seen. It was a folder that came with post cards, stickers, buttons, everything you need to be the ultimate Monument fan (I wear a medium, also guys). Jokes aisde though, Monument has released a very chilling and moving record called Decades. It might not appeal to everyone on this site, but it sure as hell got to me. Decades begins with "The Intimate Anonymous", it is an opener that really sounds like a new beginning, not just some track thrown on there. In fact, that lyrics tell the same story. "I'll take the chance/ on a new beginning; a life with meaning/ you can't save us now/ in the future perfect; we'll complete the circles/ when you make a choice/ for you, for me". After a radio rock-friendly anthem in "Magnetic North", you get to one of the most chilling and anthemic songs made this year. Just the way that vocalist James Naddeo sings the lines "Awash in neon from the marquees on Bedford/ And I can't seem to find my way home", just gets me every time. "Metropolis" and "A Shelf Between Heights" make way for some really killer tracks in the title track, "Decades" and "Hold Still Now" which keep a slow but alarming tempo and mood to the big picture. Further at the end, you will hear "On My Way", which is even cogent on paper. With lyrics like "For all the caution in my life/ I wear the same disguises/ Afraid to run and too worried to leave it all behind", "On My Way" is another classic. After another ear-pleasing song in "Nom De Plume" we come to our closer, "Around Every Corner". an acoustic ballad that flaunts the sheer chill and talent of the band and is a great closer for such a record. Decades will be unfortunately overlooked by many for various reasons. But you can be one of the few that got to see what this band is capable of. Every time I listen to these tracks, I just get chills down my spine. It's nearly haunting, and it's very peaceful. If I were you, I would go check this band out, go check their label out, and go support both of them, because if you don't, in the near future, someone else will and you will be left in the dark as they are loving the music of their new favorite bands. - Nathan Lint

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on their album Madison—a collective attitude that manifests more in terms of breadth of sound than volume. The best of these mostly mid-tempo alt-country tunes inject moments of dissonance to their classic pop vocabulary to remind the listener there’s something more desperate going on. A string of three songs in the middle of the record are particularly on point: “If It’s Up to Me”, with its “ooh-la-la” backing vocals buried in the mix; “Ticket Girl”’s classic 1-5-1 construction overlaid with Beach Boys harmonies; and “Barry Short for Governor” with its more difficult, swirling electronic dissonances. The injection of small musical jokes and spoken word introductions (once in German) throughout give Madison a self-deprecating impression, but it’s the strung-out phrases, resolving just the way you expect but still somehow powerful, that make Hands Down Eugene’s music interesting. -Dan Raper

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song on the album, is the same as my daily prayer, "Patience of Job," as they sing "Lord, give me the Patience of Job." The Old Scratch Revival Singers was started, according to its press packet, to explore the ideas and moods of three ex-members of The Heart Attacks (now All Rattle and Dust {Eyeball Records}). Since then, the ideas and playing of more people have been added. The group of seven contains elements of bluegrass, cow-punk, gospel and ragtime. With this wide diversity, their sound falls somewhere between The Carter Family, The Violent Femmes and The Misfits. -Kevin Surbaugh

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Bottom, aptly named for the New Jersey attitude them and so many of their predecessors epitomize. Starting with “The Count of Monte Fisto,” a re-recording of a track that opened their demo, the band then proceeds to plow through ten more tracks full of teenage desperation and punk rock melody that doesn’t let up. “Here’s My Destroyer” is the closest thing to a ballad, and it too mirrors the message of the album’s title, as lead singer Travis Omilian cries, “At 17 I knew / we’d shoot for the Western coast / and wash-up ashore / at the bottom of the Jersey shows.” More desperation is demonstrated on the next track, as Travis wonders, “What’s the point of a family/that’s got no heart to beat?” Anybody that’s been in their late teens and early twenties with a feeling of desperateness and a lack of any future prospects is sure to relate to the lyrics. Countless bands with countless styles have spawned from New Brunswick, and Let Me Run certainly model themselves in the vein of bands like Bouncing Souls and The Gaslight Anthem, who’ve been able to make music that reaches and is relevant to far more than just their geographic peers. With the addition of some slower songs and acoustic guitars into the tried-and-true three-minute pop punk song equation, there’s no doubt that if Let Me Run look to expand and build their sound off the base they’ve already laid, they’ll have a bright future ahead. - Rob Drucker

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enough to warrant a second shot. It makes you warm inside but might leave you regretting it in the morning. I’m going to classify it as a brand new genre called honky-tonk hardcore. The guitars ferociously rip and shred but retain just enough twang and jangle that you can envision dusty old boots kicking open a saloon door somewhere while the gritty vocals reek of cigarettes and alcohol. It sounded perfect during my 3 mile sunset jog this evening. I’ve got a feeling that you might like it too. RIYL: Against Me!, Murder By Death, The Forecast, etc…

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and Dictionaries,” is an up-tempo number with some “whoo-oh-ohs” that will sound familiar to any fan of Against Me! However, it may not have been the best song to lead things off with, as either “Wooderson” or “Drive” would have served that role more appropriately. In fact, the sequencing may be the only thing wrong with Sink or Swim; it seems to be arranged in an almost arbitrary fashion, with acoustic songs breaking the momentum when another selection would have kept things going at a more “total rock out” pace. Vocalist Brian Falon’s lyrics are full of Springsteen-esque Americana and peppered with elements of Billy Bragg and Woody Guthrie. His almost romantic references to driving and things having a tendency to work out okay are as enjoyable to listen to as the music, which at often times is carried by the modest but technically brilliant guitar playing of Alex Rosamilia. Sink or Swim is one of the best punk albums 2007 has seen, and if it’s any indication, Gaslight Anthem are due to explode. (XOXO)

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to be a budding master at writing warm, tuneful Rock songs. The combination of his slightly raspy voice and the often jangling guitars is incredibly inviting – kind of like those old Bruce Springsteen jams that make you feel like you’re being showered in an honest, protective anthem. If you’re into that sort of thing. Of course, there’s no shortage of singer-songwriters coming from the Punk community these days, with everyone from Chris Carabba (Dashboard Confessional) to Tom Gabel (Against Me!) turning their boy-and-his-guitar acts into band-and-their-leader rock extravaganzas. But with a distinct grit and an overwhelmingly evident desire to be soulful and real, All Rattle And Dust have released a debut that is nonetheless compelling, fun, and infectious. Stiletto, Stiletto demonstrates a wide range of expression, revealing Driscoll’s potential for real depth. And although it’s just got 6 songs, this EP feels very complete - All Rattle And Dust does a good job of balancing the raw emotion of roots-oriented Rock and Roll with the pop sensibilities needed to make a hit. And although the production often feels thin and undeveloped, it almost works in the band’s favor by proving that they don’t need super hi-fi to show what they can do. Overall, Stiletto, Stiletto is a keeper, and possibly a preview of great things to come. If fans can overlook the somewhat amateurish production (and packaging), they might just discover their new favorite band. And let’s hear it for a new Rock release that not only has reverence for the genre’s roots, but also has nothing to do with technical mosh metal, mainstreamo, or whatever other Punk-by-numbers trend is currently popular.

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had been laid off from the Nestl� factory in Freehold. Times were tough. When Brian asked his mom for a stereo for Christmas, like all the other kids had, she said they couldn't afford it, but she had an idea.
"In the freezing cold winter, we got a paper route together," Fallon, now 28, recalls. "She was doing it to pay off some of the bills, and I was doing it to buy my stereo."
Rock 'n' roll, he remembers, picked that moment to show him a way out. "I was sitting in the back of the car at 5 or 6 in the morning, and my mom would always play me music - she was a folk singer in college - and we were driving and 'Just Like a Woman' by Bob Dylan came on the radio. I was like, 'Whoa, stop everything!' I heard this song and everything kinda just came down at once - I remember the feeling, that I don't want to be freezing cold and struggle like this. I want to do that. I thought, well, if he could do it - and he can't even sing - I'm doing it. I got the guitar and that was it."
After that winter, Fallon saved enough from his paper route to buy that stereo, which led to a whole lot of other music besides Dylan - Springsteen (naturally), Tom Petty, the Replacements - and eventually, the music he started making with a rock band of his own called the Gaslight Anthem.
The recurring themes found in the work of those bands - struggle, stumbles, and salvation distilled into deeply personal songs about growing up - are at the core of both the Gaslight Anthem's bracing 2007 debut, "Sink or Swim," and its even better follow-up, "The '59 Sound," due out in August.
Fallon's gruff but tender voice and heart-on-sleeve, hard-luck lyrics, pushed along by the group's fiercely ragged power-roots approach, have quickly found an audience. After a headlining club tour that brings it to the Middle East Upstairs tomorrow night, the Gaslight Anthem will head to Europe before returning to the states to join this summer's Warped Tour. The sudden attention has left the band - which includes bassist Alex Levine, drummer Benny Horowitz, and guitarist Alex Rosamilia - a bit taken aback.
"We'll go to play a show and say, 'I hope we have some kids here,' and they'll tell us we're sold out already. And we'll say, 'Are these people here for the right band?'," recounts Fallon with a self-conscious laugh. He speaks with the same kind of mixture of sincerity, warmth, and contemplative humility that fuels songs like "Great Expectations" and the new album's title track.
"Here it's funny because you don't really grow up thinking you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer or a scientist," says Fallon, who grew up in New Brunswick. "Everybody here does what their father does, or something close to it. You don't see a lot of people from here saying, 'Oh, I'm gonna be an actor.' There's a lot of, 'Well, my dad works in a factory, so I guess I'm gonna probably work in a factory.' There's not that sense of possibility. You have to dream up your own."
Indeed, the defiant mantra of "no retreat, no regrets," which Fallon half sings, half shouts on "Meet Me by the River's Edge" seems to sum up his worldview. Likewise, the bittersweet fairy tale of "Here's Looking at You, Kid" and most of the new album's dozen songs, are stirring sketches, sharply drawn portraits of people on the razor's edge of hope and futility.
Ultimately, where the debut's rag-tag parade of dime-store prophets and dirty angels offered a glimpse of the Gaslight Anthem's vast, precocious potential, "The '59 Sound" is an album of dreamed-up possibilities fully realized. And really, they're just now getting started.
"I could care less about ever having a No. 1 single," Fallon says. "I would just like to be able to play and have people who grow old with you, and you stay with them through their life. We've got a few sentences, maybe, to say what life's about. Hopefully, we'll get a chapter later."

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