This year The Phoenix came up with a list of the Best New Bands In America, one for each state (actually 51 bands since we counted Washington DC). Here’s a link to the original site, and below are the states I wrote blurbs for:
CITY: Denver
SONG THAT GOT US “Gravity Falcon”
DOWNLOAD: “ Serpents“
ON THE TUBES:MySpace, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Bad People
WHY THEM? After decades of cookie-monster metal, we’ve been fortunately swept into a post-Wolfmother renaissance: epic tracks abound, with fantastical themes sung by vocalists unafraid to hit the higher registers and send their listeners soaring for the sun. Kingdom of Magic is the sound of ex-hardcore dudes freed from the chains of that format’s drudgerous rules and regulations. Vocalist/guitarist Luke Fairchild releases the wolves, in a manner of speaking, resulting in lengthy hammerdowns that manage to harness the water-treading brutality of stoner titans like Sleep with an almost upbeat and joyous wonder.
BONUS BIT! That band name might be talking Disney, but with song titles like “Serpents,” “Mighty Manatee,” “Fight Like Apes,” “Gravity Falcon,” it’s more likely propping the animal kingdom.
CITY: Ames
SONG THAT GOT US: “Glory Us”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Afternoon
WHY THEM? People like to crap on the most revered rock of the ’90s for not being a fraction as fun as the worst pop of the ’80s, but we had some good times back then, right? Lucky for us, groups like the Poison Control Center exist to remind everyone that a slavish adherence to the doctrines of Pavement, etc., can still lead to infectious somersaulting giddiness. The PCC literally burst with enthusiastic abandon, able to toss in VU-like guitar strangulations into head-bobbing froth-fests like “Glory Us” and “Ride the Thunder” in such a way that to listen and attempt to stand motionless with arms crossed is an exercise in grumpy futility.
BONUS BIT! The band occasionally gets e‑mails “from people trying to figure out what to do when their child swallowed some sort of chemical.”
CITY: Baltimore
SONG THAT GOT US: “Shake It to the Ground”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Facebook, You Tube
RECORD LABEL: N.E.E.T./Interscope
WHY HER? Rye’s guttural splattering of minimal world-beat-hip-hop funk is poised to hit the world like Lil’ Mama v. 2.0: her impending debut LP, Go! Pop! Bang!, mixes the cadence of playground taunts with a forceful presence that will soon be hard to ignore. “I’m a really nice girl you know/We should take a little trip to Baltimore,” she intones on “Hardcore Girls,” which is like an answer to all those endless odes to the party antics of Atlanta and St. Louis we’ve been bombarded with over the years. At 18, her sheer bravado and, dare I say, swagger is electrifying — there’s no possible way you won’t be rocking this by the end of the summer.
BONUS BIT! Rye is the first signee to M.I.A.’s own label, N.E.E.T. (Not in Education, Employment, Training).
CITY: Missoula
SONGS THAT GOT US: “ One Less Star [mp3]“, “Orange Trees”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace
RECORD LABEL: Square Tire Music
WHY THEM? Ryan “Schmed” Maynes arrived in Missoula from the cynical shores of LA with a single-minded aim: to create the most mind-frying power-pop/rock orchestra that ever was. The result of his collaboration with the na-tives is Secret Powers, a band dedicated to the pursuit of musical guilty pleasures. Sounding alternately like a theme song to a ’60s kids’ show and a joyride on Electric Light Orchestra’s spaceship, tracks like “Marry Ann” and “One Less Star” show this flamboyant collective overpowering any sense of cool detachment and ironic cynicism, as cascading and shimmering vocal waterfalls glide to unabashed choruses and mirror-ball guitar walk-arounds.
BONUS BIT! While in Hollywood, Schmed worked on soundtracks for such TV shows as Weeds and Third Rock from the Sun.
CITY: Las Vegas
SONGS THAT GOT US: “Thrill City,” “Another Nite”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, YouTube
RECORD LABELS: Rank Outsider, High Voltage
WHY THEM? Every major metropolis must have 50 loud and leering assholes like Gabe Stiff wandering its despairing boulevards — but it’s still always such a treat when one of them gets it together to form a band and channels that serpentine decadence into performance art. Sounding like a wounded dog alternately licking his wounds and lashing out at all aggressors, real or imagined, vocalist Stiff and his cohort of glam-rock warriors condense decades of Cro-Magnon-y garage into a fireball of sleazy-yet-soulful nihilism. Like a casino floor, their musical world has no windows— and lots of oxygen pumped in.
BONUS BIT! The Las Vegas Review-Journal chose the Jetts as the Best Local Rock Band of the year. They even made a fancy little certificate-thing for them, signed by the publisher guy and everything. Adorable!
CITY: Cincinnati
SONG THAT GOT US: “ The Mountain”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, Facebook, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Fat Possum
WHY THEM? It was inevitable that the hard times trad-rock has come upon would begin to result in bands, like the HBs, with a tough, sinewy aesthetic that is capable of weathering the storm. Not exactly new kids on the block, but their new line-up is more potent than ever. Centered around the alternately raspy and howling vocals of Erika Wennerstrom, the Bastards’ sound combines the eternal somberness of The Band with moments of heaviness, passion, and grit, and the result is frequently cathartic. The title track of their new Fat Possum LPThe Mountain encapsulates everything great about these Bastards, as every hit of the tom and glistening tremor of the steel guitar is another step to the pinnacle.
BONUS BIT! The band’s name comes from a fake answer to a multiple-choice question posed by an electronic-trivia game in a bar, asking for the name of Tom Petty’s backing band.
CITY: Portland
SONG THAT GOT US: “ Prehistoric Dog”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, Facebook, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Sargent House
WHY THEM? Twenty years after thrash killed hair metal and 10 after stoner removed virtuosity from the mix, it’s heartening to see a band like Red Fang, which combines the fun, the chops, and the bulbous weight of all three. Looking like dorks but rocking with an admirably calculated abandon, they casually toss flaming firebird arpeggios and Mastodon-y turnarounds into an otherwise Fu Manchu–y boogie van. Bryan Giles’s Ozzy-like wail floats over the pro-ceedings when not stinging like a bee. Red Fang bring a beer-can-to-the-forehead glee and irreverence that is much needed in today’s metal vortex.
BONUS BIT! Fans of LARPing and/or shotgunning brews should consider Red Fang’s hysterical video for “Prehistoric Dog” required time wasting.
CITY: Salt Lake City
SONG THAT GOT US: “V-Pro” (mp3)
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Reverb Nation, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Gold Ghost
WHY THEM? Kids in Utah need to dance. Hence: Muscle Hawk. Gunning for an epilepsy-inducing sensory overload that admirably brings back the spirit of “Where were you in ’92?” UK hardcore, Muscle Hawk put four firmly on the floor and crank up the strobe. Inevitably the soundtrack to many an SLC party-gone-wrong, MH songs like “V-Pro” work their face-melting magic through a bullying funk that doesn’t rely on gimmicks, fast cuts, or annoying filters to attract attention. Look for the trio’s mix of live instrumentation and digital prowess to potentially convert legions of pilgrims in the coming years to the good word of ravetastic bliss.
BONUS BIT! Freshly added drummer Lindsay Heath (a/k/a Kid Madusa) has been in such Beehive State mainstay acts as Mushman, Redd Tape, and the Vile Blue Shades.
CITY: Warrenton
SONG THAT GOT US: “White Hands [mp3]”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Thrill Jockey
WHY THEM? These bearded riff merchants have emerged from the hinterland of NoVa with a craggy discography of experimental epiphanies that, for all their wandering, never forget tunesmithery and pure bloody heaviness. “White Hands” is a greedy monolithic monster that nonetheless has moments of speedy rush, folky campfire harmonizing, and Floyd-y eternal-void-gazing that break the metal into digestible chunks. In the same way that the band hails from halfway be-tween the Shenandoahs and the big city, their newest long-player, Maker, seems most at ease between wide-open canvases of sound and tight, fast action.
BONUS BIT! Three summers ago in France, a couple of members of the band, drunk, scaled a tall stone wall at 3 am and dropped into a brightly lit courtyard. They were immediately arrested. That’s what happens when you break into the local neighborhood police academy.
