What's New For Free Vol. 1

This isn't a review, I swear. This is just me posting a few recently released for free albums up on the popular download labels. But, I did listen to all of the albums I'm going to suggest...so it's similar to a review.

Death to False Hope

Dead End Days is a beautiful sounding acoustic-punk project, in the vein of Sundowner, Toby Foster, Maxwell "Murderfacemurderfacemurderface" Stern, and everyone else who does good acoustic punk music. There's even a couple skits for tracks, a la Eminem albums. Also there's electric stuff at times. It's very much worth listening to, and I love it. (songs I like: Onward! Captain!, Life in the Malebolge, Tenanimalsislaminanet)

Man the Change are a straight up fucking punk band. As far as who they sound like...they sound like themselves. Their influences are obvious and there, but they present their own overall style and production and what you end up with is an awesome album by an awesome punk/pop-punk/skate-punk band to listen to on repeat for days. It's awesome. (songs I like: The Horseshit Zone, Browser's Breakdown, Get Me the Clippers, Put Stevie at Second, and every song!)

Ultra Ultra are listed as sounding like The Sainte Catherines, and they do, but moreso than that, they sound heavy and loud. Really, their similarities are kind of slim to Sainte Catherines, and closer to pretty much any hardcore band from like Florida or New York. The singer sounds like he might just scream-yell himself to death one of these days, most likely while singing the first of the three songs on this album, "Culture Vulture". There's only three songs, so just listen to them all.

Masked Intruder are another one of the awesome pop punk bands featured on DTFH. They sound like Teenage Bottlerocket with a higher pitched lead singer, or The Unlovables with a deeper lead singer. There's also girls in the band singing backup vocals and doing whatever else they do. Honestly, I can't tell who does what in the band, due to the band members being listed as colors rather than names on their facebook. 

(songs I like: How Do I Get to You?, I Plead the 5th)

If You Make It

I already reviewed this Spraynard album a couple days ago. It's good, but it sounds dead on Latterman the entire way through. You might like it, you might not. You pick your own recommended songs.

P.S. Eliot's album Sadie is the longest album of these free releases I've posted so far. I don't really like it so much, but it wouldn't be fair to only post stuff I like, rather than just give a fair balance of new shit you can try out if you want. It reminds me of The Unicorns, The Kills, and whatever else you hipsters listen to all the time. It's really not bad though, just not my style. It's also like 40 minutes, what the hell? This isn't an album, it's an episode of Six Feet Under or something.

Nude Beach are another lo-fi pop punk/indie delight from the world of If You Make It. These actually do sound like songs you would blast in the summer at a beach, preferably a nude one. They're catchy and more relaxed that most pop punk of recent years. Their influences definitely date back to some older jam makers, and that gives us a little more to appreciate when it's all mixed into brand new tunes by brand new tune makers. (songs I like: No Change, Ridin' Easy, Writing in the Rain, Hit By a Hurricane, Story of a Man)

IYMI already has Campaign listed as sounding like a mix between Lifetime and Hot Water Music, and they pretty much nailed it there. This EP is just four small, awesome songs to sing along to for about nine minutes at a time. They're definitely better than Hot Water Music, by the way. It's illegal to call stuff better than Lifetime, so I wouldn't go so far. Listen to all the songs, because there's only four, and what else would you be doing? Listening to something worse, probably.

Quote Unquote Records

Quote Unquote only really has one new release, due to the last three already being reviewed by us, but you should definitely go to the site and check them out too.

Let Me Crazy is a rock-type punk-like band and I used to just know them as "that band with Jimmy Doyle from the Fad in it", but apparently he's not in it anymore...so now they're just some weird band. They actually sound pretty awesome for the most part, though. They have a basic rock n roll feel mixed in with some elements of surf and pop punk. RIYL: The Ramones, the movie Detroit Rock City, and that "Ripped My Pants" song from Spongebob. (songs I like: I'm Stayin', Sunday Mourning Sun, Test Empress, Everything Turns to Gold)

Team Human
Everything at Team Human is new to me and most likely new to you. It mostly ranges from decent to good, so you should check a few things out. It's all from local bands in Dayton, Ohio, and it's basically all punk. I'm not going to give any album by album rundowns, because there's too many and whatnot. So yeah, hit it up.

Last Minute Addition
This isn't a record label section, this is just a section I created for an album that was just emailed to me.

That's Life is a dirty pop punk band from Phoenix/Tempe Arizona. They play a style akin to Off With Their Heads, Maladroit, Dillinger Four, Jawbreaker, and all of that other good stuff everyone here loves. This album has sort of a "high fives for low lives" feel to it, and it's an awesome listen from beginning to end. They're pressing 200 copies on vinyl and wanting to take it on the road this summer for tour. It's all up for free stream and download on bandcamp, so fucking go at it. (songs I like: Public Funds Private Prisons, Jeans in the Shower, Dougie, So Long We're Worthless)

Thus concludes "What's New For Free Vol. 1"
Join us next time when the bear will be juggling flaming bowling pins and Idle will be doing somersaults.

-Idle