The Arteries - Dead Sea

The Arteries are basically what it would be like if AFI never made that awkward turn after 'Black Sails in the Sunset'. I'm fairly certain that's the most accurate description of this band I've read/heard yet, and I'm pretty proud of it. I guess I'm not really proud of it; it's kind of an obvious comparison and all. The vocalist definitely croons (can you call it that?) in a similar fashion to the Davey Havok we all know and love, and the rhythm section is punk as a duck whereas the leads sounds like they were constructed by Anti-Flag or one of the fifteen billion guitarists from Bad Religion. This is all topped off with a definitely hint of orgcore influence, considering some tracks sound dead on Hot Water Music blended with 'New Wave' era Against Me! and pretty much anything Rise Against shits out. What's cool about all of these sounds coming together is the fact that it sounds fucking awesome as a result.

'Dead Sea' is the recent badass release from this U.K. group The Arteries, and it's definitely some top of the line shit. Every song perfectly stays its welcome and accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, whether that is to inspire or declare that all hope is lost. However, all hope is not lost, after all, for The Arteries have put the entire album up on bandcamp for name-your-own-price download. How fucking cool of them is that? You can stream the entire album and think to yourself, "is this my kind of shit, or should I just pass it on?" I mean, chances are you're going to download the album after you're three songs in and singing along to the incredibly catchy and well written "No Place Like Home", so all my money is on that. Do with this power what you will, but I know I'm using the power to download this record and play it on repeat while I hop on Counter Strike or some other online FPS and kick some ass (also known as "suck really badly"). What you do is entirely up to you though, boys and girls. But if you want my opinion, you now have it:  'Dead Sea' is a fucking awesome full length record and The Arteries are a fucking awesome punk band. BOOM!

-Idle

The Arteries - Dead Sea
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The City Calls - "Meet In the Middle" Music Video

UK pop punk/power pop group The City Calls (I Am Mighty Records) have a new music video out for their song "Meet in the Middle". Check it out above, and also check out this tour poster below if you're over the England and able to check these dudes out!

You can also purchase their mini-album on itunes, and I suggest you do it. For fans of Motion City Soundtrack, The Motorcycle Industry, Howard Alias, and you know...pop punk stuff.

-Idle

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P.S 118 / Oliver Revilo - Don’t Hit Me! I’ll Hit Me!

A couple New Jersey bands thought it was a capital idea to release a twinkly emo/indie 8-song split recently. I guess they were absolutely correct about this being a solid idea, because the split is absolutely gorgeous. Or whatever word you think we should use there. Cool? Awesome? Partyful? Sexy? Connectitude? I don’t know, dudes. All I know is that this shit hits the spot with me. I guess that means it’s like pizza or something delicious.

P.S 118’s side of the split is dominated by some of the catchiest indie/emo sing-a-longs to be released this year. I guess that’s not that crazy, considering this year has just begun, but still, I’m sure if I were reviewing this a few months in the future I’d use the same exact declaration. So fudge off. I think their band name is a reference to the school Arnold went to in that 90s cartoon Hey Arnold! It might also just actually be a school in New York for all I know, though. So I’m not going to take any chances. One thing for certain is that P.S 118 is an excellent twinkly emo band, as demonstrated by some of the coolest guitar leads since American Football and Braid ruled the emo scene.

The sounds that stand out on the P.S 118 half of the split are pretty hard to decide on. All 4 songs are amazing to me, but I guess if I would have to pick only 2, I’d say “Now I’ll Never Meet Bob Saget” and “Choco Taco, Go Phillies!” do it for me. “Bob Saget” is just one of the catchiest ones on the split, with gang vocals boasting the line “We are not the most valiant of men, and oh god, does it show!” That’s the kind of line you find yourself singing along to on your second playthrough of the record. The wording is right down my alley and the emotion behind it is great. “Choco Taco” is just a fun song overall. It utilizes one of those chord progressions that just makes things feel all right for a moment, and the way the bass line walks around it is just so charismatic and enjoyable. The lyrics are as memorable as the rest of the split, and it’s definitely a solid way to end the P.S 118 half of this release.

Oliver Revilo take the proverbial stage next, starting with the song “Fozzy, I’m Back!” After the drum counts the song in, clean guitar leads follow like a little kid follows his older brother around the playground in a similar manner to dust sticking to Pig-Pen from those Peanuts comic strips. I just double analogied; I’m pretty cool. Seriously though, this song is great. The vocals are hectic and disastrous, which is absolutely a positive thing. I don’t know how into emo our general readership is, but considering the amount of it I review, I’m going to guess there’s a pretty decent emo fandom in the Idle and the Bear realm. I want to read comments from those people regarding this split, because I can’t be the only person who thinks this release is as awesome as I consider it to be. Some of the drum fills on the Oliver side of this split are just perfect, really. There’s a bit of sloppiness to these songs, but it’s the kind of sloppiness most people dig. Like sloppy joes or something. Oliver Revilo just do an excellent job of ensuring that people will love the heck out of both sides of this split.

I don’t know, man, I just love these songs. I was in an awful mood today and this split definitely fixed me right up. I feel like every first aid kit should come with this CD neatly packed inside. These songs should also be the music they play when they put a person on hold on a suicide hotline. Maybe I’m just overly excited or whatever. Who cares? You should just definitely listen to this split. You can find both sides on it on the bands’ individual bandcamp pages, which I will link you to below. If you like it, be sure to leave a comment or two on this review. We love that kind of shit and so do the bands. Excellent split! Seriously!

-Idle

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P.S 118 Bandcamp / Facebook
Oliver Revilo Bandcamp

Family Cat - Don’t Let This Be You

There’s only so many times you can compare every single new band to Latterman before the comparison gets stale and tired. It seems like the simplest solution to such a problem would be to just not make the comparison...there in lies the problem; most punk bands these days sound pretty much exactly like Latterman. But, for the sake of this review, I will not compare this band to Latterman. I’m doing my part, bands, now do yours. Without any further ado, here’s Idle and the Bear’s review of Family Cat’s new Death to False Hope Records release ‘Don’t Let This Be You’:

Honestly, I’m just pulling your leg with the whole Latterman comparison thing. This band Family Cat does bear some minor, passing resemblances to the great Latterman, but overall they don’t stick to the formula quite likes other bands do (*cough* Spraynard *cough*). Family Cat has more of a Shinobu edge to them, really. The vocals tend to be on the softer side most of the time, with occasional excursions into the raspy yelling voice that us punk kids love to hear.

Actually, I’m a little bit surprised that this album wasn’t released on Count Your Lucky Stars. That’d be a pretty good fit, considering the heavy emo influence in the song structure and guitar leads. The songs on this EP are all interesting and definitely have a tendency to vary a bit musically and intellectually. It’s pretty refreshing, actually. I feel like some pop punk these days treats the listeners like dipshits. It’s probably just assumed that everyone listening to pop punk is at least eight Pabst Blue Ribbons in and trying to set some sort of beer belly record. HEY DUDES, THAT’S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE. Some of us like interesting music that just happens to be incredibly catchy and seductive fun. Family Cat have our backs when it comes to this, so don’t be worried, guys.

Since ‘Don’t Let This Be You’ is a DTFH release, you can stream or download the album entirely for free over at the DTFH website. God, I just love free music. I think everyone does. Except maybe the grinch. That asshole probably is one of those contrarians who sticks up for the record labels and millionaire recording artists. What a douche. Thankfully, Family Cat hate the grinch and prefer to have their music up for free, so that awesome people like yourself and I can enjoy their songs at our own leisure. Also, I’ll have you know that if you’re expecting to not enjoy these songs, then be prepared for a difficult, uphill battle because these songs are pretty fucking sweet. Like I said earlier, it’s basically like a healthy mix between Shinobu, Latterman-core bands, and mid-90s emo. What can possibly go wrong with a formula like that? Do yourself a favor and check Family Cat out!

-Idle

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Wings and Wounds EP

Wings and Wounds, a new hip hop group made up of Sarx and Graves 33, released their first EP together on the first of this year. Long story short, they are badass. The lyrics are clever, the beats are catchy as hell, etc. etc. etc... From Seattle.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Wait, Idle and the Bear only like punk music! This is crazy!" Well, faithful readers, you are wrong. you're wrong. This album is badass.

It has a fairly long intro track, and then it starts into "Two Wanderers." I can't tell what the audio sample of the woman talking is from, but maybe one of you can tell me. The flow is extremely impressive with these guys.

"Bellowing Scum" is badass. Mostly because the guests on this track are ridiculous.

Hands down "Wizardry" is the best track. It's so goddamn impressive. I listened to this track about 100 times before I moved on to the next one. These guys are super, SUPER talented.

If there's anything better than all the overproduced corporate bullshit rap on all the top charts, it's the guys that can actually make some real beats and spit rhymes like it's no one's business. I could listen to this shit all day.

To put this in the most uncomfortable way I know how, these beats are dope.

Bandcamp.

Fated Empire.

Graves 33 Facebook

Graves 33 website.

Sarx Facebook

Our facebook.

-Bear

Radiator Hospital- Nothin' In My Eyes

Radiator Hospital is truly an interesting group from Grand Rapids, MI. They're more of a collective centered around Sam Cook-Parrott, which in my experience, has never gone wrong. It's kind of pop-ish indie experimental bubblegum punk lofi...stuff. I don't really know what genre it is. It's good. This is kind of old, but recent enough. So you'll live.

The first time through this album, I was just a little ಠ_ಠ about it. But then I made the amazing choice to keep listening and realized that I really like it!

It's definitely very diverse and every song feels a little different. The best song, hands down, is "Jose Chung's "From Outer Space". First off, it was funny because of the title and reddit. And then the song was awesome. I love the melody and the lyrics so much. It's a cute ukulele song that I really want to cover. Awesome.

There's a J Church cover of "Nostalgic for Nothing" which gets mad respect from me. I fucking love J Church. (Who doesn't?)

Oh, and there's another cover. They covered "My Place" by the Adverts, and it's a really really great cover. I think it sounds badass. It's interesting and great.

Sam's got a really crazy sounding voice that I love.

It's an awesome combination of guitar, ukulele, vocal harmonies, and frankly, anything else that he could fit on it. For a basement recording, I'm fairly impressed. I'm not typically a big lofi person, but this is super catchy stuff.

I think you should all listen to this guy!

DOWNLOAD IT

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-Bear

“The Folkamines - Expect the Wurst"

There are two defining moments in a man’s life. The first is when he meets the woman or man or whatever he’ll marry (or do whatever with). The second is discovering that Billy Wallace and the Virginia Blues (from Northern KY, like myself) have released the most amazing album to ever grace the internet.

IT’S A FOLK ALBUM CONSISTING ENTIRELY OF DOPAMINES COVERS, WITH MINOR LYRIC CHANGES TO POKE FUN AT THE GROUP AND THEIR OBSESSION WITH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND SHIT.

So...yeah. You can probably guess my opinion on this album already...

The Dopamines are probably one of the best pop punk to exist in the history of this planet. Folk music is probably also one of the best things to exist in this history of this planet. So, it makes complete sense that the combination of the two leaves us with something really quite amazing. “The Folkamines” do an excellent job of folking the fuck out of nine of my favorite Dopamines tracks. Don’t let the album title mislead you, because absolutely zero of these songs are from The Dopamines most recent full length ‘Expect the Worst’. The songs are all from the self-titled full length and the EP ’Soaps and Lampshades’. It’s awesome.

Dopamines songs happen to song pretty good when slowed down a lot and performed acoustically (including some harmonica) and sung by Billy Wallace and some lady whose name I don’t know. I’m going to just go ahead and assume her name is Virginia Blues...that’d make me happy. Her name might be Alex, but I don’t know. The facebook page says that the band members change quite often. One of the listed occasional members is actually ex-Dopamines drummer Matt Hemmingway. Weird. THIS ALBUM IS AWESOME.

You should just go check it out immediately. The production quality is pretty damn high and the replay value is exponentially higher. Do it.

-Idle

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