Abolitionist- At The Level Of The Ear

Abolitionist is a melodic punk band from Oregon that is just wonderful. Dustin, who sings and plays guitar, has a great voice. Jeff is a very talented drummer, and Ross rocks at bass. They're all very good, and this is their debut 7". They have a full length coming out in June! They have strange rhythms and great lyrics. Love it. Also, proceeds on vinyl sold is given to Partners-In-Health and their efforts in Rwanda... How awesome is that?

The first song, "At The Level of the Ear", has this really great guitar line that just carries the whole way through. One thing I really love about it is the drastic tempo changes- they manage to pull it off really well. The lyrics are incredibly powerful. All the instruments tie together really well. It's the perfect blend of melody, punk, politics, and super-models. I made the super-models up. But you should still listen to it, because you can't hear super-models in music. Stupid. It's got a post-hardcore mixed with folk mixed with rock sound, and it's really awesome.

The other side has "Lies" which is pretty similar, but also great. This song is really, really catchy. All the instruments sound absolutely amazing. Also, the track is exactly 3:14........ So it's pretty much the same thing as eating pie. Don't you like eating pie? Yeah? Well, this band is like eating pie with your ears! Yum! The drums are really cymbal-heavy, but it sounds great tied in with the bass and guitar harmonies. It's very light on lyrics, but the lyrics they do choose are great.

Abolitionist has a wonderful sound and I'm so happy I found them.

"You would keep on spouting lies as your lungs fill up with blood. I'm not gonna buy this shit. You can't sell me afterlife. Even your fresh suit and tie cannot sell me on this lie."

Okay guys, here's the thing. Each record is really cheap for such a great album, it's 2 great songs, it comes in two colors. It helps Rwanda, it comes with a digital download and stickers, and it smells like your grandma's hugs. (Note: Only if your grandma's hugs are good memories. Please no murderer rapist grandma memories.) Also, if you have really big pockets, you can fit a 7" in it. Have I sold you on this yet?

Sorry, in all seriousness, Dustin, Ross, and Jeff do a great job and it's worth hearing.

You can stream it on their bandcamp and buy it here. This is their website and this is the Partners in Health website.

-Bear

Two Hand Fools - House Parts

You may have noticed by this point in your Idle and the Bear readership that we've mentioned Two Hand Fools on multiple occasions, but have never posted a review of anything they've recorded. Well, much to your opposite-of-dismay, I'm actually reviewing their recent album 'House Parts', and it's on bandcamp so you can listen for free and realize what I meant by they're one of the only good bands in Cleveland (along with Signals Midwest and The Fucking Cops).

Two Hand Fools sound like the hastily-abandoned-in-Cleveland lovechild of Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine and pretty much an assortment of 90s emo, Oh, and throw in some sort of folk punk sperm donor, and you pretty much have it down to a science. The singalong melodies and sometimes unorganized vocals remind me a lot of Defiance, Ohio...you know, if Defiance had balls surgically attached to their band all of a sudden. Albums like this make me want to misquote Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights and say, "If you don't like House Parts, then fuck you."

The album starts off with balls ablaze, and keeps it that way throughout. Beginning with the song "A Reminded to Me", you'll notice that there's a definite punk approach to the recording of this album. It certainly doesn't sound like anyone decided sticking to a click track would be a good idea, and it definitely doesn't sound like the drummer has even heard of a click track...but I say this all in a positive manner. I like the gritty underbelly of Cleveland punk music that this band represents. Actually, I feel like every band I get into from Cleveland kind of has a hectic style and a lot of grittiness going into what they put out. Maybe the shittiness of the city has gotten to everyone there, and has put a damper on their positive outlook and has quieted anyone who, living in any other state, might very well have ended up a perfectionist.

You'll notice with albums like these that it's quite impossible sum it up as just which songs are good and which songs don't really deserve as much of a mention. This isn't like Dorkrockcorkrod, where you can just point out the 6 songs that rule balls, and say the rest are great if you're a big fan of the band. This is one of those albums where almost everyone will pick a different set of songs to be their favorites. If you want to know what mine are, however, I'll be willing to discuss it in comments or something. There's not much of a purpose in me listening them here...because then it'd just be like the other most recent reviews I've done, in which I've posted a bulleted list of my favorite songs off the releases. I don't want to play into any character archetype, especially a self-imposed one. So fuck all of that. Just go to that bandcamp page and listen to this album. Pray your face doesn't melt and that their band doesn't omit your locale on any upcoming tours. Also pray for no more fucking rain, because I'm tired of it at this point. I'm not saying I'm tired of the song Pray For Rain, I'm saying I'm tired of precipitation. Get your facts straight, kiddo.

-Idle

Signals Midwest - Burn the Blueprints

This isn't so much a review as it is an explanatory post of something significant that is going to be occurring in July this year:  Signals Midwest will be releasing a new album. Hold your applause and such. In Cleveland, from what I can tell, there are three significant bands right now. From order of best to least best, they are as follows.

1. Signals Midwest
2. The Fucking Cops
3. Two Hand Fools

So, as you can see, according to my flawless logic and impeccable taste in music, Signals Midwest is on top of their shit. Which is good, because Cleveland is generally a pretty dismal place, which doesn't really bring much to outside world these days, assuming it ever did. I mean, they once had this ska band The Skatastrophes...but that's about it. I mean, the guitarist/singer of the Skatastrophes, Max Stern, happens to be the guitarist/singer of Signals Midwest. But, if you're a normal human, you'll agree that what he's doing now is leagues better than something that was already leagues better than what ska bands were doing at the time when Skatastrophes put out Bout Damn Time. So yeah, Burn the Blueprints.

You may notice that this album art is incredible, because it is. It was done by their bassist's girlfriend (Lauren Vandevier), and it's pretty fucking rad. If you go over to the bandcamp page for this record, you'll also notice that the songs are fucking awesome. Specifically all of the songs, plus one of them has a clip from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia...so yeah. Everything's coming up Millhouse. 

Prepare yourselves, because sometime in the near-enough future, we'll be doing an interview with Max Stern to promote the upcoming album (set to release July 15h) and we'll also post dates for their upcoming tour once everything's set in stone, so that you fuckers won't miss them when they hit up your town (assuming your in the West and such). Oh yeah, they basically sound like they listen to a lot of Ted Leo and Latterman, and then add their own spice of awesome into the concoction. So, get stoked on it.

Here's an exclusive sample from the upcoming record, dudes!

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

-Idle

P.S. Also, it's preferred that you refer to Max Stern as Maxwell "Murderface Murderface Murderface" Stern.

The Dwarves - The Dwarves Are Born Again

There are generally important moments in history, that a lot of people simply won't care about. Two of those moments being The Dwarves releasing a new album after quite some time, and that whole deal with Obama killing Osama. But, at least one person in this world cares...and that's me. I mean, I care about the new Dwarves album, not about the latter too much. Once jokes regarding the World Trade Center were no longer deemed "too soon", the event of Osama's death lost pretty much all of the steam it should've carried. Plus, he got to live in a mansion while I live in my friend's grandma's living room. Life.

So yeah, The Dwarves. Who knows who they are here? I obviously can't hear your replies, which I'm assuming you stated aloud, but I'm assuming about half of you have heard of them, and the other half have not. There's basically this band that formed in the 80s and went through various stages of sounds, and then felt most comfortable blending them all together, with a sort of insanity-stricken pop punk/surf punk finish. This new album boasts that final sound like it's a battle scar they acquired while fighting in the Holy Crusades. This album is better than I expected it to be, but the sun doesn't shine out of its ass or anything. It's a pretty standard release from a pretty standard band. I used to be in love with them, or at least in love with their Come Clean album. That thing was the shit. Regardless, here we are in the present, and not the past.

What to expect with the new Dwarves album:

• Somewhat obscene album art, but not nearly as obscene as the art used to be.
• A bunch of catchy songs which you can happily sing along to, sung by the guy who did the "Do the Sponge" song on Spongebob Squarepants.
• A better version of The Queers (HERESY?)
• Some songs that don't matter

Really, the best song on the album is "Working Class Hole" and the rest are pretty decent. This album definitely reigns supreme over that Back to the Basement album The Queers just put out, so you should check it out. What do you have to lose? Time that could've been spent droning over that Spraynard album that hardly matters? That's about it.

-Idle

You can stream the entire album over at AOL Music. Weird.

Glocca Morra/ The Greek Favourites Split

This is a split review, to match the split album!
Bear is taking Glocca Morra, and Idle is taking Greek Favourites.

GLOCCA MORRA is a 3-piece punk band from Philadelphia that has been playing for a little over two years. RIYL Greek Favourites (obviously, hah) Palmkite, Park Jefferson, or You Blew It.
Their first song on here is "Bedford Ave" and I love the bass in it. It's really strong, and then the guitar over it is pretty melodic. Oh, and the claps just make me laugh. I sit at my desk clapping along like an idiot. The vocals are good, too. The instrumentals are probably my favorite  part, though. I also really enjoy the lyrics- they're kinda abstract and I feel like there's a lot of story behind it.
"New Years Eve (Titan House)" is more screamy, which I'm typically not into, but it sounds good and they're good at what they do. Once again, the guitar is extremely melodic and sounds great.

-bear

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THE GREEK FAVOURITES are basically sex if you enjoy a few specific things when it comes to music. Those things, obviously, are lo-fi pop punk a la Delay and 90s emo a la I Hate Myself. They're from Pennsylvania, which is fitting since they play awesome fucking music, and that's pretty much the point of that state, as far as I'm concerned. 

So, let's get down to it. There are two songs on The Greek Favourites portion of this split, and they are sexier than your parents having sex (yeah man, that sexy). These songs aren't for everyone, but they're for the right people. There's a lot of screaming and a lot of weirdness in the trebly guitar leads, and together this creates this whole league of awesomeness. The drumming isn't terribly involved, and it's really just enough to get the job done. It sort of romanticizes minimalism, like Bukowski or your parents having sex.

So, to recap, if you like The Rocket Summer and All Time Low, you will probably not enjoy The Greek Favourites. If you like GOOD music, you'll probably enjoy The Greek Favourites. But hey, maybe you just won't like them, that's not my fault. That's their fault. For being better than you dudes. I'M OUT, BITCHES.

-idle

Stickup Kid - The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Stickup Kid are from Campbell, California (they got a reputation that they didn't ask for...or I'll hold off on Rancid lyrics). Well, they're technically from San Jose, CA but they moved to Campbell. So it's all the same, it just fit the lyrics better the way I chose to phrase it. Basically, they sound like Kid Dynamite, which is a very good thing for a band to sound like. I mean, they're not Kid Dynamite, which is also good. It's not like how whenever there's some new crack rock band it sounds exactly like Choking Victim. It's just they play the same genre and they play it pretty damn well.

They just released this new album, titled 'The Sincerest Form of Flattery', and it's loaded with pop punk-hardcore goodness and it's pretty much the perfect musical gift to be enjoyed in all of this shitty weather. The recording is on the hi-fi side, without sounding over-produced or polished-to-death. It sounds like an honest punk effort, and it sounds like you're going to fucking like it. Listening to this album, it may strike you on occasion that you might have accidentally switched to Latterman, or Saves the Day, or Crucial Dudes, or With the Punches, or Caleb Lionheart...or many other bands that are similar to this Kid Dynamite/Lifetime-style.

Listening to this album, it may also occur to you that there's not a damn thing not to link on it. All of the songs demand your attention and do a pretty good job and making you feel rewarded for the time you spend listening to the shit. It's energetic, it's loud (well, I guess that's up to your speakers...but for me, it's loud), and it's awesome as fuck. If you don't listen to this album, you're an asshat. If you don't like it, then it's just not your style of music. So it's pretty clear what you do here.

Songs that will be the soundtrack to your next paint ball fight/NFL Blitz tournament/slam session/morning routine are as follows:

• You're Killin' Me, Smalls
• Helga's Makeover
• Powerbomb, Compliments of Captain Insano
• For British Eyes Only

So, you've been given your mission. Go out and listen to some Dynalifemanheart type music. I know this was a short/weird/unentertaining review from me...but hey, I can't shit gold all day. Or ever. Or whatever. It's fucking good, is the point. Stickup Kid shits gold, not me. So do it.

-Idle

Flip Like Wilson- Demo

Flip Like Wilson- UK pop punk/easycore. Fast paced, awesome-ness. Not much else to say.

"Lily" is a really sad song, but you couldn't tell by the music. It's got addictive as hell, strong guitar and bass riffs with powerful drums. The vocals are intensely awesome, and the lyrics are cuter than kittens. This song will legitimately be stuck in my head ALL day.

"This is What I Kid Myself" makes me think of All Time Low, but in a good way. Once again, it's super catchy. It also has a little clip from The Cable Guy, and it made me happy. Oh, and I'm a sucker for group yell-y vocals. The "I'm in love, I'm in love!" part always makes my heart swell..

You should listen to Flip Like Wilson. I'm excited to hear what else they put out.

Free download on bandcamp. Facebook.

-Bear