Category: Bands/Comps/Splits
The Noise reviews Matt Everett’s ‘White Sugar’
MATT EVERETT
75 or Less Records
White Sugar
8 tracks
Matt Everett is a Rhode Island artist, who performs vocals, guitar, synth, strings, and more on these eight tracks. He is accompanied by Stu Powers, on drums and Greg Motta, covering drums and percussion. This is essentially pop music with elements of modern disco. But, can you dance to it? It may very well inspire you to dance to it, but to my ears, these tracks play more like pleasant background music. That’s just the vibe that I get from it. The music feels as if it is striving at times, to reach something akin to the slick, smooth style which Davie Bowie performed so strikingly well when he was in dance music mode, most notably so, on track 7, “The Greatest Thing.” I loved it when David Bowie did it, but if I am right about what I am hearing and those are the heights that Matt Everett is aspiring to reach, then by comparison, this music has a long way to go. Is it bad music? Not at all. Is it DANCE music? I’m not feeling that. As I’ve said, this would work best for me as background music played while chilling in the comfort of your living room, or while cruising in your car.
Track 5, “Cheap Plastic Shovel,” seemed interestingly out of place amidst the rest of these tracks, and I mean this in the best possible way. There are some heartfelt, genuinely moving lyrics in this song. It had a story to tell. One that I wanted to hear. I would have liked to hear more like this one. Out of all eight tracks, this one really caught my attention, making me stop and listen and really hear. Track 6, “Quickening,” rated as a winner for me as well. It’s smooth, quality music, easy on the ears, it falls nicely into its own sort of groove, a pinch of trance, a dash of ambient sound, and there you have it. So, my take on White Sugar? I wasn’t blown away by it, but all in all, pretty sweet. Check it out.
Eric Baylies Top 10 in The Noise
Top 10 New England Bands
1. Doomsday Student: Doomsday Student is one of the best live bands in the world and put out incredible skronky post-everything albums.
2. 6 Star General: 6 Star General have been one of my favorite bands for about 10 years. The pride of Warren, Rhode Island, they consistently put out fantastic albums almost annually.
3. Lazertuth: the pride of outer space and southesatern Mass. Lazertuth is a modern day Magma.
4. Goon Planet: Providence has produced a lot of great noisy bands over the years, and Goon Planet is the latest in a long line of geniuses.
5. Pyramid: If Blondie or the Pretenders were a little more punk, but kept the great hooks, they would sound like Rhode Island’s Pyramid.
6. Sick Pills: Chris Evil and company have been cranking out punk gems for a long time, but Sick Pills add touches of The Modern Lovers and Cars to the mix.
7. Picniclunch: Picnic Lunch is the new kings of no wave.
8. David Carradine: Providence thrash punks have been destroying stages world wide for over a decade.
9. Ioneye: Newport, Rhode Island’s Ioneye is the solo project of Stephen Lepre, one of the greatest shredding guitar players on the planet.
10. Olneyville Sound System: OSS has been one the pillars of the Providence noise scene for 20 years, but is set apart a little due to the fact that they happen to also write great songs.
Eric Baylies Favorite Things in Boston Hassle
75orless records and Load records: still awesome after all these years.
Motif names Tall Teenagers and Jets Can’t Land in Top Local Albums of 2016
Best Local Albums
4) Jets Can’t Land – You Can’t Linger On (75OrLess Records) – Indie guitar swing at its finest, complete with all the bells and whistles. Jets Can’t Land even accomplished this without using any bells or whistles.
1) Tall Teenagers – Self-titled – Tall Teenagers’ debut is an homage to indie rock in the vein of Surfa Rosa Pixies. The tension in Damian Puerini’s and Chelsea Paulhus’ vocals makes me probably like this record better than the 2017 Pixies album.
Blood Moons Reunion Show in Motif
The Blood Moons
The Blood Moons’ debut (self-titled 2009) was one of my favorite local records that I’ve heard since someone thought it was a good idea to pay me to talk about music. The Blood Moons were a departure of sorts from the hardcore punk rock of singer-guitarist Chris Guaraldi’s previous band, Chris Evil and The Taints. The Blood Moons had an element of dark country set to garage beats that really had a unique vision. They released another self-titled (album names were never the band’s strength) split EP with Six Star General before ceasing to play out regularly. Guaraldi formed Sick Pills, who put out a record and did another Taints record. This reunion show should be a real treat. Catch one of the best local bands from 2009 to 2011.
Matt Everett – White Sugar
75OL-250 Matt Everett – White Sugar
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Stay Alive
2. No I don’t
3. Secret Satellite
4. Messed Up By Sound
5. Cheap Plastic Shovel
6. Quickening
7. The Greatest Thing
8. Up On A Cloud
A different take on disco and soul music from the mercurial Matt Everett. A dance able melding of modern and classic disco/psych/pop elements. Flavors of: Bee Gees, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, MGMT, Brian Eno.
‘This feels so true, simple and direct as morning sunlight or a glass of water when you’re thirsty… there are
no singular standouts here, as it’s all cut from the same fine cloth.’ –
Dream Magazine, review of Matt Everett album “Little Epiphany”
Crotchthrottle – Whatever We’re Calling The Next Album
75OL-251 Crotchthrottle – Whatever We’re Calling The Next Album CD / Digital Download
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
01. Damn The Pan Flutes
02. Desynchronosis
03. Chichtract
04. Signpost
05. Carrot / Stick
06. Hexaflagon
07. Your Stomach Is A Hydra
08. Night Balloons
09. Metric Spectrum
10. Under The Influence Of Oxygen
11. Millions Of Miniature Mammoths
Legendarily saved to a hard drive which was lost in a taxicab abandoned in the desert and rediscovered by hapless archaeologists, Whatever We’re Calling The Next Album is a psychedelic compendium of rockers and wobblers. The only unifying constraint of the affair is the omission of vocals or lyrics, leaving the listener to make up words on their own.
The Callouts – Check Your Friends
75OL-248 The Callouts – Check Your Friends
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1 Blue Letter
2 Go All Out
3 Cannonball
4 Nothing Left
5 Partly Not
6 We Were Kids
7 What Is It For
The Callouts are a Providence, RI based band that combines searing guitars with a diverse rhythm section and the sugary pipes of Providence veteran Missa Hills. Their first release “check your friends” is an alternative/pop-punk extravaganza. The album offers something for everyone including heavier tracks like “We Were Kids” and “What Is It For”, as well as the pop-punk vibe on songs like “Blue Letter” and the short but sweet “Partly Not”. The Callouts live shows are a high energy replica of this album and they’ll have you singing along and coming back for more.
The Underwires at Jimmy’s Saloon
with Red Mantis, Double Whoa Sevens
Jimmy’s Saloon
Memorial Blvd
Newport, RI
9pm
The Callouts ‘Check Your Friends’ Review in Motif Magazine
The Callouts – Check Your Friends (75orLess Records)
It has been a few years since the demise of local pop-punk stalwarts The Jesse Minute. From those ashes we now have The Callouts with Missa Hills on vocals and guitarists Drew Safs and Mike Grillo from The Jesse Minute joining forces with local master beat master Dan Ulmschneider and Drew on bass. The Callouts’ debut, Check Your Friends comes firing out of the cannon with a blast of pop-punk with cuts like “Blue Letter” and the anthemic “Go All Out.” The combination of Hills’ sugary vocals and the loud guitars over a fast backbeat make comparisons to The Jesse Minute inevitable as Check Your Friends does start out like the band’s lost album. The more one dives into Check Your Friends the more The Callouts start to break free from the sound of their former band. Cuts like “Cannonball” and my favorite cut “Nothing Left” remind me more of a lost Letter to Cleo track than The Jesse Minute. The Callouts really start to drop the hammer on tracks like “Partly Not” and “We Were Kids,” which have a heavier rock ‘n’ roll thump, almost in the in the vein of Foo Fighters hooks. On Check Your Friends, The Callouts succeed in avoiding the trappings of being The Jesse Minute part 2 to expand into the future.