Jet’s Can’t Land live performance of ‘Digging Out’
Boston’s The Noise reviews Gaskill and the Everett Brothers Moving Company
You can read the reviews here
EVERETT BROS. MOVING COMPANY – Moving Misfortune
13 tracks
The debut album by this Rhode Island five-piece commences with a wistful country-rock number, “Middle 8,” which is followed by “My Turn,” a glad-making indie-pop toe-tapper. Their cover of the Meat Puppets’ “Up On the Sun” is a mellow confection; “PYT” is a circusy tune about a Pretty Young Thing which puts me in mind of Walter Sickert and His Army of Broken Toys. “Old Relations” varies the pace with a dirge-like lament. “Feel Good” is a spooky near-recitative with a bit of a psychedelic edge which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Pebbles compilation. “Hands of Fate” has an invulnerable Bo Diddley-style beat in back of it, with a delivery worthy of Elvis Costello at his grittiest. “Handful of Pills” has an appealing cascading feel in the guitar hook and is sung with an air of insouciant despair. There are enough quality tunes on this inaugural foray to make me look forward to the band’s next outing.
GASKILL – The End of the World
9 tracks
New Bedford’s Gaskill started in the mid-’90s. They played for about 10 years and called it a day. They came back a couple of years ago and have finally put out their first release in about 15 years. Don’t let Beatles and Carpenters covers fool you, this is extremely heavy. Kevin Grant swoons and serenades here and there but he is still a great screamer. His voice brings a little catchy feel to the brutality. A little more metal than their punk rock roots, Gaskill change not with the times, but with their own convictions. Be forewarned, you will be steamrolled and there will be blood. Lot’s of blood.
Limelight Magazine 8th Annual Online Readers Poll Now Out
Limelight Magazine has announced their 8th Annual Online Readers Poll. 75orLess nominees include Jets Can’t Land, The Lincoln Tunnel, and Outlaw in Peru (who are all competing against each other.)
The Spectacular Fantastic – Circling the Sun
75OL-236 The Spectacular Fantastic – Circling the Sun
$7.00 S&H Included
Noncommercial-License/Free Download
Track Listing
- Without You
- Living in the Country
- Wasting All My Time
- I Would Do The Same
- Absent Mind
- Brand new Day
- Complicated
- Prison of Love
- It’s So Hard
- Sometime I Feel
- Dying In The Sand
- So Unreal
The Spectacular Fantastic is back with another crunchy, catchy, twangy album full of the sugary hooks that you have come to expect from the Cincinnati-based power pop project. Seven years since the last release on 75orlessRecords (Consume/Reward) have left the band plenty of time to refine and hone their heartland honesty and melodic sound. From the instantly memorable “Without You,” to the back porch strumming of “It’s So Hard,” The Spectacular Fantastic cover a dizzying array of sounds and styles with the new album, Circling The Sun. With influences running the gamut from the Elephant 6 Collective, to classic rock in the vein of Neil Young, to the powerful pop of Big Star, TSF will assure listeners a diverse voyage into the history of pop-leaning-rock with unique twists and choruses that sound familiar and new at once. The current incarnation of the band consists of Mike Detmer and Jonathan Williams. Each member adds to the instrumentation and production of the new album while Dave Davis handled the mastering duties.
The Deli NYC reviews Jets Can’t Land album ‘You Can’t Linger On’
This past November, Providence power pop quartet Jets Can’t Land released its ruggedly sweet debut EP, ‘You Can’t Linger On.’ As heard in the irresistibly nostalgic, guitar-fuzzed opener “A ‘70s Photograph” (streaming below), which excitingly melds the jagged splendor of Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” with the pure warmth of The Kinks’ “Powerman,” the six-song effort shows a band not so much enslaved by past struggle but ennobled, and even strengthened, by it. Jets Can’t Land plays at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island on 2/19. – Zach Weg
Jets Can’t Land video for ‘A 70’s Photograph’
Boston’s The Noise reviews The Lincoln Tunnel, Jets Can’t Land, Radio Carbon, and Gavage
RADIO CARBON – Caveman Ballads
7 tracks 75orless Records
There are no ballads on this record, although there might be some cavemen. The Troggs have influenced all punk and rock in a way, but that’s about it. This Providence band can destroy you, literally, if they want to. (The singer is a big man.) Based on my experience of seeing Radio Carbon live a few times, the only thing they want to hurt is your ears. The volume and energy is intense, and the songs and musicianship are polished but gritty. A solid release with one good song after another. It’s punk with elements of stoner and noise rock, and all that’s still good in this world.
THE LINCOLN TUNNEL – Today 2.0
75 Or Less Records
10 tracks
Christian Calderone is a smart songwriter and lyricist; one of the best around, judging from this debut effort. “Damn, I Wear It Well” begins this epic collection of brilliant songs with a circus-like romp, replete with a bass played like a trombone, an attenuated oompah rhythm, and some scorching guitar. “Big Decision” has a preening and brittle punk guitar rhythm and world-weary trailing vocals. “All Together Wrong” is lively, frantic indie rock bravado in the vein of the DBs; eminently hit-worthy. “Friend of the Roses” is a tuneful romp with an electrifying guitar-bass-drum hook and wistful trumpet filigrees courtesy of Ellen Block. “Makin’ Cents and Takin’ Vows” features liquescent guitar and is otherwise an inoffensive ballad. “Elemental Sun” features slapping drums and ingenious harmony vocals in the lead-up to the chorus. “Our Mother’s Sons” combines twangy guitar and echoey glad-making vocals with a lonesome trumpet melody. A surprisingly touching song, and Best of Show. “Ordinary Sky” is elevated psyche interspersed with an irresistible cascading guitar riff; it comes to a climax which is short and sweet. “Memphis” is a straight-ahead, paint-peeling, numinously buzzing rocker. “Line My Pockets” is a mysterious and spacy yet upbeat and surly love song. This is mostly excellent all the way through; the songs are smart and the band uses instrumentals like a good painter mixes colors for effect. Definitely a band to watch.
JETS CAN’T LAND – You Can’t Linger On
6 tracks
Some tasty retro ’9’s alt-pop from Rhode Island that you could probably seduce middle-aged chicks with, especially if you were slumming it in Providence. Very lightly psychedelic and jangly (in a non-’80s way), You Can’t Linger On will remind you of whatever obscure local indie-rock sensation you were into in 1994. Plus the lyrics are good, with MASH and ELO references and bummer lines like “Here I am watching things go bad again.” I’m not sure that I would personally listen to this regularly – I hate the ’90s except for that one song by Matthew Sweet – but if you’re still laboring under the delusion that everything was swell back when we were young and eating ramen for dinner six times a week, then this is your new favorite band.
GAVAGE – self titled
10 tracks
Gavage is a Providence punk rock group. There are catchy parts, heavy parts, and sax from Adrienne from one of the town’s best bands Downtown Boys that adds a slight undercurrent of avant garde to the rock ’n’ roll. I like that the CD comes with a lyric sheet, not many bands bother with this anymore. This is a good album to listen to as you stroll drunkenly down a dark alley, just before something crazy happens. If you make it out of that alley, you’ll want to listen to this album over and over again.
Indie Minded reviews Jets Can’t Land’s ‘You Can’t Linger on’
You Can’t Linger On by Jets Can’t Land
In a business flooded with naïve kids dreaming of escaping their hometown and making it big, Rhode Island-based indie rock band, Jets Can’t Land, are not your typical up and comers. An experienced group of guys with an appreciation for quality music, members Michael Bilodeau, Kyle Jackson, Eric Meier and Keith Swist have all played with different bands throughout the local music scene over the course of their careers. Jets Can’t Land recently released their six track debut EP You Can’t Linger On.
You Can’t Linger On kicks off with “A 70’s Photograph.” Opening with a driving drum line which introduces the lead guitar, what stands out most on this song are the vocals. With a weathered rawness that allows a degree of purity to be brought to this, and other tracks, Meier’s voice compliments the sense of nostalgia that is achieved through lyrics such as “Standing on the edge of the grass/I’m thirteen again and lost in the past.” Both do a good job of bringing listeners back in time making this track highly relatable for most people. Taking the mood down a notch or two is “Digging Out.” This mid-tempo bit opens with a repetitive guitar riff that is followed by somewhat depressing lyrics such as “I’ve been digging out/From all the problems that remain/You’d go home again but you can’t.” Ultimately, this is one of those songs you could sing along to in a bar while drinking with friends.
Two of my favorite tracks, “Wasted” and “Another Day Gone By” are at the half way point of You Can’t Linger On. “Wasted” opens with instrumentation that works together to create an old school sonic feel. The track is an apology love song done in the way that only a 90s grunge influenced indie rock band could do it as they sing “I know you’re wasted you’re damaged I wanted you/To hear I’m sorry, for all the things I put you through/I’d been entrusted, I fucked up and now I know…I watched the sun go down right in your eyes.” Continuing with the theme of relationships, “Another Day Gone By” opens with guitar playing that seamlessly moves through chord progressions creating a sense of time passing, appropriate given the song’s name. It’s a strong track and quite possibly my favorite on this release. “Another Day Gone By” sets the tone for the feelings that are inevitably left behind as you continuously go over everything in an attempt to get past emotional wounds. It is a sad song, or as the guys would refer to it, a song about “getting over sad shit that happened.”
“The Falling Sky” is an apocalyptic sounding song that begins to wrap up You Can’t Linger On. Jets Can’t Land have described themselves as a guitar band but the playing starts to sound a little too familiar by this point on the release. However, by mid-song the guitar playing picks up and changes up in a way that makes me want to hear more. Hopefully, on future releases Jets Can’t Land will showcase the range of ability they have on guitar because his solo is the star here. You Can’t Linger On wraps with “I Can’t Do That Dave.” With a long musical intro reminiscent to the days of bands such as Pearl Jam, the guitar solo on this track will make you feel like you’re lifting into the sky. While the lyrics are strong with lines such as “You got away with all your lying (oh my mind is gone)/I got a feeling like I’m dying (dying for too long)…,” the guitar is the real storyteller on this one closing with slight distorted feedback creating the impression that Jets Can’t Land have faded off into the sunset, or maybe simply lingered on.
Jets Can’t Land is not a groundbreaking band that is going to turn the music world upside down. After all, very few do. But with an approach that blends a certain degree of nonchalance with the expectations that experience in the industry has taught them, Jets Can’t Land does offer an authenticity that shines through on their debut. They are a solid band, but You Can’t Linger On hovers somewhere in that great space between anything goes basement jamming and shameless commercialization without ever getting close to either. However, with some truly noteworthy guitar solos, impressive lyrics and a sound that brings you back to the era when flannel was a fashion statement and music mattered, Jets Can’t Land’s debut EP You Can’t Linger On is worth a listen.
Mike Mountain Interview in the New Bedford Guide
Mike Mountain is a well known band from New Bedford. They straddle a fine line between the noise-rock underground and catchy, hook filled tunes. I had a few choice words with lead singer Michael Montagano about cultural diffusion, spontaneous combustion, rock and roll and Portuguese cuisine.
How did Mike Mountain get started?
Michael: I had known (bassist) Jeff for a while. I was impressed he was able to quit his job to make a living playing music. I toured down to Miami in an early version of the band with Jeff and got to know him better. Eventually it coalesced into something more permanent. The guitarist Steve and I had played on and off for years, and Jeff used to play with our drummer (also named Mike).
Mike Mountain Band New BedfordHow do you guys come up with your songs? Is here a magic formula? What’s it all about?
Michael: There is no set pattern. Jeff comes up with bass lines first for most of the songs, but some have started with Steve on guitar or my lyrics. A lot of bands jam and make songs from those sessions. We don’t really do that. Lyrically I tend to gravitate to open ended meanings that people can attach their own significance to. It is a kind of stream of consciousness. I don’t over think it.
I know you are recording a new album. How is that going?
Michael: Great! We are recording at Feedback Studios in Freetown with the New Wave Cafe’s main sound engineer Ron Poitras. Ron has been great, very professional but laid back. Its inexpensive but very big sounding. We are almost done, just some some guitar and vocal overdubs left.
What impelled you to play music in the first place?
Michael: Most of my formative years were spent going to shows in the early to mid 1990’s. Lyrical influences, well I try to take what influences me from different genres. I like Bob Dylan and The Kinks from the 1960’s, Bruce Springsteen and the Swell Maps from the 1970’s, Drunks with Guns and the Birthday Party from the 1980’s, Pavement,Royal Trux and the Jesus Lizard from the 1990’s. A lot of things appeal to me, it is difficult to quantify.
It is obvious from that response that it may be difficult for Mike Mountain to fit in with a certain scene or clique in New Bedford. How do you manage?
Michael: Because we are all in our mid 3o’s there is a certain desperation to do our best work now, not like we are young kids and will have a lot of future bands. We can’t afford to worry about the little stuff. We cover a song by A Stoveboat. All of their songs were about Whaling, its kind of a sea shanty. I feel like a lot of poets come from New England and we fit in that with a sort of New England perception. We have an original sound but we like to think we can appeal to the average person. it is hard for us to be grouped into one scene but hat may be beneficial to us eventually. Our first two CD’s have a wide range. We don’t want the songs to sound alike.
What do you make of the New Bedford area since you started at nearby U- Mass Dartmouth about 20 years ago?
Michael: Downtown was a ghostland. It is nice to see a cultural renaissance, made all the more remarkable during a recession. There are places to play and hear music,eat and get out in general.
What’s coming up for Mike Mountain?
Michael: Jeff and I have the freedom socially to just go out and play and not worry about money, so we will do more touring, but we have to work around the other guys lives. We will have our second album out on 75 Or Less Records soon. We want to tour as much as we can, but you will still see us playing around town.
Mike Mountain will be playing No Problemo and the New Wave soon, so keep a lookout for New Bedford’s best kept secret.