From the newtimes...
Like a spicy gumbo, the New Times Summer of Sound rock show is brimming with a collision of flavors. Set to take place on Saturday, Aug 16, at The Clubhouse Music Venue in Tempe, the rock show features the masterful melodic rock of Source Victoria, the trippy jams of Rocketline, the world-music fusion of My Feral Kin, and the danceable sonic forays of Cardiac Party. Headlining the night will be Dear and the Headlights, a local band that's recently gone national its brand of layered, smart-ass indie rock. We all look forward to serving it all up.
SOURCE VICTORIA - If 2007 was any indication, 2008 is gonna be a great year for Tempe rockers Source Victoria. Not only did the quintet record a stellar album — the atmospheric, hookladen The Fast Escape — with Grammywinning producer Chris Testa (Jimmy Eat World, Dixie Chicks), but they also rocked stages with local luminaries like Reubens Accomplice, The Format, and Jimmy Eat World. In fact, JEW frontman Jim Adkins is one of Source Victoria’s biggest fans, and he joined them onstage for the band’s CD release party last year to jam on the song “Opportunistic.” Source Victoria’s kept the momentum going in ’08, heading back into the studio with Testa this past February to lay down some new tracks, and preparing to unleash their catchy, intricately woven indie rock at this year’s Summer of Sound rock show
ROCKETLINE - We’ve long heard that “Rock ’n’ roll is the devil’s music.” But the music of Phoenix band Rocketline seems made more for Buddha than Beelzebub — if Buddha was tripping mellow on psychedelics, that is. The progressive, mostly instrumental group composes spacey soundscapes that meander through a variety of philosophical vibes, from the bi-polar feel of “Toxic Daze” (reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” in its rattling atmospherics) to the scattered-and-scary “Zombie Planet” (which functions as a sonic metaphor for a homogenized society). Whatever the message, Rocketline promises to bring the jams. So bring your minds, because Rocketline is ready to open them. If they fail in that mission, they’re a shooin to compose and record the score to the next film based on an Aldous Huxley or George Orwell novel.
MY FERAL KIN - Do they make rock, or do they make world music? Answering that question in regards to the sound of Tempe band My Feral Kin is about as rhetorical and pointless as the old “glass half-empty or half-full” question. The truth is, this local quartet pulls pages from the books of both genres, creating a hybrid that is both familiar and refreshing. The band’s new album, The Blackened Flat Tax, boasts a blend of African beats, South American folk, and island elements — largely culled from frontman Julio Mendoza Jr.’s upbringing by a Venezuelan father and a mother from the Dominican Republic — alongside traditional rock riffs and verse-chorus-verse song structures. Lyrically, things can get a bit dark (the song “The Flat Tax” tells the story of a child who witnesses a rape), but musically, My Feral Kin is a culture trip that’s well worth taking.
CARDIAC PARTY - The four guys in Tempe-based band Cardiac Party describe their music as “melodramatic popular song,” which is about as fitting a definition for the band’s quirky, avant-garde compositions as anything. Songs like “When I Stencil on Your Brain” brim with hypnotic samples and glitchy sound effects, while “Urban Desert Make Up Dress Down” takes on a New Wave-feel with wavering, David Byrne-ish vocals and buzzing keys. Still other songs, like “Green Skulls,” mix trance grooves with a low-key, distorted guitar hook. The one unifying factor in all the songs is a great beat — the percussion often hangs back in the mixes, but the voodoo rhythms and pulsing drums keep everything palatable and easy to nod your head to, no matter how whacky or experimental the rest of the songs get.
DEAR AND THE HEADLIGHTS - If being signed to Equal Vision Records, touring with Circa Survive, playing a Chicago gig on the 2007 Lollapalooza tour, and opening for Jimmy Eat World and Paramore on a cross-country spring tour counts as going “big,” then Phoenix rock band Dear and the Headlights is the latest local band to go big. Their debut album, Small Steps, Heavy Hooves, was recorded by local studio wizard Bob Hoag (formerly of The Go Reflex and also keyboardist for The Ataris), and features a slew of well-wrought, melodic snark songs (titles like “I’m Bored, You’re Amorous” and “Skinned Knees and Gapped Teeth” should give you some indication). Web site Rebel Punk (soon to be sporkmedia. com) gave the record five stars, and AbsolutePunk.net called it “an album that most indie-snob rockers would sell their Dinosaur Jr. vinyl discography for.” That would be a pretty big deal, indeed. — Niki D’Andrea
