Scott Reynolds and the Steaming Beast is the project of a few friends getting together to make some music. The Steaming Beast’s debut effort, Adventure Boy features the work of Scott Reynolds, Steve Drozd of the Flaming Lips, and multi-instrumentalist David Friedmann. The sound of the Steaming Beast is multi faceted there’s strong songwriting, each song could work on just an acoustic guitar, but it’s not folk. Each song has more than a little bit of heart and occasionally a slide guitar, but I wouldn’t call it alt. country because the structure and lyrics are too quirky. I think the best fit of genre would be the late 80’s early 90’s alternative label, although don’t think this is old fogy music, there’s occasionally electronic blips and beeps to keep the kids these days interested in the bouncy tunes and witty narrative.
There’s quite a bit of variety on the album, and the fun the musicians are having translates well into the recording and makes me think that a live performance would be just as fun.
Scott Reynolds and the Steaming Beast – Jesus, Satan, Gene Beeman, his car, and Pizza Hut
Scott Reynolds and the Steaming Beast – The Truth Teller’s Soul
Drag the River is an alternative country rock band out of Colorado, they’ve been working towards their latest incarnation since 1996. Their sound is solidly grounded in all of the elements that might come to mind when you think of alt. country; slide guitar, spare piano and heartfelt rusty vocals. Once in a while you might be surprised by a few things thrown into the mix. One such instance is on “Rangement”, where a sultry Louisiana style horn section bursts onto the scene and spices up the rhythm.
The greatest strength of their latest album You Can’t Live This Way, is their solid sentimental songwriting. It expresses perfectly, the love/hate relationship with our past and where we came from and our future and where it leads. Fans of Wilco and Son Volt in particular will find something to like here.
Drag the River – Rangement
Drag the River – Death of the Life of the Party
Chairs in the Arno have an interesting origin. Their name comes from a story of the founding members of the band studying abroad in Italy. They were apparently having a bit too much fun, swigging wine and gallivanting about the country side, one thing led to another and literally there were lawn chairs thrown into the Arno river.
Origins aside, Chairs in the Arno’s debut album “File Folder”, is the true successor to the heartfelt synth IDM pop of Figurine, complete with Boy/Girl layered vocals, gimmicky technology concepts, and lyrics so saccharine sweet they will melt you upon contact.
Chairs in the Arno – I Never Loved You Anyways
Chairs in the Arno – Preprogrammed Casio
Chris Price is an electronic music artist whose compositions garnered attention from the early to mid 1980’s in many adult films under the name D’Crescendo. At the time too young to view the movies that his music was in, he went largely unaware of the recognition that he was receiving from the films. It is said that people began going to the movies for the music alone. As Chris Price came of age, the adult entertainment industry began moving away from original music works and started copying the top 40 musical styles to engage a larger audience. It was at this time that he shed his D’Crescendo moniker and began doing work for the Weather Channel and through this forum eventually caught the attention of a prominent Christian movie director, for which he produced the music for a series of direct to video releases. From this exposure he influenced Gangsta Christian rapper Geto Deacon to make an album comprised almost completely of Chris Price samples. After revisiting the works of his D’Crescendo days, Chris Price has decided to make an original album in the flavor of his influences; which include Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Depeche Mode among others.
Chris Prices’ music is excellently programmed, he has a true understanding of vintage synth-pop that many are sure to enjoy. His mastery and appreciation of synth pop classics also comes with a classic case of the New Order problem. The music itself is wonderful, full of throbbing rhythms and catchy melodies but the lyrics sometimes leave something to be desired. Even fans of New Order have to concede that Bernard Sumner is not the world’s most brilliant lyricist. While sometimes this is endearing, other times it can be quite painful to endure (ala “Booty Magic”). Then again maybe it’s influence from being around the sub par acting and scripts of the adult film industry and the Christian film industry. That said, I applaud his willingness to experiment with so many different styles. Collectively there are still solid hits on his debut Post Pop Parade with the decidedly Herbie Hancock-ish “Work It”, the slow burn of “And She Was” (No not a Talking Heads Cover) that is a wonderful homage to New Order, complete with heavily chorused bass melody, and obvious lead single “Dim the Lights, Evangeline” that combines the catchiest lyrics on the entire album with sublime squiggly synths. If you’ve got a fever, and the only medication is more vocoder, Chris Price is prepared to fill the prescription.
