Lost Ocean - Night to Life

Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Pop
Release Date: 8/15/2006
Sounds Like: Coldplay
Overall Rating: 3.9/10

Summary: Do you like Coldplay? If you do then perhaps you will like Lost Ocean or maybe you will feel like you have been let down by a pretender. There is nothing wrong with having influences, but this is thievery. I think these guys are good musicians, but they do not know who they are yet. Click here to listen and learn more about them.

Ratings Summary:
Originality within Genre: 3.0
Originality by Band: 5.0
Production: 7.0
Did I like it?: 3.0

Track Ratings:
1) 4.0
2) 5.0
3) 3.0

4) 3.0

5) 4.0

Explosions in Space 11/25/06

A new Explosions in Space show is up on the explosions page. Click here to go there. I managed to get this one up a day early. Must be the holiday. This week's mix is weighted more on the heavy side as you will see. We have some post-punk from Thursday and At The Drive In. We have a healthy dose of metal from Isis, Type O Negative and a killer tune from the Spawn Soundtrack. We have Moby! Yes, that Moby! He released a rock album back in the late 90's that pretty much rocks. No Dance music here. And finally a beautiful drinking song from Silkworm called DRUNK. I think that about sums it up. If you are too lazy to go to the explosions page click here to listen now.

Daturah - Daturah

Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Rock
Release Date: 2005
Sounds Like: Mogwai, Mono, Explosions in the Sky
Overall Rating: 7.6/10

Summary: Daturah is the biotanical name for Jimson Weed. A drug that Hunter S. Thompson made famous in the Great Shark Hunt. Jimson weed is a hallucinatory drug that has a profound effect on the sensory and physchological aspects of the mind. Sight and sound can be blurred and distorted. Noise can become music and music can become ambient noise. It is twisted and hence the name of this band. Yeah, I know it was released last year, but have you heard of it? Probably not, so it is new for both of us. Rather than bore you with my prose, just read this and understand why I love this band. Visit their myspace site for more info and tunes.

Ratings Summary:
Originality within Genre: 7.9
Originality by Band: 7.5
Production: 8.0
Did I like it?: 7.8

Track Ratings:
1) 7.2
2) 7.9
3) 6.9

Heliconia - Glad You Were Born

Genre: Indie Rock, Shoegaze
Release Date: Summer 2006
Sounds Like: The Verve, My Bloody Valentine, Catherine Wheel
Overall Rating: 7.2/10

Summary: This is the debut full length for England's Heliconia. Glad You Were Born is just a great album. Why flower it with poetic words like... lush walls of distorted guitars over a water fall of rainbow prisms. Why declare that the album shimmers like a billion diamonds strewn across the sunlit sand. Why? It's really simple because this album does all of that, and if you listen, and if you like even a bit of classic shoegaze then you will understand. This is what I have been waiting to hear, a band who embraces the early 90's shoegaze movement and one ups it to a new level. I must give one bit of criticism though, it sounds too much like early Catherine Wheel. Wait, that's a good thing! My mp3 player will wear out its batteries on this album. Buy it, download it, steal it! Just get it! Visit their myspace site for more info and of course tunes.

Ratings Summary:
Originality within Genre: 7.7
Originality by Band: 7.0
Production: 8.0
Did I like it?: 8.5

Track Ratings:
1) 8.1
2) 7.2
3) 6.1
4) 7.8
5) 6.9
6) 5.8
7) 6.9
8) 7.2
9) 6.6
10) 5.2

11) 7.7

Nassau - Machines to Paradise

Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic

Release Date: 10/24/06

Sounds Like: Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Trail of Dead
Overall Rating: 6.9/10

Summary: Nassau is from Toronto, Canada. Machines to Paradise is their second full length album. This album is a straight ahead psychedelic rocker. The band wears its influences on its sleeve. You hear early Pink Floyd, The Byrds, Blue Oyster Cult and more contemporary bands like Trail of Dead. Yet despite these influences they maintain a unique sound that is purely Nassau. I have a feeling this album will get better with a few more listens, especially late at night with the headphones on. Check out their sounds here.

Ratings Summary:
Originality within Genre: 7.5
Originality by Band: 7.5
Production: 8.5
Did I like it?: 6.7

Track Ratings:
1) 6.6
2) 6.8
3) 6.5
4) 5.5
5) 6.1
6) 6.8
7) 5.8
8) 6.7
9) 7.2
10) 6.6

11) 7.8