Go Crash Audio - Dear, Song in My Head CD Review

DOWNLOAD: Go Crash Audio - "The Gift"

By chance, I met some of the members of Go Crash Audio when they were in town for a show at Webster Hall and they were kind enough to give me a copy of their current CD Dear, Song In My Head.

There isn't a lot of background information on the 'net on Go Crash Audio so I can't lead in with much of a bio sketch. I did find that the band is based out of Omaha, NE and they released their first disc ...With Wings and Radar in 2006. Go Crash Audio played some dates on the 2007 Warped Tour and their punk-pop sounds fits well alongside bands like Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit The Lights and a lot of the Drive-Thru Records acts.

The band's current disc was produced by Zach Odom and Kenneth Mount (Cartel, Mayday Parade, All Time Low, Every Avenue, Radagun, The Fold, etc.) who give the band's sound a nice balance between Deryck Stanek's vocals and the band's energetic pop hooks. Lyrically, Go Crash Audio fall within the emo genre but they have more of a sense of humor than many of their contemporaries and don't seem to embrace the "life sucks" outlook that defines a lot of the emo genre.



Go Crash Audio is currently touring the East Coast with Conditions and here are the upcoming tour dates:

Sept. 21 2009, 7:00PM, Vibe Lounge, Rockville Center, New York
Sept. 23 2009, 7:00PM, Melrose VFW Post 1506, Melrose, Massachusetts
Sept. 24 2009, 5:00PM, Stadium Ten Pin, Manchester, New Hampshire
Sept. 25 2009, 5:00PM, Russellville Grange, Oxford, Pennsylvania
Sept. 26 2009, 6:00PM, The Eldolyn Terrace, Altoona, Pennsylvania
Sept. 27 2009, 6:00PM, Rockstar @ Peabody’s, Cleveland, Ohio
Sept. 28 2009, 5:00PM, Mac’s Bar, Lansing, Michigan
Sept. 29 2009, 6:00PM, The Mixtape, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sept. 30 2009, 6:00PM, The Korova, Morris, Illinois

Links:
Go Crash Audio

Matt Pryor - Confidence Man CD Review (Vagrant)

Matt Pryor's first solo CD is getting strong reviews from other music sites. Unfortunately, I am going to be the contrarian as I found this disc hard to get through.

I've been trying to sort through why I am so down on this disc. It may be that my only exposure to Matt Pryor is through The Get Up Kids and, on this disc, Matt plays very mellow, slightly country-folk tinged acoustic tunes. This isn't to say that this is a bad disc -- it just didn't hold my attention. My biggest complaint is that many of the songs sound similar and this makes this 15-track CD start to drag after a few songs.

There are some standout tracks on this disc, which include the title track, "Confidence Man", which has a Dylanish feel and an upbeat swing and "A Totally New Year" which has Byrds-like feel to the song. "Still, There's A Light" is another strong track that has an Appalachian feel and great backing vocals from an uncredited female singer. On the reverse side, tracks like "I'm Sorry Stephen" and "We'll Be Fine" are really grating. The songs in the middle sort of fall into coffee-shop fodder and there just wasn't enough 'spark' to this disc to hold my interest.

Six of the disc's 15 tracks are streaming on Matt Pryor's MySpace page so check out the music and make up your own mind.