Blue Lights on the Runway

Album: Blue lights on the Runway
Released: March 3, 2009
Label: Yep Roc
Stars: 3.0
Skippable Tracks: 2

Bell X1’s fourth studio album Blue Lights on the Runway was released in North America on March 3, 2009 and it delivers to your ears a familiar sound that you have come to expect from the band. Shortly after being ditched by Damien Rice in the 90’s, Bell X1 renamed and rearranged themselves become what you know them as today. These Irish dudes have been together for about ten years, and have recently started to make a cross-over. Their big break came after they were featured on one of the Soundtracks from everyone’s favourite TV show the O.C. The album opens strong with the song The Ribs of an Umbrella and continues down this path for a couple more tracks. I caught myself zoning-out somewhere between the fourth track and the line “how log were monkeys typing”; which I found just hilarious. Lead singer Paul Noonan starts to sing “I want a better band” later in the track, and throws in some distortion. The album ends strong with some pop-rock songs with humorous lyrics and a couple of mandatory ballads. Is this the greatest album to come out of Ireland? Probably not, but if Pop is what you want - and you like the sound of Snow Patrol - this will be a nice option for you. In short, no sound barriers were broken here, but some diamonds can be found in the rough.

Podcast Instructions

This is a general post regarding my new Podcast. All the headings are links to the RSS version of this Blog. If you have windows you can individually right-click each link and download the episodes individually. What I recommend is following the link on the top-right of this blog to subscribe to the podcast using iTunes. iTunes will keep you updated with the latest Podcast without you having to lift another finger.

Episode 5 will probably air this Saturday/Sunday at 1 AM and has an interview with Winter Gloves on it. You will have to check back for that one, I'll post it after it airs. Thanks for visiting Smigs Reveiws!

The Smigs

My Portable Device EP 4

Smigs solo air take 2

My Portable Device EP 3

Episode 3 - Mike & Miguel

My Portable Device EP 2

Episode 2- Smigs & Wheels

My Portable Device EP 1

This is my first PodCast. Episode one of My Portable Device on 101.5 UMFM

Please be patient with the download. It's an 82 MB file.If you have Quicktime installed u can press play below immediately.

Click on the "Subscribe in a reader" button on the right to download using iTunes

From that page click on "Add to iTunes"

My first episode ever


My Portable Device Episode One Download

Swoon

Artist: Silversun Pickups
Album: Swoon
Released: April 14, 2009
Label: Dangerbird
Stars: 4
Skippable Tracks: Zero

It pains me to say that the new album by Silversun Pickups fell short of my expectations. I was really hoping for another Carnavas-like album, and ended up being a little disappointed with the results; as well as a little confused. When I listened to Swoon the first time, I had an incredibly hard time trying to think of a song that particularly stood out. After a couple more listens I found that the song Substitutions stood out from all the distortion that drowns the rest of the instruments and Nikki Monninger's voice. The album sounds like Brian Aubert patting himself on the back for three quarters of the album. If this band wants to succeed they are going to have to start acting like one. I know…despite my anger and frustration I still gave it a high rating. What can I say; I’m a huge fan of the band.

The band released the song Panic Switch as their first single, and it’s currently number seven on Billboard’s Modern Rock Charts. The song is accompanied with a great video displaying many colored lights, and flashing images of band members. (See below)

I don’t want to sound too negative about the band, or the album. I do enjoy listening to Swoon quite a bit now. Maybe I shouldn't be so critical. I guess I was looking for more than one type of sound from this album. A little more creativeness, a few more twists and turns. Who knows! Maybe all their other pedals broke and they had to record with just the one.

Winter Gloves Rocks

Montreal-based band Winter Gloves put on an amazing show on April 17th at the Pyramid. The show consisted of most of the songs from their debut full-length album About a Girl, as well as some new approaches to these songs. One song that was not played was Glass Paper Weight, but I’m guessing it was omitted because of the type of crowd that attended the show. Winter Gloves opened for the much-hyped band Thunderheist. Despite the fact that most people in the crowd seemed to have come to see them, Winter Gloves managed to get the crowd dancing right from the very beginning of their show until the very end. The high energy, raw sound of the band will most definitely be a memorable experience for everyone who attended the show. It also helps that the band gave away multiple copies of promotional CD to the crowd in the middle of their show.

In case you have not heard the band before -- there are a few tracks below, as well as a link to their Myspace. Their sound is very Synth based, and was originally a solo project by Charles F. which he recorded in his Montreal apartment. After receiving great feedback from his solo work, he got together with some of his friends to form the band. From then on the band has continued to gain success, and most likely will continue to do so. Their album was recently released in the U.S. -- they are touring through the west and east coast to promote it. Their tour comes to an end in Montreal for the Osheaga Festival this August. Some of the other bands on the bill are Coldplay, Beastie Boys, The Decemberists, Rufus Wainwright, Girl Talk, Beast, The Roots, just to name a few.

Charles F. agreed to do an interview for this blog, and for my radio show - My Portable Device airs every Monday on 101.5 FM. I will try to post it, or listen to the show on Sunday’s at 1 AM. Most people are out-and-about on a Saturday night -- the show is a good choice for some after-party music. (Update: show is now on Mondays at 11PM)

Winter Gloves Myspace

Click image below

Analytics

Album: Lytics EP
Released: December 17 , 2008
Label: Unsigned
Stars: 3.5
Skippable Tracks: 0
Picture: Borrowed from their Myspace

First of all I would like to apologize to my two blog followers for not posting for more than two weeks. But good things come to those who wait, because I’ll be posting a lot more often now.

You may have already head local home-boys the Lytics spittin’ some rhymes at local clubs and events. Although the band seems to work best when there is a live band performing with them, they also manage to work up the crowd when their DJ spins the beasts.

The band is composed of “Ashy” Sannie (18), “A-Nice” Sannie (20), “Munga” Londe (22) and DJ Dex (20). They have been together since 2005 and have finally gotten around to releasing their first EP. The brothers are determined to succeed in the hip-hop world by remaining humble and staying easy. They want to create hip-hop that is positive, and is analytical of their world. “We’re not saying that our music is better because of that” one of the brothers stated in an interview. But I completely disagree with the statement; I believe that that’s exactly what makes this hip-hop better than the negative, bust-a-cap in your ___ kind of hip-hop. This is only the beginning for this band; I do see a bright future ahead for them.

The age of Cool-Edit and Pro-Tools has cleared the path for many artists to clean up their vocals and assemble something so incredible that could never be reproduced on stage. This band is not one of them; in fact I think they sound even better with a live band. What this EP delivers is a very well produced version of their live shows, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Click here to listen to Big City Sound Girl

PB and J

Album: Living Thing
Released: Mar 31, 2009
Label: Almost Gold
Stars: 3
Skippable Tracks: 2 of 12

Peter Bjorn and John released their fifth album March 31, and it should do just as well as the previous album: Writers Block. Although there is no whistling in this album, it does deliver on the catchy tunes that all young and old folks will enjoy.

Lyrics from Lay It Down confirm that this album was a more playful attempt by the band. I enjoyed a lot of tracks on the album by the time I was done listening to it thoroughly. Tracks like: It Don’t Move, Just The Past, and I Want You are some of my favorites. A lot of the tracks are fairly electronic and have a pop sound that we have come to expect from the band. Others tracks just consist of a few repetitive beats, clapping, vocals, children, etc. The Swedish meat band is an acquired taste, but if you have an eclectic ear you will definitely enjoy the sound of PB&J. As you may know, not everyone likes Swedish meat balls or Pb&J. In FACT, some choke at just the smell of it. A little insulin will clear that right up.

Below is one of the two videos the label uploaded to Youtube. If you like it, then you'll have no problem with the rest of the CD. Not the best track on the album, but it has a hilarious video.




Or just Click Here to visit their Myspace.



John Eriksson, Peter Moren and Bjorn Yttling of the the Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John. (AP PHOTO/PRESS HERE PUBLICITY, JOHAN BERGMARK / March 21, 2009)