Rickter Scale Show 183 - New Music

[Rick and Roll]

airing Sunday, June 15 from 8-11 PM EST and Monday, June 16 from 1-4 PM EST

This week is something I cobbled together, that just happened to shake out into a common theme, as happens often. Every selection was released this year.

Matthew Parmenter - "Horror Express"

In The Dark
O Cesare
Escape Into the Future
Kaiju
Snug Bottom Flute and Starveling
Golden Child
Monsters From The Id
Polly New
All Done (Horror Express)
The Cutting Room

The first song describes perfectly this CD. Not often does something this black sound so uplifting. Matthew plays all of the instruments, including a more liberal use of violin (a welcome sound). But what stands out is the vocals. As soon a the first note is sung it hits you, and the sounds are layered great. "Polly New" at 10 minutes is a wild story that is both funny and scary. I like this one better than his other solo, Astray (which is also quite good). And it gives the Nearfest goers a warmup before the highly anticipated Discipline performance.

King's X - selections from "XV"

Pray (for Me)
Repeating Myself
Free
I Don't Know

Not close to approaching the great run of releases in their early days, still pretty good stuff. Here's four of what I feel are the best songs, and also happen to be representative of the diversity of their songwriters.

Beardfish - "Sleeping In Traffic Part Two"

As The Sun Sets
Into The Night
The Hunter
South of the Border
Cashflow
The Downward Spiral/Chimay
Sleeping In Traffic
Sunrise Again

Another Beardfish release? Rikard Sjoblom just writes music at a Morsian (new made up term) pace. This is their fourth CD, and is up there with The Sane Day as the best. The title cut is a cool 35 minutes long. Can't go through many a show without a Swedish band.

Cailyn - "New World In Blue" (EP)

Little Wing
Clouds
New World In Blue

Another great myspace discovery. I've found lots of nice music, and this is no exception. Cailyn Lloyd from Wisconsin sent this fine EP (also includes "For Elise") which shows off her excellent guitar skills. Includes vocals by Ric Prida on "Little Wing" and Kelly Rose on "Clouds". The title cut is the Dvorak composition, 10 minutes worth. She had a long layoff from playing but I'm glad she's found her way back. I think I saw her signed in as a Moon member recently, so hopefully she will add her website/myspace here for you.

Next week I'm off...if I don't pick up any more music (highly unlikely lol) I will spin some various songs...it's been too long since I just did a random show anyway.