Originally scheduled to accommodate the possibility of a Game 7 that would’ve been on November 1^st, the Dropkick Murphys were ready to ride it out with the Boston Red Sox if it came down to that. Fortunately the Sox swept it in 4 games, and the Murphys no longer had to worry about performing jet lagged in Los Angeles after a Game 7. I was lucky enough to catch them on that electric night, still pumped from the Red Sox’s sweep and the honor of playing in the parade through the streets of Boston in the days following.

      The Junior Varsity is a band from Central Illinois that gained regional popularity from playing a ton of shows in the early to mid 2000s.  Their regional popularity widened when they signed to Victory Records in 2004.  Cinematographic is the band's third full length album and possibly their swan song. 

     I've always thought of the JV as a decent but forgettable band in the vein of Jimmy Eat World.  However, the JV never quite rises to the heights of a JEW record.  On Cinematographic, the band infuses more pop sensibility into their mishmash of modern rock sounds.  Lyrically the band tries to separate themselves from the legions of sound a likes and on some occasions succeeds.

Blue Duck Records has released their fifth record in the form of Paralis’ “The Pros and Cons of Redemption”.   I went by the name of the band and imagined that their sound would probably be something along the lines of the new wave of  “emo” bands hitting the airwaves these days.  I was somewhat disappointed to find that while this is probably the sound that the band was going for, they don’t pull it off very well.  I believe this probably due to two problems.

When Jars of Clay released their self-titled debut in 1995 few people would have predicted that the band would still be going strong twelve years later. They have kept going, even as their popularity dropped from the insane fervor that drove the self-titled album to platinum sales. Yet the albums they release continue to be amazingly strong. Even a band as consistent as Jars of Clay will have a few duds in their catalog. Live Monsters is definitely a stumble and a weak way to follow-up their hit Good Monsters.

June is a bit of a step off the beaten path for Victory Records, their Chicago hometown label. While their debut Speak Any Faster followed closely in the footsteps of emo punk poster bands, their latest release, Make it Blur, is a surprisingly versatile and well crafted pop record.

The band is still young and not really making any dangerous moves just yet, but the radio friendly lines that defined them are morphing into something more permanent than their previous releases would indicate.

PJ Harvey is simply brilliant. Having garnered something of a cult following over the 15+ years since her first release, 1992's "Demonstrations", PJ Harvey is known for both the straight forwardness she displays in her music, as well as the broader, more experimental stroke she sometimes paints with. With "The Peel Sessions", she focuses more on the former, and the result is near-perfection.

Upon my first initial listening to Olympia's "Emergencies" cd, I didn't want to like them. It's edgy without being "too" edgy, polished without sounding overtly so, and melodic as all get out. Having toured with the likes of As Cities Burn as well as making The Alternative Press "100 Bands To Know in 2007" list, it's hard to deny that Olympia isn't becoming a band to be reckoned with.

With three....yep, count 'em, three releases hitting the same day from Victory Records, what could be better? Well......almost anything.

As a big fan of Denison Marrs, I was excited to hear Eric Collins’ new venture, The Dark Romantics.  I’m not sure if I was hoping for something similar in style but what I got was a danceable, sing-a-long that sounds influenced by the Smiths as well as other British acts.

Everybody Else is at first refreshing (a band with no gimic screaming or synthesizers???). But by the fifth song, Born to Do, with its ultra common and boring progression and words "loving you, that's what I was born to do...", their self-titled debut just seemed so desperately...normal. The strength of the LA three piece is also their weakness.

When I say I can't find a "label" for Everybody Else, its not in the "wow, I've never heard anything like this before" sense of the word. Its more like "wow, this is so generic, I don't know what to call it but rock and roll."

It’s not hard to find someone with a strong opinion about Brice Avery’s project, the Rocket Summer.  Having seen him live, I can say that he does put on one great, high energy live show.  The latest release from this Militia Group favorite is actually a collection of past work that has now been made readily available.

I like the Rocket Summer but this ep has taken some time to grow on me.  It shows some of the promise that was later found on Hello, Good Friend but definitely sounds younger and more inexperienced in the area of songwriting.  It would seem that he has grown both as a musician and lyricist, yet when you figure that it was created by a 16 year old; there is plenty of impressive stuff found on this disc.

After a previous EP of material and an appearance on Wierd Record's first compilation several months back, Blacklist have returned with their Solidaire EP. The New York group puts together music that sounds equal parts Last Dance and Depeche Mode with the icycle production atmospherics of Martin Hannett's early projects.

The record opens with 'Blue Shifted' - all soaring vocals atop Seagulls-esque guitar. Feedback. Feedback. Feedback. And does it work! The drums carry that beat that's become a permanent staple within post punk recalling to mind the death disco of PiL's "Memories" single. "Shock In The Hotel Falcon" doesn't let up with its tribal drums and its echo chamber laden guitars. "Pure Joy In My Heart" feeds "Seventeen Seconds" era Cure into a mulcher and the shards released from the opposite end are pure sonic joy. The last bars of the song once the music fades out leave you with the sense of hearing metal scraping on metal.