Album Of The Week: Violent Sons’ Nothing As It Seems Boiling in the depths of the Providence music scene is pure intensity. Regardless of genre, nothing is sugarcoated and everything is as real as your senses tell you. A wonderful example of this trademark has to be Sean Murphy. He’s fronted hardcore punk revolutionaries Verse and lo-fi shoegaze punk act Bad Swimmers, and now this ball of poetic rage is returning to his roots. Violent Sons have a new album out titled Nothing As It Seems, and it very well could be one of the best debut albums to ever come out of The Creative Capital. It’s loud, unapologetic and angry. In other words, it’s absolutely pristine. Classic hardcore riffs crawl up your spine and feverish drums destroy everything in sight while Murphy’s vocals bring the assault again for good measure. Anti-establishment and anti-authority, Violent Sons’ new album is for the rebel in us all. It makes you want to shout and break all the chains that bind you; its songs will hit your soul and reenergize it with an adrenaline-filled battery. If you’re looking for a new awesome punk album, Nothing As It Seems is exactly what you’ve been looking for. And now it’s the wonderful time for the top tracks off of my Album Of The Week. Don’t be afraid, don’t fret, it’s purely painless. Hey, you might even learn something. The cryptic intro roaring into “Clean Boots” gets right into a furious track about entitlement and concludes with another scorcher of a riff. One that really gets me is “MK Ultra Minds,” a pro- individualist anti-war anthem all about government brainwashing and the wearing away of the human condition via war. Murphy sings about what a lot of people are afraid to talk about in this one. Another great anti-establishment anthem is “Faith Pushers,” all about living your own life and not letting anyone waving around a book tell you any different. Violent Sons will celebrate the release of Nothing As It Seems at AS220 in Providence on September 25th with Caught In A Crowd, My Fictions, and Barber Cop. If you want to bump around in a mosh pit, get a little crazy and have a lot of fun at a punk rock show, I highly suggest you go. Link to where people can buy & stream the album: http://bridge9.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-as-- it-seems CD Review: The Sugar Honey Iced Tea’s Silver Spells Some of my earliest music listening memories consist of sitting around the RCA console stereo/color television set in the family room, blindly going through my parents’ record collection. A 5-year-old has a severely limited reference when it comes to musical tastes, so whatever I found in that milk crate instantly became my indelible starting-point. And oh man, what a crate that was. Amazing records from the likes of The Chiffons, The Dixie Cups, The Ronettes, and those punk protype bad-girls The Shangri-Las, all made an impression on me in ways I would not fully realize until I was a bit older. Those goddess-like vocal harmonies made from equal parts of innocence and sexiness really made me want to hear more. And I experienced a similar, visceral reaction when I began to listen to the The Sugar Honey Iced Tea and their latest album Silver Spells. From the very first note to the last, the blending of voices from this angelic choir hooked my ear bigtime. The vocals of Ana Mallozzi (banjo, cello), Emily Shaw (guitar), Kate Jones (banjolele), and Laila Aukee (ukulele) do harken back to that dirty-sweet Girl Group sound of the early ’60s, but that’s pretty much where the comparisons end. Both musically and lyrically, their songs rely on a wide range of influences far more diverse than simply early rock ‘n’ roll. Strong instances of folk-based Americana and bluegrass styles appear throughout Silver Spells, presented in a memorable and thoroughly original form. The disc begins with the haunting, mostly-acapella “Blessings & Blues,” which quickly establishes that Sugar Honey Iced Tea signature blend of beautiful vocal harmonies. Each unfolding verse stacks another layer of voices, which creates a wonderful tension within this requiem: “Got a place where I spend my pay – Got a home but it’s far away – Got a friend and she fills my cup – When I count my blessings they dont add up …” “Sister Stay Away” is simply a great song. This quirky upbeat number spotlights the ladies’ musical astuteness, and utilizes a sneaky rhythm made of little more than drums and banjo to punctuate the admonition being offered: “A man will take what he can use. A shine can’t hide the shit on his shoes. You better wipe his mouth if he’s kissing on you … sister stay away, he’s got the blues!” The ladies would be wise to send this one over to Lucinda Williams to consider covering, as it’s got hit written all over it! Perhaps no track on Silver Spells better utilizes that classic Phil Spector-produced essence than “Howl.” This superbly strange amalgam of American folk and doo-wop creates a sound that is both retro and cutting-edge. Admittedly, it doesn’t employ the telltale instrumentation of 10 pianos and echo chambers galore as Spector’s Wall Of Sound did, but contained throughout is that ethereal soul and spirit that truly made those records magical. You can’t bottle it – you can’t sell it. But there issomething there. From the opening inverted “Be My Baby” drumbeat, the song billows away to explain the singer’s apparent resignation to the fact that life is what it is: “What can I do now? What can I do now? Howl at the moon now? Howl at the moon now?” True to their namesake, The Sugar Honey Iced Tea are sincerely a satisfying refreshment in what sometimes seems an unrelenting and sweltering creative void. This rarefied talent has only been on the scene for a few years now, but the quartet that came together through a series of open-mic appearances has already landed a profile in the Andy Warhol founded publication Interview Magazine. I’m certain even higher honors await them, but as for today, Silver Spells easily makes my personal list for Best Albums of 2014. Album Of The Week: Broncho’s Just Enough Hip to Be Woman If you delve deep enough, you’d be surprised how artistically and musically weird Oklahoma can get. Psychedelic dream punks The Flaming Lips started out there and The Philbrook Museum of Art, located in Tulsa, is one of the finest museums in the country. There’s also an up-and-coming rock ‘n’ roll act coming through the tumbleweeds to make a name for themselves. Groovy fuzz rockers Broncho have their new album Just Hip Enough to Be Woman currently out, and the fusion of glam and post-punk styles is impeccable. Imagine if T.Rex & The Cars had a baby who started singing like Lou Reed and Ric Ocasek and you’ll have Broncho. There’s a certain amount of pop within the distorted guitars in this album; one moment you’ll want to shake your hips on the dance floor while another will have you rocking out to a blistering solo. Just Hip Enough to Be Woman sounds like a new wave album without the cheesy synth. It’s pure rock that’s very accessible to the point that you could spin this album either to a bunch of ravers or to a crew of guys in leather jackets doing whiskey shots all night. Sometimes you wonder if a group putting out a new album deserves the hype. Broncho’s new release definitely does. Sometimes this world doesn’t make sense. It can be mind-boggling, aggravating and blissful all at the same time. To be on the more blissful side of things, open the door and walk into the top tracks off of my Album Of The Week: The single “Class Historian” is catchy as hell. A simple chorus and rocking riffs are the ingredients to make the track one of the best songs to come out this year. A stone cold bass lick is the backbone in “Kurt,” one of the many headbobbers on the album that makes it kick. Definitely a smooth punk anthem, “Deena” is short, sweet and to the point with the clashing guitars. As you can tell, the guitars dominate Just Hip Enough to Be Woman from front to back. That’s what you have to expect from a rock ‘n’ roll band right? Broncho will be taking over Great Scott in Allston, Mass., on September 17 with fellow Oklahomans Low Litas. Anyone who loves the sound an electric six-string makes shouldn’t miss this show. While you’re there, grab a copy of Broncho’s new album. It’s ideal for the movers, shakers and the moneymakers. Broncho’s website: bronchoband.com CD Review: Ryan Adams’ Self-Titled Album Ryan Adams has made a career doing pretty much whatever he wants. As a young man, he became an alt-country icon, mostly for his work with his band Whiskytown, but has since gone on to explore a variety of genres, even making forays in punk rock and metal. His new album, Ryan Adams, marks the 39-year-old’s 14th solo album, and with the three Whiskytown LPs, the total adds up to a staggering 17 LPs of material.