Mongo Nation

CraveOnline Soundcheck featured Artist!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Simply based upon their appearance alone, it would be easy to write Pierce the Veil off as just another cookie-cutter emo band. Like most people over the age of 25, I see tight pants and scene haircuts and I immediately recoil as a result of being assaulted with a decade’s worth of lame guitar pop and whiny lyrics.

After listening to their new album, A Flair For the Dramatic and meeting the band personally, I can safely say that Pierce the Veil possess a style and spirit that places them head and shoulders above their peers.

Hailing from a generationally musical family, brothers Vic and Mike Fuentes clearly exhibit a wide range of styles that range from screamo and melodic hardcore to punk rock, early Michael Jackson era funk, Spanish guitar/Flamenco and even a little bit of shred metal. Every song on the album is widely varied, not only compared to its neighbors, but within the actual songs themselves. The changes in style and tone are masterfully arranged in technically complicated patterns that mimic the climax and catharsis of life in a way that “emo” music is always expected to and yet often fails to.
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CraveOnline Soundcheck featured artist!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Shapes of Race Cars is an independent indie/glam rock band you and your lady-piece can both agree upon. Lead singer/songwriter Dylan Champion has managed to combine the Sunset Strip cock rock swagger that you probably like with the pretty-boy pop melodies that your girlfriend (and the radio) loves.

The end result is kind of like listening to a mix tape of The Hives most spastic garage rockers mashed together with The Fray’s minimalist ballads. This may sound like an incongruous combination at first, but by the second half of the album it becomes apparent how well the different stylistic approaches compliment one another.

As an album, “Power” starts out strong with the title track, also called “Power”, a clever and catchy rock song about greedy willful women. The next few tracks shift gears into a mellower style before jumping back into rock mode with the crowd-pleasing sing along “Sound the Alarm”. The last song on the album, “Apocalypse Hurts” is a vintage-y John Cougar Mellencamp style rocker that is the polar opposite of the song that started the album out, which just goes to show how versatile the band can be.

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First in a series of exclusive indie artist performances!

CraveOnline is proud to present “CraveOnline Soundcheck”, a new series of performances by independent bands that are worthy of your attention.

Check out the first CraveOnline Soundcheck exclusive, Enter Shikari performing their song “Kickin Back on the Surface of Your Cheek”: