Charit Way – Garden Room
If 1990s kids were unsure about what exactly alternative rock was supposed to mean, then the term became all the more difficult to pin down leading up to the 2020s. That might have something to do with the pop wars. You see, once, pop was a dirty word. For rock musicians to adhere to it was the equivalent of selling out. However, with radio and other promotional tools restricting themselves evermore with each passing year, music has had to find a way to broaden its appeal.
Charit Way is a pop-punk with a bit of edge to it. They’ve clearly studied groups link Blink-182 and have gone along with all of the trio’s own growing pains. They’ve also seen bands link Blink continue to exist as rock minorities that still thrive in spite of all the changes in the musical landscape.
Garden Room is a really nifty, well-produced piece of pop-rock. It takes two elements that are not very esteemed in the world of rock aficionados, but that are very successful nonetheless. Those two things are: writing from the perspective of would-be adults and looking for dynamic, poppy hooks. Both are a risk in themselves, but Charit Way nails it.
Bad Flamingo – Dead Man’s Hand
Bad Flamingo present themselves like some kind of strange vision Bob Dylan may have had not long after his famous motorcycle crash. (If that ever happened to begin with) The duo appears decked in Zorro-approved attire and make confident, dark, modern bluesy-rock, meant to lure travellers to U.S.A.’s Southern borders.
The one trick is that their music does not emphasize blue notes or turnarounds that emphasize the seventh chord. No, they focus on the blues’ more sinister, yet alluring appeal.
Dead Man’s Hand could be a Nick Cave tune, albeit a more sensuous, groove-oriented deep cut. The band’s trick to keeping audiences interested is to have them forced to listen to their own deep breaths. Dynamics are at the core of what makes the music of Bad Flamingo great, as minimalist drums and the occasional shards of reverb-soaked guitars creep in. This is a band that Dylan should have dreamed up and cast in his own experimental movie and literature.
