
Mia Mera – Leave Them All Alone
Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana, Local H, Helmet, Guided By Voices, Superchunk, Fugazi, Queens Of The Stone Age, Hum
Parents used to worry about the days when their kids might ask for a musical instrument for Christmas. Sure, get them a violin and you can make sure that they’ll drop it in a month. But, what if they ask for a set of drums? Or, worse. What if they demand an electric guitar and an amp?
Naturally, parents feared that they would get no rest, and trembled at the thought of their child learning to play Iron Man at exaggerated sound levels.
Modern parents needn’t worry much. Not only have guitar sales declined. Most of the kids that learn to master a six-string simply require its gentle, undistorted sounds for friendly pop music. It could just as well be a controller.
Now, Mia Mera sound like kids that would have done their best to annoy their parents. Their bombastic, doomish Leave them alone sounds as if created by people that like their guitar sounds to be flammable. Each riff and chord is delivered with the satisfaction of someone that likes to hear an amplifier squeal. It makes for a helluva trip through the history of heavy alt-rock that the neighbours will undoubtedly appreciate.
Colour Tongues – Ashgrove
Genre: Alternative Rock
You can’t expect anybody to give you anything for free in this world, least of all in the entertainment industry. How many people buy records, or go to shows out of simple loyalty? Very few, that’s how many.
If it were different, legacy artists would be able to tour on the strength of each new album. They wouldn’t need to pull out the hits. And, they’d be incentivized to release new music all the time. Maybe the government should make it illegal to purchase less than 5 musical albums each year.
People, however, are looking to be entertained. Just like people like watching actors with a pretty faces, they also like bands with a pretty sound. Colour Tongues’ Ashgrove is a cute, modern-sounding alt-rock tune. It’s made for the radio. But, there’s no denying it’s been given quite a polish.