Cousin Betty – Taxes & Death
Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
If you’ve had the good fortune of being born or relocating to a developed country, chances are that you’ll be missing out on a lot of things while you avoid a lot of the typical dangers of the world.
I am sorry to report that you’re far more likely at suffering at your hand than if fate had deemed you fit to face the adversities of life without money and security. Suicide becomes much more frequent the higher you climb society’s ladder.
Many people feel this instinctively. The ones who’ve figured it out are angry, and usually, powerless. Thank the heavens for loud guitars and the people that still want to hear them.
Cousin Betty sound like folks who’ve lost all hope other than the one about being able to strike a connection with their audience. Taxes & Death is a punk song about the inevitability of misery in the modern world. Who knew Australia was such a harsh place? Who knew that the sounds of Cousin Betty could make the world sound like a less threatening place?
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 created by people that like their guitar sounds to be explosive. 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.
