Stay Lost – Blinded
Genre: Post-Punk, Screamo / Post-Hardcore, Hard Rock
Heroes are supposed to go out in a blaze of glory. Every hard-rock band tries to create an atmosphere of reckless, “whatever may come, may come” abandon. Still, few succeed in sounding genuinely convincing.
This is the reason, maybe, why so many stories of excess and weird behavior are spread like business cards by publicists and marketing people. Without the energy, the personality, and/or a worldview that does not coincide with the norm, these musicians would pass as geography teachers.
Stay Lost’s Blinded sounds like a band attempting to push themselves to the very edge of their boundaries. This is screamo that verges, frankly, on the edge of noise, yet keeps its toes dipped enough in calm waters to make this not only bearable but worthy of repeat listens. Bands struggle to find a song that represents their sound and philosophy. Stay Lost achieved this effortlessly with this one.
Kat Von D – Enough
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave, Alternative Rock
The future always belonged to the musicians. It was just people who didn’t know it. That was the case, at least, during the 1970s when real musicians who’d spent countless hours sharpening their skills of playing scales on a guitar were confronted with the use of electronic elements in popular music not as a side dish, but as the main course.
For years, musicians, most of them stuck on playing Eric Clapton riffs complained. Surely, a computer had no feelings! Certainly, paying audiences could only relate to people plucking strings, and hitting drums. Sadly, those musicians are still busy playing Clapton riffs, while the computers have moved on to other stories.
Electronic-based music has the power to utter tales cold and distant that few classic rock combos can begin telling. Kat Von D, an already established artist, uses the invariable pulsation of these machines to tell her story of love won and squandered on her single Enough. It is 80s pop delivered with angsty, modern energy, and should be enough to convince non-believers possibly suspecting Kat Von D of merely indulging a passing interest.
