
Near Beer – Mixtape Generation
Genre: Pop Punk, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Henry Clay People, Silversun Pickups, Cage the Elephant, Royal Bangs, Joey Siara
It’s not easy to stay in love with the ideals of rock n’ roll these days. Doing it, might make you feel like a bit of a dummy. After all the people who were tasked with representing it sold their principles a long time ago, and most didn’t even get a good deal.
This is why it is especially hard for rock bands to stand against anything these days and have people flock to their cause. Tom Morello’s just waiting for a call from Starbucks after all, and your local anarchic punk-rockers are just waiting to land their corporate jobs. Can’t blame anyone for making a living, but it sure is mighty hard to believe the folks asking you to start a revolution for them.
Near Beer’s Mixtape Generation is a pop-punk about finding out that your heroes were in on the take along. But, you’ll need to concentrate! The music resembles the bubbly mall-punk sound on the surface. And, at least, part of the video and artwork seem to suggest an idyllic fantasy of maturity. But, it’s a song about rushing towards nowhere, about passion wasted on cheap drugs and bad friends. The truth makes you miserable sometimes, and it takes a band like Near Beer to really approach it.
Kyle & The Super Best Friends – Foreboding Dream
Similar artists: Radiohead, Fugazi, Modest Mouse, Deerhunter
Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
Being an artist in 2022 is a lot like being one in the Middle Ages. It’s not really a profession, you’ll only get paid if a rich patron takes mercy on you, and there’s a chance that you may die because of a terrible disease that’s floating around. You’d be mad not to consider it as a genuine career choice. Why, working in a bank is so boring!
Now, considering all the things that are stuck against you and your fulfilment as an artist, you might as well get good at it. Don’t do it out of a desire to get rich! There are so many avenues that are easier to walk on than this one and that might lead you to your goal! Do it because of your record collection! And, do it out of a way of seeing whether you could actually satisfy your teenage dreams of capturing all your favourite artists in your very own work.
There’s likely a great amount of diversity in Kyle & The Super Best Friends’ record collection judging by the sound of Foreboding Dream. Sure, there’s a great amount of ambition in what these indie-rock metalheads are able to produce. But, there also seems to be a conviction that if not enough tricks or used to prove the group’s worth then they will become a laughing stock in their home town. Luckily, it’s a convincing sound full of stiff indie-rock guitars, proggy motives, and shouted vocals. It’s a jigsaw of really great musical influences.