Vapors of Morphine – Drop Out Mambo
Genre: Art Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Critics always seem to get a glint in their eye when speaking about songwriters who, they claim, have lost their spark by constantly rehashing their old work. To be fair, there are only so many stories one can write about love, about heroes, or about the weather. Naturally, those spending their energy on these things eventually lose some of their exuberance.
Meanwhile, however, there are endless stories of losers, crooks, and people spending their evenings on the wrong side of town. For those with a stomach for these sorts of things, as well as a sense of humour to help them cope with digging through the junkyard heaps of information, there will always be something new to pick up on.
Just as actors with s real interest in the craft prefer playing bad guys, songwriters are also able to find a wealth of material in tales from the low life. Vapors of Morphine sound like folks who’ve spent a good chunk of their free time frequenting the parts of town where the whiskey flows in abundance, where street urchins get into trouble, and where their hero, Mark Sandman, seems to grin from afar. Drop Out Mambo is what happens to a band if they don’t get a good night’s sleep… for a couple of years or more.
NEON M – See You In Hell
Genre: Hard Rock, Grunge, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters
NEON M channel grunge’s more sensual nature on their single See You In Hell.
It’s always a challenge the be the proverbial smartest person in the room. It’s that I have any experience. I presume though that, if you wish to win any sympathy, you need to, once in a while, hang your head low. Influencing people is as much about not sticking out, as it is about making yourself liked.
This must have been one of the challenges bands like Stone Temple Pilots dealt with during the grunge era. First of all, they were hardly a grunge band, to begin with. Secondly, Robert De Leo’s writing possessed a sophistication that leaned on jazz. Thankfully for them, their songs also rocked really hard.
STP dug into the lecherous and the profane for their music. That’s where NEON M are headed on their single See You In Hell. NEON M have the muscle to move a tune to their will. But, they’re doing it all with a shake of the hips that will confuse some and thrill many others.
