Friendship Commanders – Altar
Genre: Pop Punk, Alternative-rock
Perhaps no other music fans are quite as devoted metalheads and heavy-rock enthusiasts. Whether it’s the tribal nature of much of the music or the way it’s been consistently portrayed in the media throughout the years, loud guitar music creates a bond between audience and fans like no other. This is, perhaps, the reason why you’ll routinely see heavy-metal groups 60-year-olds playing their back catalogue to enthusiastic audiences.
Heavy-metal music works similarly to any high-performance sport. It requires that musicians be fit, provides examples of virtuosity, and show off their skills in front of an audience ready to judge their every move. While this is great, it also means that plenty of groups end up sacrificing sensitiveness for strength.
This is not the cash with Nashville-duo Friendship Commanders. Their lyrics are rooted in personal, often hurtful experiences. The wail of the vocals comes from the soulfulness of the blues. And, their robust performances are created in this way in order to serve their songwriting. Like Soundgarden or Jane’s Addiction, Friendship Commanders remain an all too rare breed of the group, the one that could play the heavy-metal circuit and the coffee houses.
Wayward Brigade – Kids Through The Cracks
Genre: Punk, Grunge, Alternative Rock
Whoever imagined getting to attach the word “classic” to the term “punk“. Why it makes the music sound almost respectable! But, it’s a necessary distinction now that punk-rock has hung around for so long. Back when this kind of music seemed like the most extreme form of pop art in the world, when television shows presented these musicians as wreckers of civilization, nobody dared imagine its evolution over decades.
The modern punk-rock sound has changed, and the genre itself has splintered out in numerous directions. It’s only healthy that a thriving music scene would allow this to happen. While all of this is going on though, there are some who are keeping their focus glued to punk-rock’s original sound and manifesto.
One of these groups is Wayward Brigade. The band speaks directly to the kids who need punk music the most. Kids Through The Cracks is a blast of late 70s punk made by people whose hearts are in the right place, who are doing their best to represent the philosophy in which they believe, and who are providing the true faithful with a soundtrack for their lives. Besides, for many the punk-rock made around 1977 is a formula that has never been improved upon.
