1. Every Time I Die – New Junk Aesthetic

Nearly perfect record. Listen to Keith’s frantic scream in the last chorus of “For The Record”. So good. Buffalo metalcore. Ridiculous live.

2. Converge – Axe To Fall

Makes one want to rip off one’s own head and throw it down the street. Converge IS hardcore.

3. Polar Bear Club – Chasing Hamburg

If I’m going to have any band come to represent Western NY, it’s PBC.

4. POS – Never Better

Second album by alternative rapper POS is even better than Audition.

5. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight

People don’t like this album, and I honestly don’t understand why. This is probably my 3rd favorite NFG record.

6. mewithoutyou – It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright!

This is a total departure for mewithoutyou. Almost every song is based off of acoustic guitar. This is an awesomely catchy folk record with fresh reflections on faith, storytelling lyrics, and great sing-alongs. Again, another record that people don’t like for reasons that I don’t understand. People complain that Aaron never shouts, but I would argue that the dude’s been shouting for 3 records, he can use a break.

7. HORSE The Band – Desperate Living

After an entirely self financed world tour, “Desperate Living” is a refreshing return to form for HORSE The Band, embracing their Nintendocore roots while at the same time illustrating their growth as musicians and artists.

8. A Day To Remember – Homesick

Heavy, catchy, and honest. ADTR totally stick to their formula, but it’s too good of a formula to throw away. Mr Highway is easily the heaviest ADTR song yet.

9. Silverstein – A Shipwreck In The Sand

A great surprise from a band that I had all but written off. Features vocals from Comeback Kid and Cancer Bats. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but has enough really solid, awesome tracks to get a recommendation.

10. Kevin Devine – Brother’s Blood

When we interviewed Kevin before he opened for the Get Up Kids, we had a very interesting conversation about his new album. What is basically came down to was that Kevin’s previous releases were about Kevin as an artist, while “Brother’s Blood” is more about Kevin’s band as a whole.

11. Manchester Orchestra – Everything To Nothing

One of those albums you just have to listen to all the way through. A modern classic.

Honorable Mentions

Despised Icon – Day of Mourning

Between The Buried And Me – The Great Misdirect

Set Your Goals – This Will Be The Death Of Us

This Time Next Year – Road Maps & Heart Attacks

Fireworks – All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion

Evergreen Terrace – Almost Home

Russian Circles – Geneva

Gallows – Grey Britain

Baroness – Blue Record

Biggest Disappointments of 2009

Arsonists Get All The Girls – Portals

Maylene & The Sons of Disaster – III

Brand New – Daisy

Taking Back Sunday -New Again

Say Anything – Say Anything

Two Tongues – Two Tongues

Cobra Starship has the number one song in America. Green Day released 21st Century Breakdown. New Again sucked. Outside of the Blink reuniting, mainstream pop punk has had a rough year. Thankfully, bands like Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, Fireworks, and This Time Next Year have set themselves apart.

TTNY are raising the pop punk flag from Walnut Creek, California. Named after the now classic Movielife album, TTNY have been releasing high quality pop punk since 2006.

With their debut full length from Equal Vision Records, TTNY are not reinventing the wheel by any means. Road Maps And Heart Attacks will not make you rethink pop punk. The album plays more as a love letter to the genre. TTNY have made a record that plays to their strengths: solid, honest pop punk that will have anyone singing along once they know the words.

I’ve been hearing complaints that this record is the same song eleven times, and while I agree that TTNY didn’t really take any chances with this record, they know what works for them and they stick to it. “Rise & Fall, Curtain Call” is a classic TTNY track, the Alex In Wonderland re-recording is fantastic, and pretty much every track is enjoyable as hell. Can’t find much to complain about there. Will this be remembered as one of the great pop punk releases of our time? Probably not. But it’s a solid, strong effort from a band that have paid their dues, and the best is still to come.

Try: Rise & Fall, Curtain Call, Alex In Wonderland, Cheers To A Late Night,

Like It? Try: Sweetest Air, Rules of a Ghost Hunt

RIYL: New Found Glory, Fireworks, Set Your Goals

1. Rise & Fall, Curtain Call   2:19

2. New Sensation  2:28

3. Alex In Wonderland   3:43

4. New Florence    2:08

5. Rhyme And Reason   2:34

6. No Bed Of Broken Glass    2:42

7. Calling In Dead       2:56

8. Liquid Diet      3:04

9. Mischief With No Direction   3:12

10. Out Of Eastern     2:38

11. Cheers To A Late Night      3:33

After three studio albums (one a double album), Max Bemis and Say Anything return with their fourth studio release: the self-titled. And it’s with a heavy heart that I write this review, especially after loving nearly everything that Max has ever written.

Honestly? I could listen to Max Bemis on an acoustic guitar every second of every day and be more than satisfied with that. I now look at Two Tongues (Max’s side project with Chris from Saves The Day) as the chink in Max’s armor. Two Tongues was an uninspired, tepid mess that I think could best be forgotten with the notable exception of “Crawl”. But I’m almost afraid that Saves The Day’s mediocrity has rubbed off on Max. Or maybe it was writing dozens of songs for cash over the summer. Whatever it is, it’s affected the band, because the self-titled is much of the same.

I was really hoping that “Hate Everyone” A.K.A. “I Fought The Law 2009″, was just the typical shitty single that would preface a great album (like “Wow I Can Get Sexual Too” or “Baby Girl I’m A Blur”), but instead we get tracks like “Do Better” or “Property” which seem to be Say Anything Lite: a shallow misrepresentation of a once great band.

Whenever someone tells me that they don’t like Say Anything because they didn’t like the singles, I always show them “Admit It!”. So I’m showing you now.

Max seems to want to continue in this direction with multiple instances of spoken word, but the pop culture references and ridiculous cliches are just painful to listen to. “I’m just Debra Messing with you”? Are you kidding me?

Not that the album isn’t without its high points. “Cemetary” is a classic Say Anything song with a great hook and an interesting song structure. “Eloise” is a strong ballad that will have any SA crowd singing along gladly. And “Ahhh… Men” is weird and really awesome. But that’s it.

One of the great casualties of this album is “Crush’d”. A song written by Max for his wife Sherry. It’s a goofy, silly song (“Did it hurt when you fell from heaven girl?”), but it’s honest. You can understand the goofy lovesick feeling that Max gets when he’s around Sherry, and when I heard this song on acoustic, it gave me high hopes for the album.

The album comes around and I listen to “Crush’d” and I’m greeted with synths and dance beats that resemble a really bad Hellogoodbye song. All of the honesty is lost in something that is genuinely unlistenable, and it’s sad.

Please don’t get me wrong, …Is A Real Boy is one of the great classics of our time. No question whatsoever. But as a band, I’m beginning to question anyone after hearing “Crush’d”, “Do Better”, or “Property”, or just the overall commonplace of the rest of the album. It’s uninteresting, average, and boring.

Try: Cemetary, Ahhh Men, Eloise

Like it? Then try: “Alive With The Glory Of Love”, “Skinny Mean Man”, “Admit It!”

Directed By: Oren Peli

Written By: Oren Peli

Rated: R

After a young, middle class couple moves into a suburban ‘starter’ tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to. (Paramount Pictures)

This film was made on a $15,000 budget, filmed in a week, in the director’s own house.

After spending almost 3 years in limbo, the film was finally seen by Steven Spielberg who loved it so much and immediately wanted to do a remake. So the film was screened to a test audience and some screenwriters who could actually write a script (there barely was one).

And people started to leave the screening.

Upon questioning, those people said because it scared the hell out of them and they couldn’t bare to watch anymore.

So the film (with an alternate ending suggested by Spielberg) was shown to a very limited release. After selling out 12 of the 13 markets, the film was expanded to 20 markets. At the same time, director Oren Peli asked audiences to use Demand It on eventful.com to tell the studios to show the film in their towns. And after 1,000,000 people demanded it, the film was finally granted a wide domestic release through positive word of mouth.

$15,000 budget, filmed in a week, in the director’s own house.

As of this writing, Paranormal Activity is the number one movie in America.

As of this writing, it has earned $48,076,518. Nearly 3,200 times $15,000.

And it deserves every penny.

Oren Peli, through genuine hard work and a love for his craft, has created a suspenseful, atmospheric masterwork of horror that forgoes over the top gore and special effects and plays at the audience’s expectations of foreboding danger, the fears that we experience every day, and just hammers them home in a very real and relatable experience.

A film with such a low budget and so few characters can live or die on the acting, and outside of a couple of hiccups, Micah and Katie (their real names) have a definite chemistry that the film thrives on and brings the audience into the film’s reality. With virtually no script to work with, the majority of the film is improvising, and there’s a good amount of laughs brought out from it that let the viewer put their normal “horror movie guard” down and makes the audience believe that there’s no way that ghosts are real. This only adds to the shock and horror that soon comes.

Also, major props to Micah Sloat, who uses his college television skills to be our cameraman for a good portion of the film, and helps to become one of the film’s storytellers, rather than an actor reading his lines.

Having seen countless horror films in theaters, I have never witnessed so many people scream at the top of their lungs in fright. A close friend of mine nearly deafened me at the final scene and it was glorious.

What’s really making me so giddy about this is that Saw VI debuted at #2 behind it.

So there you have it. Paranormal Activity takes expectation of a low low budget horror film and becomes the number one movie in America, beating out the tired and cliched Saw sequels that continue to disgrace horror. This is one of those times when it’s sincerely great to be a horror movie fan, and I’m enjoying every second of it.

9.5/10 for creating a truly engaging and terrifying experience with minimal means and good old fashion hard work.

Directed By: Gore Verbinski

Written By: Ehren Kruger

Rated: PG-13

“A mysterious video tape is killing off anyone who watches it. Whenever the victim watches it, the phone rings, telling them they have only one week to live. A young reporter named Rachel is investigating these events, but after she and her small son watch the tape, it becomes a race against time to find out why the tape is killing everyone and how it could be stopped.” (IMDB)

I’m more than aware that I’m 7 years late, but to be fair, when the Ring first came out I didn’t watch horror movies. I watched the intro to “Darkness Falls” (which I maintain is a badass intro, but a horrible movie) from inside my t-shirt. But after months of Netflix constantly saing, “You should see the ring? You have the ring? Have you checked out this ring? Holy cow what a ring!”,  I was finally forced into it.

And I’ve come to a certain appreciation for the Ring. Because I look at it as the first of its kind, because before The Ring, decent horror was rated R. In fact, for my generation, the Ring is the first horror movie that most of my peers saw and it genuinely scared them.

And while now we know that the Ring would spawn so many clones of terrible PG-13 horror (you can make a drinking game by naming them. I’ll go first: Prom Night remake, Stay Alive, White Noise, Skinwalkers, The Wicker Man, The Ring 2, When A Stranger Calls remake, One Missed Call, The Grudge…umm… The Grudge 2, The Eye), you have to appreciate The Ring’s superior writing and direction that brings it above the pack as a worthwhile film.

My favorite parts: The horse on the boat, every quick loud shot of a dead body, quoting X-Men 2 whenever Brian Cox was on screen. And that can usually make for a good time. I give the Ring a solid 7 out of 10 for its impact and attempt at something more.

You know that one band that you dig and everyone else is kind of “meh” about? You have all of their records and it doesn’t matter what the reviews say, because they always sound great to you. Evergreen Terrace is probably that band for a few people. For a band that has been around for 10 years, ET have never really been hugely popular, and are quietly released 5 studio albums, 1 B-sides & Live Songs release, and 1 pretty great cover album. ET is one of the more underrated melodic hardcore bands in the last twenty years, who consistently make fun, catchy or kick ass, songs that often contain numerous pop culture references. After 10 years of this, you’d think they would have lost a step or two, but the move to more melody in their previous release Wolfbiker has made the band grow leaps and bounds into a niche that they fill wonderfully.

Their most recent effort Almost Home, is more of that same formula that makes fun, catchy or kick ass songs. Some have been calling this Wolfbiker II, and while I do agree that the sound has not changed between records, I see this more as a continuation to explore their new found place in melodic hardcore as a mainstay act, while so many other bands have fallen to the side. ET aren’t reinventing the wheel, but you definitely have to respect them for continuing to make high quality tunes after 10 years, and Almost Home is full of those tunes.

Recommended if you like: Comeback Kid, Casey Jones, Stick To Your Guns

Try:  Enemy Sex, God Rocky, Is This Your Face?, Mario Speedwagon, The Letdown, I’m A Bulletproof Tiger

Like it? Then try: No Donnie These Men Are Nihilists, Chaney Can’t Quite Riff Like Helmet’s Page Hamilton, and Mad World (Tears for Fears cover)

Tracklisting:

1. Enemy Sex    3:32
2. Almost Home (III)    3:50
3. God Rocky, Is This Your Face?    2:47
4. We’re Always Losing Blood    4:02
5. Sending Signals    4:30
6. Mario Speedwagon    2:29
7. Failure To Operate    3:12
8. Hopelessly Hopeless    4:13
9. The Letdown    1:46
10. I’m A Bulletproof Tiger    3:17
11. Not Good Enough    3:44

Directed by: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Written by: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Rated: R

High school student Dawn works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s most active participant. Her task is mad…(read more…) e even more difficult by her bad boy stepbrother Brad’s increasingly provocative behavior at home. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of violence. As she struggles to comprehend her anatomical uniqueness, Dawn experiences both the pitfalls and the power of being a living example of the vagina dentata myth.

So obviously, there’s some expectations to be had, and more or less what I was expecting was a girl with teeth in her vagina. If you saw the preview trailer that took the internet by storm a year ago then you knew exactly what to expect: weiners getting bitten off.

But what surprised me most about Teeth was the discussion that we were left with afterwards. The main criticism that this movie has seen is that it depicts all of the males as perverts and rapists. To which I respond to that with: name one horror movie where there isn’t the stereotypical bimbo who falls out of her shirt or has sex with people for no reason other than to change the setting of the next murder. Women have been objectified in horror movies for years, and this film is one of the few times that the men get a little “eff you” back, and frankly we deserve it. The idea of gender roles is completely flipped upside down by this film and it’s a welcome change.
Oh and male genitalia and fingers get bit off by the teeth in this girl’s vagina. There is plenty of really screwed up gore in this film with penis heads and stumps spouting blood like a supersoaker.
So for those fans of good horror with not the best acting, but great gore, and very good undertones and social commentary, check out Teeth and scream at the television like we did. 8/10

Directed by: Robert Hiltzik

Written by: Robert Hiltzik and Marshall Brikman

Rated: R

Sleepaway Camp (1983) was made in the heyday of the 80′s slasher/stalker craze. “After a horrible boating accident kills her family, Angela, a shy and sullen young girl, moves in with her eccentric aunt Martha, alongside her protective cousin Ricky. One summer, Martha sends the kids to Camp Arawak. Soon after their arrival, a series of bizarre and increasingly violent accidents begins to claim the lives of various campers. Who is the twisted individual behind these murders? The disclosure of the murderer’s identity is the most shocking climax in the history of American cinema.” (IMDB)

This is the quintessential Mystery Science Theater film. I won’t lie to you, it’s horrible. The acting is amateurish, uninspired, and painful to watch. The script must contain the words: “will ya” at least 4 times a page. This is only a taste of the corniness that is this film. Imagine “Leave It To Beaver”with someone dying at the end of every episode, but without any self awareness.

The actual filming is classic B rate horror with the obvious mistakes and piss poor direction that we’ve all come to know and love. Plus, there is  an obvious fake mustache on the cop at the end of the movie. It’s priceless.

But I have to be honest, I recommend this film 100%. I guarantee you will have a great time with a group of friends while watching this.
The ending, which I won’t spoil, left our mouths on the floor. We’ve watched countless horror movies, and seen just about everything. But we both simultaneously shouted, “What the hell?!” I can imagine the writers as they come to this ending. “You know, this whole thing is pretty trite and unoriginal, what can we do to really screw everyone up?” This is, without even trying, one of the greatest horror movie endings of all time, no exaggeration whatsoever.

5/10 for the corniness of the film, but the ending is worth your time, I promise.

“Detroit” by Fireworks

For my money, one of the best pop punk songs in years. Fireworks take the gang vocals that they have become known for and make one ridiculously catchy punk song. I love this song.

“I Am The Arsonist” by Silverstein

This is easily one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I’ve never really been a fan of Silverstein, because they always seemed to be playing generic posthardcore that wasn’t terribly interesting. A Shipwreck In The Sand changed my mind about this band, and while there’s a bunch of songs that illustrate this point, “I Am The Arsonist” seems to say it the best. I mean really, this doesn’t sound like a typical Silverstein song and it’s because you can see that, for lack of a better term, they grew a pair and they make one brutal song.

“Artax” by Confide

I will probably end up defending Confide until the day I die. You may recognize this band as the guys who recently covered “Such Great Heights” and they all look creepily alike. Let me be the first to assure you that it was not always this way. Confide originally started as a pretty awesome deathcore band who released 2 EP’s before the original screamer left and they turned into a more post-hardcore sound with Shout The Truth, which is still an awesome record. New vocalist Ross started to do this clean shouting along with his screams, which was great. The problems did not start until they ditched their drummer and guitarist and picked up Josh Paul and the horrible Joel Piper. When you listen to the rerelease of Shout The Truth, you’ll hear some really terrible autotuned vocals. That’s Joel. The rerelease is the exact same record as the original, except all of the clean shouting is overdubbed with Joel’s autotuned singing. Now they sound like a terrible Underoath clone and it’s one of the more disheartening things to happen to a once great band.
The point of all of this is that at one point deathcore Confide made “Artax” and I guarantee it will rock your face off.

“Sweetest Air” by This Time Next Year

This song can join the ranks of “The Best of Me” and “My Friends Over You” as one of the great songs put out by a genre. This is one of the best pop punk songs ever released. No exaggeration whatsoever.

“Sweating at 6 AM” by All or Nothing

I’m liking this whole honest pop punk thing. Birmingham, UK based pop punk band and they’re really freaking good, and this song shows that off really well. This rules.

“Station” by Russian Circles

The best post rock buildup I’ve ever heard. Although they’re more post metal really. I saw these guys in Cleveland and there was a pit when this song hits the 4 minute mark. You’ll notice it.

“88″ by Sum 41

Yes. You read that right. If you’ve listened to Chuck and you know what I’m talking about then skip to the next one, but seriously, I was listening to this once with some friends and at the end of the song my friend just goes, “That was so good I’m going to throw up.” The first two minutes of the song is just, classic Sum 41. Then the next part of the song hits, which consists of a breakdown (really) and three different solos clearly influenced by early Metallica and Slayer. This song is too awesome to articulate it. Try to not headbang to this. Go on. Try.

“‘Is This My Fate,’ He Asked Them” by Story of the Year

We’re getting surprises all over the place. This is the only song that I really care for by SOTY, but holy wow it’s a doozy. This is SOTY’s true potential, and it’s pretty fantastic.

“Bout to get Fruit Punched, Homie” by The Wonder Years

Not the best song on this record, but it’s a fantastic introduction to one of the most fun bands around right now. They sing about zombies, pirates, ninjas, astronauts, the Kool-Aid Man, and Captain Crunch (all different songs), and reference Scrubs and New Found Glory. Those are all good things! The Wonder Years don’t try to reinvent the wheel, but their music is honest is above all else. When they use a synth in a song, you can picture them in high school listening to Motion City Soundtrack for the first time, and when they blend pop punk and hardcore, you know it’s because they freaking love NFG. And if you can’t relate to that, then I don’t know what I can do for you.

“Bite The Dust” by Casey Jones

This song is so friggin gnarly.

http://www.last.fm/music/Casey+Jones/_/Bite+the+Dust?autostart

“Hands In The Sky” by Straylight Run

Hands down the best thing that Straylight Run has ever done (which is really saying something). The slow build with haunting vocals is just perfect and then the end is so dynamic and powerful. They close every show with this, and you can really understand why.

“Yeah I Fight Sharks For Charity” by Jack The Giant Killer

Australian metalcore. They almost broke up after only releasing 3 songs, and changed their style to a more mature sound. I like the immature sound more. This song is so damn fun and the “fuck” breakdown is priceless.


“Non Objective Portrait of Karma” by Circle Takes The Square

This is my all time favorite song. CTTS also happens to be my all time favorite band. As The Roots Undo also happens to be my all time favorite record. Three minute long build where you feel like your’re dying (in a good way), and then just sweeping chaos. Again, this is my all time favorite song. You should check it out.

Directed By: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Written By: Allen Kahn

Rated: Not Rated

Montag the Magnificent is a magician who appears to put swords, drills, and such through the women that appear in this act. They walk away and everyone applauds, then they show up somewhere else, dead of the same injuries they sustained in the magic show. Police are baffled and can’t tie the murders to the magician. A man whose girlfriend is infatuated with the show begins to investigate on his own. (IMDB)

Some of you might remember this film as being referenced in Juno. Good to see you. This film is a lot to take in in several way. But basically, what we have here is classic B cinema horror. The film definitely delivers on the gore, but the effects are so ridiculously terrible that it’s lost on you. To give you an idea, in the beginning of the movie, after Montag has chopped his head off with the guillotine, and his body starts grabbing at the head, you can see the hair of the actor behind the guillotine poking out on the right side. I mean really, that is just kind of ridiculous.

Our director also directed some porn, which you can view the covers of on the DVD. But what amazes me is that the man ever had a job. He just has no concept of film aesthetics whatsoever. None. The effects are absolutely terrible, yet still captivating as hell. The shots are all unwatchable, the acting is terrible, and the plot is pointless.

But then the ending comes along and just alters your entire perspective of the film. It’s not Sleepaway Camp mind blowing, but we definitely were able to have a very in depth conversation about the nature of Montag’s character; which should not have happened.

But it’s about 5/10, so I can’t really recommend it or not.