The Indie Rock Dojo

 Silhouette Cities is a band out of Washington DC, USA.  Their song "What It's Like to Lose" is a pop-punk song sticking pretty close to what you'd expect from the genre, but does have some sleight veering from the norm to the alternative rock area.  First of all, the rhythm guitars carry a tone with light gain, giving clearer chords and a less aggressive feel.  The lead singer sings within the style, but also has a thicker voice with well-used vibrato when appropriate.  Also, the lead guitarist gives tasteful melodic solo with solid and confident chops!  Same with the drummer, great chops and perfect feel for when to improvise and what the song needs. All of that being said, the song overall is well written.  I really enjoyed the feel of this song, which veers into the alternative rock area.  There is a solid foundation with the freedoms that rock provides...in a garageband-type experience.  I get this feeling the band is enjoying playing th...

 Lion Trail, out of Israel, is a heavy rock/post-grunge/hard rock band that with amazing chops on every instrument and they aren't afraid of showing off the shredding skills!  Does shredding mean incredible skills on other instruments than just guitar?  In this case, I say YES!  Not only that, but they all are rhythmically tight with one another and depend on each other completely.  I can't get enough of this band because this is what they always do. OK, so I said directly that the guitars are incredible.  Now, I need to mention that the bass sounds great and powers through.  It leads with the chord progressions, but also improvises its own path very tastefully.  The drums are steady and change rhythms effortlessly.  The drummer pushes an incredible amount of energy into the song and is in full force as captain of the ship.  As a related note...I LOVE the metal speed drums when they come in!  The vocals keep a great melody, but most...

 Lenny and the D, out of Texas USA, are a melodic rock band with a strong 80's rock presence.  "Vice Grip" has a very catchy melody.  There is some very good musicianship in this song, as well.  The rhythm guitars are solid, and the bass is very active and adding lots of flavor to the rhythm section.  The vocals have a a clean delivery with a lot of melody doubling.  I also enjoyed the keyboard additions that carry decoration around the top-end of the frequency spectrum, adding nice color as a lead  above the guitars. I really enjoyed the dualing guitar solo in the bridge.  They played together very creatively and were rhythmically perfect.  I loved hearing each guitar in opposing headphone sides! One great hook in this song is the vocals in the chorus.  I hear a shout "You" (DEVO-inspired???), then I hear the melodic vocal response "...got a vice grip on my heart." I recommend this song to anyone who loves a good-feeling 80's inspired r...