Parkway Drive – Gig Reviews – Music – Entertainment – smh.com.au
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- Parkway Drive – Gig Reviews – Music – Entertainment – smh.com.au
- Notable Music of 2006
- Local metal band is climbing the ladder: The current issue of…
- Year in Review
- Some singles are keepers
Parkway Drive – Gig Reviews – Music – Entertainment – smh.com.au
Sydney Morning Herald – Dec 20, 2006
But how did these five young surfer dudes from Byron Bay -McCall Ben Gordon Luke Kilpatrick Jeff Ling and Jia ‘Connor -become so angry growing up in such an idyllic place?”There’s not much to do in Byron unless you want to get into thehospitality industry or work at a cafe” McCall says. “There’s alot of frustrated young people looking for a way out. With fast catchy sounds overlaid with the obligatory screamingParkway Drive sound like a cross between Blink-182 pop punk anddeath metal. Parkway sold 20000 copies of their debut album2005′s Killing with a Smile in a genre where 5000 salesis considered a smash hit. n the new measure of success their tracks on MySpace have beenplayed about 800000 times and their website has had almost half amillion hits. Parkway Drive named after the street where one of their parentsbuilt a soundproof studio for them in Byron can attribute much oftheir success to their relentless touring. By the end of this year they will have played 72 gigs inAustralia and 86 overseas… Still they plan to tour Europe againin March before returning home to Byron to record their secondalbum. Parkway’s following may also be because their sound appeals totwo large audiences: punk and metal. “There are a lot of frustrated music lovers who are over themass-produced crap that gets force-fed to us these days” McCallsays. “People are beginning to realise how fake it all is. We’renot trying to be anything. Strangely for a hardcore band many of their fans are youngwomen; some of their MySpace “friends” look like pop princesses. Maybe it’s because unlike most hardcore-metal band members thelads in Parkway Drive don’t have beards or beer guts.
Notable Music of 2006
NPR – Dec 20, 2006
While the album — conceived as a suite of songs meant to cohere as an aesthetic and sometimes narrative whole — has not completely disappeared CD sales dropped five percent in 2006 as did the notion of the album as many performers’ primary mode of expression. Increasingly music is being distributed in new formats such as single songs for computers and iPods tunes plucked from MySpace music videos available on YouTube as well as ringtones for cellular phones. Here in alphabetical order is the best music of 2006:Citizen Cope Every Waking Moment (RCA) — Cope (real name: Clarence Greenwood) makes a swampy funky rock with slurry vocals that convey clear concise emotions. Bob Dylan Modern Times (Columbia) — Big juicy songs written sung and performed with shocking urgency. Eagles of Death Metal Death By Sexy (Downtown) — Insanely catchy hard-rock with choruses you’ll be singing along to the first time you hear them. Fiery Furnaces Bitter Tea (Fat Possum) — Siblings Matthew and Elinor Friedberger turn in another knotty pretty passionate collection of art songs that never veer into dull artiness… Here in alphabetical order is the best music of 2006:Citizen Cope Every Waking Moment (RCA) — Cope (real name: Clarence Greenwood) makes a swampy funky rock with slurry vocals that convey clear concise emotions. Bob Dylan Modern Times (Columbia) — Big juicy songs written sung and performed with shocking urgency. Eagles of Death Metal Death By Sexy (Downtown) — Insanely catchy hard-rock with choruses you’ll be singing along to the first time you hear them. Fiery Furnaces Bitter Tea (Fat Possum) — Siblings Matthew and Elinor Friedberger turn in another knotty pretty passionate collection of art songs that never veer into dull artiness. Ghostface Killah Fishscale (DefJam) — Street stories told with grimly articulate humor. Ben Kweller (AT) — Twenty-something singer-songwriter delivers spritely yet mature power-pop.
Local metal band is climbing the ladder: The current issue of…
Free with registration – Daily Press – AccessMyLibrary.com – Dec 20, 2006
20–Arsis a heavy-metal band with a foundation on the Peninsula gets a blast of national publicity in the January 2007 edition of Revolver magazine. Featured as the sole… –>CPYRIGHT 2006 Daily Press Byline: Sam Mcdonald Dec. 20–Arsis a heavy-metal band with a foundation on the Peninsula gets a blast of national publicity in the January 2007 edition of Revolver magazine. Featured as the sole group on the music monthly’s “Bands to Watch” page Arsis is described by correspondent Brandon Geist as a critically acclaimed “melodic death metal unit. ” It’s the latest step in a steady. CPYRIGHT 2006 Daily Press.
Year in Review
FWWeekly – Dec 20, 2006
Anthony MarianiThe ShowsWhen Lance Yocom the visionary behind Spune Productions summoned 88 local and national acts to the Ridglea Theater in April the local attendance was awfully disappointing considering the two days packed full of serious indie talent on tap. Maybe no one wanted to spend the weekend inside a dark and smoky cavern but where else could you listen to such a broad range of stuff from The Burning Hotels to The Starlight Mints? A strong block of Fort Worth bands even if relegated to the upstairs stage represented the town proudly. Bolstered by the non-localized distribution of the internet Yocom showed independent music is capable of flourishing if only more people were paying attention. Caroline Collier For me trying to sum up the best live moments of 2006 takes two words: Def Leppard… Whether relaxing to jazz or grooving along with the packed crowds that regularly turned out for jam band Catfish Whiskey and party favorites Villain Vanguard The Moon established itself once again as a reliable place to enjoy a strong mix of local and national talent almost nightly. CCThe MusicThe music industry and that shiny silver disc might be lumbering toward extinction but that didn’t stop some bands from dropping righteous sentiments for the ear canal. Killswitch Engage finally helped drive a nail into emo’s coffin with As Daylight Dies a scorching slab of metal-core that burns to the pit of your stomach. Another Swedish import Katatonia delivered a major coup with The Great Cold Distance a dreary masterpiece full of big riffs the kind that if they weren’t so damn epic commercial radio would have eaten up no doubt. And master ax-man David Gilmour found his tone again on n An Island all crystalline and warm harking back to the ethereal beauty of the Floyd essentials Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. JP Making music in the new millennium has to be a labor of love; it usually costs more money to be in a band than most musicians can afford.
Some singles are keepers
Miami New Times – Dec 20, 2006
CSS Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop): With Le Tigre on hiatus the Brazilian sextet CSS stepped up for booty-dancers staunch feminists and electro-pop fanatics everywhere with its high-energy debut. “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” begs to be blared during a Jazzercise class for hipsters “Art Bitch” sounds like a deconstructed Yeah Yeah Yeahs song stitched back together with diagonal big-beats and the bubble-bath-synth groover “Fuckoff Is Not the nly Thing You Have to Show” resembles Ladytron trash-talking with Cyndi Lauper. Def Leppard Yeah! (Island): These critically maligned arena-rockers sure sound like they have something to prove on their fantastic covers record Yeah! And who can blame them? They’ve always drawn inspiration from seminal UK glam and metal bands but can’t seem to escape being seen as poof-rock hacks. Which is too bad because their faithful (but not derivative) renditions of classic cuts from Bowie T. Rex Roxy Music Sweet EL and even the Kinks — in the form of a gorgeous copper-burnished “Waterloo Sunset” — more than cement their musical talent. Nelly Furtado Loose (Geffen): Furtado who’s notorious for being a hit-or-miss performer live is perhaps the year’s biggest example of how studio gloss and the right production team can revive (and reinvent) an artist’s career — and create Top 40 gold in the process… CSS Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop): With Le Tigre on hiatus the Brazilian sextet CSS stepped up for booty-dancers staunch feminists and electro-pop fanatics everywhere with its high-energy debut. “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” begs to be blared during a Jazzercise class for hipsters “Art Bitch” sounds like a deconstructed Yeah Yeah Yeahs song stitched back together with diagonal big-beats and the bubble-bath-synth groover “Fuckoff Is Not the nly Thing You Have to Show” resembles Ladytron trash-talking with Cyndi Lauper. Def Leppard Yeah! (Island): These critically maligned arena-rockers sure sound like they have something to prove on their fantastic covers record Yeah! And who can blame them? They’ve always drawn inspiration from seminal UK glam and metal bands but can’t seem to escape being seen as poof-rock hacks. Which is too bad because their faithful (but not derivative) renditions of classic cuts from Bowie T. Rex Roxy Music Sweet EL and even the Kinks — in the form of a gorgeous copper-burnished “Waterloo Sunset” — more than cement their musical talent. Nelly Furtado Loose (Geffen): Furtado who’s notorious for being a hit-or-miss performer live is perhaps the year’s biggest example of how studio gloss and the right production team can revive (and reinvent) an artist’s career — and create Top 40 gold in the process. Loose is the most consistent and innovative pop-diva disc of the year from the Latin-flair of “No Hay Igual” digi-funk body-rocker “Maneater” and of course the playful Eighties glitter all over the Timbaland-featuring synth-swerve “Promiscuous.