Creative Commons

The Sovereigns: Pick It Up

During this day and age, I find it more and more difficult to find punk bands which sport the punk genre in a legitimate sense. However, recently, my ears have been rewarded with some of the scarce spoils in which rarely become available to a dedicated browser like myself. The album ‘Pick it up’ by ‘The Sovereigns’, resurrects the late 1980’s/early 1990’s version of ska-punk that many believe to have died long ago. Hysterical drum beats (with a tempo range between relatively fast to extremely rapid), catchy brass sections, walking bass lines and power chords strummed from a fanatically distorted guitar help to ensure that all of the desired boxes are ticked. These aspects then conglomerate to form a sound similar to that of Anti-flag, NOFX and Reel Big Fish. Additionally, the bands vocalist portals politically motivated and humerous lyrics through a rough and husky voice - while he also manages to stay in key. This deems the Sovereign’s music worthy of a wider audience and saves them from being restricted to only those of the traditional punk scene.

Burly: Worthy

Burly is a Sean Fournier's side project. "Worthy" has all characteristic qualities of Sean's previous creations - the melancholic voice, clear piano & guitars and carefully crafted lyrics, but with a tiny spin. To hear more from Burly, fans need to 'Like' his songs on Facebook. After a song accumulates a specific number of fans, another is published. Hope the experiment works, because I would sure love to hear more complex and longer track as the #2 - 44 seconds of "Worthy" is not enough!!!

The Wagner Logic: Easiest to Grab

Shoegazer indie rock that makes you feel "infinite." Perhaps the Wagner Logic has noticed the many criticisms they got after tagging "punk" along with their genre in Jamendo, because they removed it and left their description as indie, alternative, postrock and rock. Well, those words are more fitting in describing their beautifully melodic release, Easiest to Grab anyway. The Wagner Logic is composed of Jeremy Wagner and James Glave who by their own definition are "two mysterious friends challenged to a blood pact...making music in the woods." This is their very first release and for sure it's not going to be the last one.

FrostWire for Android

The FrostWire team has worked long and hard to deliver the mobile version your favorite file sharing software to you. Now, they have finally taken the Beta off the software and introduced the application to the Android Market. FrostWire for Android is the first mobile application that allows you to search, browse and share files locally and over the Internet using your Wi-Fi connection in a P2P fashion.

The Heavens: The Heavens

British rock and American psychedelia rolled into one. If at some point you fell in love with the Verve or any 90s Brit rock band during the Oasis era, then you might find The Heavens a real treat. The band infuses their music with bits and pieces of rock, alternative, psychedelia and indie rock making every listener think twice whether it's really 2010 not 1998. The band is known for mixing British 60s rock with a psychedelic American twist. Their self-titled EP has been hailed positively by various critics and reviewers. In fact, one writer even went on to say that "their 4-track demo is better than most current bands' singles." I must agree, so why not give the tracks a listen and be the judge.

The Sway: Going Blind EP

An almost guaranteed Top 10 indie pop rock band. Thirteen years after they parted ways, The Sway, reunites to give this whole music thing one last swig. And from the looks of things, they have succeeded. They went on hiatus again for two years after this mini reunion and as of April 2010, they were back in the studio penning tracks for a new album. For the meantime, the band definitely left something great behind for their fans to enjoy, Going Blind. This is actually a 3 song EP that would make even current so-called "indie pop rock bands " a run for their money. Their indie rock sound is definitely worthy of praise, not to mention a slot in the iPod.
Sintel

Sintel

Sintel is a next in a series of visually stunning and captivating short animation films initiated by the Blender Foundation. The previous - Big Buck Bunny and Elephant's Dream - have been a huge success and associated The Blender name and the Foundation itself with the highest quality animation worldwide. Sintel tells a story of a young girl on a long and dangerous quest to save her best friend, a baby dragon. With plenty of time to tell the story (this short is little over 14min - the longest of all three), the team had a chance to fully showcase both their creative and technical skills and the capabilities of their animation software, Blender. Fast action scenes, fires, landscapes & complicated facial features - all you could expect from a multimillion animation studio, but done by a small, international team of creators working on open source, free software with a budget of $550k.

Henry Pierrot: Poetics for Cosmonauts

"Poetics for Cosmonauts" by Henry Pierrot is a short little book of poems inspired by the soon-to-be shot full feature crowd-sourced movie licensed under Creative Commons entitled "The Cosmonaut". Released in conjunction with the movie (a hard copy is being sold to help found it!) it complements is it extremely well giving you the fell and a little taste for the main release.

Mudskills: Mudskills

Rock alternative indie rock that comes in fast and hard. Apart from a short bio and the name of its band members, information about this band is a bit elusive. Essentially, Mudskills is made of Eleonora Rocca on vocals and guitar; Mirko Deiana on guitar; Marcello Pabiri on drums and Allessio on bass. On certain instances, they are joined together by Andrea Puddu on drums and Emanuele Orru on bass. Mudskills is a hard rock act that showcases plenty of grunge influence. Although it's not entirely a gem, the album does hold some noteworthy tracks that any grunge lover would enjoy. It's worth checking out if you have a taste for loud rocking tracks.