The Great Local CD Review Roundup (yeehaw)

By Colin Hunter

Want to hear some good music? If you answered "Why, yes I do!" then you're in luck, mister, because you don't have to go far to hear it. There's gobs and scads and heaps of great music being made right here in the K-Dubs (and Cambridge and Guelph and possibly even Punkydoodle's Corners).

If you're looking to expand your CD collection with some locally produced rock, pop, blues or miscellaneous sub-genres, the following reviews should point you in some good directions.

The Guys, Live the Party 

This is an unabashedly silly-but-slick pop-punk hybrid that takes cues from early British punk, new wave, glam pop and dunderheaded party-rock (a la Andrew W.K.). The album art makes The Guys look like a bunch of pretentious club-dancing doofuses, but that's all part of the charm. Read the full review.

Battle Creek, Hold Hope O Withered Tree

Sometimes a good pop song feels like a big group hug, full of warmth and personality and feel-goodiness. If you've never experienced that feeling listening to a pop song, you've never heard the final track on this album, which culminates in sheer group-huggish bliss. Read the full review.

  Union of Lanterns, Truth (If You Want It)

The debut album by Union of Lanterns is a snapshot of a band on the verge of finding themselves. Most of the instrumentation and singing on the album is handled by two young fellas who have tons of heart, but could use a bit more oomph to flesh out their emotive sound. Last I heard, they just hired a full backup band, so expect good things.  Read the full review.

Various Artists, R U Ready 4 The Helicopter?!?! Vol. 3

Don't let the wonky album name fool you... no, wait... DO let the wonky album name fool you. Wonky is precisely what this compilation is, through and through. Any compilation that contains tracks by both Knock Knock Ginger (uplifting power-pop) with Iron Bitchface (grating, shrieking noise-rock) is totally wonky. But it's a great overview of Waterloo Region's underground scene.  Read the full review.

Daddy Long Legs, King for a Day.

The trouble with some blues-rock recordings is that they don't quite capture the raw sound of the band's live show. Not so with the new album by Kitchener's boogie-blues troubadours, Daddy Long Legs. The guitars are deliciously overdriven, the vocals are crisp and Junior Malleck's harmonica all the ferocity that local blues fans have come to expect from their live gigs. Read the full review.

Bad Pickle, Relish the Music

They're called Bad Pickle. Their album is called Relish the Music. Get it? Such is the sophistication at play on the Kitchener bar band's debut. Sophistication schmophistication, this is 70's-inspired classic rock about women and drinkin' and rockin'. Dude! Read the full review.