Edgemont, Lipstick and Cigarettes, Fear Report

I wanted to give a shout out and support to my friends who recently released music this past summer, including myself.  Overall, I was blown away by the music on these three releases.  The sound quality and musicianship are all excellent here.

First up is my friend Anthony's band Edgemont, from Minneapolis, who released their EP entitled Like It Is.

Anthony and I have been friends for a long time and have shared tons of music that we have written over the years. I was very excited to hear about the release of his EP, which was a long time in the making.  There are many musical influence the make up the seven songs of Like It Is. There are traces of Coldplay, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. What I really enjoyed about these seven songs is the hypnotic sound and poetic lyrics.  My favorite tracks are "Uncomfortable Comfort" and "Things I've Known."

Second is my friend Erik's band Lipstick and Cigarettes from New Jersey.

Like Anthony, Erik and I have been good friends for a long time.  We were both drummers and played in hardcore bands in high school. Erik and I use to share my drum set and played in a band together called Harsh Reality.. 

I just downloaded Lipstick and Cigarettes' new release entitled About Last Night. There are so many styles happening in these songs. The Killers mixed with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol and a spice of Goth.  I love the 1980s pop sound, especially the Ric Ocasek influenced vocals.  Stand-out tracks are "About Last Night" and "Alibi."  I also highly recommend their first EP self entitled Lipstick and Cigarettes.

Last is my friend Dan's band Fear Report.  Dan and I met in film school on Long Island. Dan runs a great website called IndieTalk.  He also wrote and directed an excellent short film called To Skin a Cat - shot on beautiful black and white film. So one day Dan tells me he started a band.  I never knew Dan had the chops for singing!

I highly recommend his new album Pandemic.  These 13 songs encompass a range of styles - Chevelle, Stone Temple Pilots, Cold, and Faith No More.  There's even a flavor of punk thrown in.  I really enjoyed the tracks "Wasting" and "5 Dirty Cents" - overall, a great batch and diversity of songs on Pandemic.

Edgemont, Lipstick and Cigarettes and Fear Report are all available for purchase on Itunes.  And visit their websites for shows and updates.  I love that independent bands use the Internet as a source to circulate and promote their music independently.  This is not to suggest that the Internet is solely responsible for their music - it just makes it easier to share and transmit their music.  

But getting reviews and comments can be challenging for independent artists.  So I hope I can help support them with this posting.  Congrats to my friends for continuing to write and record great music.