I love the retro vibe some of their songs have. Sinking Sailing is drenched in Floydian effects, beginning with a psychedelic intro and leading into a deafening conclusion.

The band released an album called Faded Signal in 2006, and are currently participating in MTV2’s On The Rise program (where you can vote for them). The Transfer line-up is:

• Matt Molarius (Guitar and Vocals)
• Jeremy Chambers (Bass)
• Jason Cardenas (Guitar)
• Mike Cooper (Drums)

Transfer are definitely worth checking out, so pop on over to their MySpace page and listen to a few tracks. They’ve got a couple of videos on their page as well if you want pictures to go with the sound.

Yes, they’re shifty looking. But they do rock, I can assure you. Drive Like Carson have profiles on both MySpace and (my favourite) PureVolume.com. So go on over a listen, and friend them if you like what you hear. Here’s a bit of blurb about the band and the line-up:

Drive Like Carson is very unique in that they have three brothers. Gary Cioffi, the oldest of the three brothers, is a pioneer on the guitar and has a masterful mind for music and sound engineering. Michael Cioffi, the second of the three, is one of the most crisp and well-groomed drummers in Boston. Torre Cioffi, the youngest of the trio, has such a beautiful and unique guitar style, not to mention his imagination when it comes to song writing. Paul Peters, is not in the family, but still plays a big role in Drive Like Carson. He plays a variety of four-string bass and uses his talent to play many different styles. The final piece of the puzzle is frontman Erik Brennan. The youngest member of DLC, Erik has such a great stage pressence and his voice actually sucks you in to the whole sound of DLC.

I listened to two of the tracks on MySpace – Hung Up and Crash. Both are excellent rock tracks, and you can see potential in the musicianship. Michael’s drumming really stands out, backing up the hype above! Listening to some of the rougher material on the PureVolume page, frontman Erik has a tendency to sound a little bit screechy, but this isn’t as apparent on the professional tracks.

It’s early days for these guys, but still they’ve amassed a following of thousands on MySpace. I suggest you check them out and give them some love (that’s friend requests, not groupie love BTW).

Apparently Lazy Eye’s had mega exposure in the USA, with appearances by the band on Letterman, Leno and others. It has also had a spot on The O.C.

This one deserves major success – it’s one of the most uplifting rock tracks you’ll hear this year. And while it nods strongly in the direction on early Smashing Pumpkins, you’ll be impressed with the power and the passion of this song as it reaches a fevered climax.

Yes. Yes. Yes!

Wanna hear the song? Here you go…

Done it? Good. Now let’s talk…

I first heard these guys on the cover CD for this month’s Classic Rock magazine, and the music blew my mind. It’s a fully realized mix of swing, opera and heavy metal. I can honestly say I’ve never heard anything like this band in my life – and I love it.

Imagine Evanescence on heavy-duty steroids and you’re still not even close. Regular metal will never sound the same again – what this group do is combine traditionally classical instruments with crushing metal riffs. Amazingly, what comes out the other end of this is crazy, uplifting metal music that is so totally uplifting.

Other music writers are similarly dumbstruck by Diablo Swing Orchestra:

Nowadays, in the metal scene, everyone seems to be doing what bands from the 80’s and early 90’s already shaped, most metal music kept recycling itself over and over again until we sadly got used to that fact without minding much. When a band like D:S:O suddenly appears and breaks the whole metal scheme with such an original sound and renewed vibe, I just can’t help to be utterly impressed as I am right now.

Anyway, I managed to get my hands on a copy of their album, The Butcher’s Ballroom. It’s a sublime listening experience. Balrog Boogie opens the album – it’s the most accessible track on the whole album. It’s followed closely by Heroines, which reminds me of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin, but with far more power. I can almost see lead singer Annlouice Loegdlund at the helm of a Viking longboat singing this into a stormy sea.

I’ll maybe review the Butcher’s Ballroom album in the next few days. If you want to get yourself a copy of it, go to Amazon or check out their blog for a list of online stockists.

As far as I’m concerned, Diablo Swing Orchestra are the most original thing to hit the metal scene in decades. I simply can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited about a metal band as I am about this one. D:S:O are a breath of fresh air for the heavy metal scene and I hope we start to hear more of this cross-genre madness in the future!

You can listen to more songs from the album below:

[tags]Emerging Artists, Rock, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Heavy Metal[/tags]

The market isn’t exactly flooded with girl bands these days, so there might be room for an act like Stonefoxx. Their style is very much pure pop, listening to tracks like Butterflies and Dirty Your Hands confirms this. Occasionally they get into some funky rock chick territory, as you’ll hear on Interference. Nice bass groove and crisp understated guitar.

Those of you wondering about the Spice Girls reference in the title – the girls have Spice-esque nicknames: Rock Foxx, Funky Foxx and Pop Foxx. Having said that, the Spice Girls could be their grannies!

The girls are signed to Indie label Nut Records, and seem to be on a bit of a PR blitz at the moment (are we expecting a single soon?). They did a performance during the week at Sound in Leicester Square, which unfortunately I couldn’t make. Take a look at their MySpace page and marvel at the number of pop stars they’ve hung out with. Except Duncan James. Poser.

If I have one concern about the group, it’s in the strength of their material. It’s a wee bit too generic. For instance, when the Spice Girls exploded on the scene in 1995, they bucked a lot of girl group trends at the time. So did Sugababes and Girls Aloud. From listening to the songs on Stonefoxx’s profile, I’d like to hear something a bit more engaging. More along the lines of Interference.

The challenge for Stonefoxx is to do that without sounding derivative of the other acts I mentioned. I think they can do it – they’re gorgeous girls (Rock Foxx, you’re my favourite), they’re good singers, and they seem to have a lot of good connections. Maybe a collaboration with another major British act would be enough to launch them into the public eye?

Anyway, good luck to the girls. I’ll be hoping to see you all in the charts very soon.