Band: Hot Snakes
Album: Thunder Down Under
www.www.hotsnakes.com



Like most bands of exceptional quality eventually do, San Diego’s favorite sons Hot Snakes have gone and broken up, proving the unjust nature of the world as constipated cock-rockers continue to rape and pillage the land. At least before the band called it quits they went down to Australia to lay down 13 live studio tracks that are now compiled on the appropriately titled “Thunder Down Under.” Pulling songs from their three proper studio albums, “Thunder” infuses the bands sinewy post-punk sound with a heavy dose of visceral grit and velocity that perfectly captures the raucous, unhinged nature of the bands legendary live performances. Far superior in sound quality to last years live Peel Sessions EP, “Thunder Down Under” is a fitting obituary to one of the last true, untainted punk-rock bands to have recently left this sad planet.

Band: Umbrellas
Album: Illuminare
www.umbrellasmusic.com



Scott Windsor and the crew are back at it with the release of their second album ‘Illuminare’, a blend of their usual clean and soft pop rock. Umbrellas are this amazing mix of a vocal style I would never imagine with this type of music, which makes for something absolutely original. Bright guitars dance with a soft 80s synth on tracks like ‘Again and Again’ while the atmosphere of ‘Thinking of you’ is a day dream in and of itself. Not straying too far from their roots on their self titled debut makes this a digestible addition for previous fans yet still as enjoyable for the new listener. Thanks again to the Militia group label for bringing us good tunes.