Power pop – Radio Free Lightning Bug

The Dirty Nil Play “Pain of Infinity”

Posted on September 17, 2018September 13, 2018 by Rob Jones

Dundas, Ontario rock band and Hamilton, Ontario scensters The Dirty Nil have released their latest record Master Volume, and are set to go on tour with dates in North America and in Europe, too. Here’s a cut off of it and the second single, “Pain of Infinity”.

The Dirty Nil have been around for a while by now, having painstakingly built an audience by crafting a sound that touches on the energy of punk, but – to be clear – they’re not a punk band. They’re a rock band, kids. Their sound is characterized by a keen sense of varied texture within a rock set up, in-the-red volume levels, and by old-fashioned pop hooks.

I was lucky enough to encounter the band’s music around the time their debut song, the pointedly titled “Fuckin’ Up Young” came out. I even got to interview them! At that time, their songwriting approach was purely instinctual, fuelled by the love of loud music, TV shows about explosions, and prodigious beer consumption. I suspect that with this song and the new album, not much has changed. And after winning a Juno for upcoming group of the year in 2017, and relentlessly playing shows (including as an opening act for The Who!) to hone their craft, their new album Master Volume is set to push the band into the next phase.

Find out more about The ‘Nil at their official site.

Buy the record and get merch right here.

Happy Listening!

The Foreign Films’ Bill Majoros: The Record Collector Speaks

Posted on August 8, 2018August 6, 2018 by Rob Jones

Bill Majoros of The Foreign Films wants to create his own musical world. That sounds like a line out of a PR one-sheet. Yet it is apt to a greater degree than one might think when considering his most recent project, The Record Collector. This epic scale collection is a six-sided, 31-track magnum opus that encompasses the pop music gamut as filtered through an ecstatic, optimistic, and wistful sixties and seventies filter.

The Foreign Films “band” isn’t really a consolidated unit in the traditional sense. It’s more of a musical approach that plays into that very same drive to create a world in a way a movie director might. The songs are little foreign films imported from Majoros’ singular imagination.

The biggest vista on Majoros’ horizon since the beginning of the decade has been an epic-scale expression of that which inspired him to become a musician in the first place; records, specifically vinyl ones. That seemed like a pretty good place to start to realize a lifelong dream of creating a self-defining work, although perhaps not the path of least resistance in the digital age. Yet the seeds of The Record Collector began to germinate anyway.

To overcome the obstacle of its own scale, Majoros wrote, recorded, and released the project in digital form bit by bit, side by side, over the course of a few years. As of June of 2018, the full-fledged 3-disc vinyl incarnation of the album containing all 31 tracks plus a lavish package that includes extras is now available, along with streamed versions and downloadble MP3s. You can also buy the set in CD form at Kool Kat Musik.

I connected with Bill via email, and asked him about the inspiration for such an ambitious project, how he approached bringing it to life, and what it took to do it.

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Four-Star Riot Play “Beautiful Soul”

Posted on June 11, 2018June 10, 2018 by Rob Jones

Four-Star riot hail from Clearwater, Florida, trading in guitar-driven power pop that’s done a bit of lifting and has put on some brawn.

The band, made up of Steve Alex (vox and guitar), Mike Chilton (vox, drums), Aaron Akers (bass, vox), and Finn Walling (lead guitar, vox) will debut their newest record Daylight next week, June 15 via The Orchard.

In the meantime, here’s choice cut from that record to enjoy right now, friends.

“Beautiful Soul” is line with the album’s hopeful title. It’s the closing track on Daylight about finding beauty in everyone even if it takes a while to do so. Listen!

As it turns out, the song has some significance to the rest of the album, being something of a bright spark to kick the whole thing off. I talked with Steve Alex via email about that. He explained.

It was the first song we recorded for this album and really the catalyst for the whole thing. We were playing a show a in St. Pete late 2016. Steve Connelly who recorded and mixed the album was the sound engineer at that show (and) liked the song.(He) asked us if we wanted to record it with him at his studio. The track turned out great and the experience was pleasant, so we started writing and tracking the rest of the songs two or three at a time.

The rest of the record is replete with anthems that make you want to jump around, break things, and hug people. It’s full of radio-friendly melodies, crunchy guitar, and impassioned vocals.

Most importantly, Four Star Riot demonstrate an ability to create music that connects with some pretty relatable themes within all of that, with “Beautiful Soul” being a fine example both on the new album and in general.

For more about Four Star Riot here are some important links on which to get to clicking, friends:

Remember too, the new record Daylight comes out June 15.

Otherwise,

Happy Listening!