Lazlo, founder of BlowUpRadio.com (an online radio station based around New Jersey artists), shines a light on some of the many new releases from NJ based musicians each week with this column. This week Lazlo takes a look at releases by Blue Vervain, Andrew Pollinger, DirtyHands, Lost In Society, The Normal Living, and Commons 2. Plus a look back at "nightclub jitters" by evelyn forever.
Blue Vervain - "The Garden". Blue Vervain new 7 song release, "The Graden" is a masterpiece! It is a multi-hyphanate of musical genres, orchestral-indie-folk-pop-shoegaze among them, blended into a smooth, highly entertaining collection of songs.
Andrew Pollinger - "Acoustic Outtakes". I am often confused when I see someone call a release "outtakes", as Andrew Pollinger does with his new EP, "Acoustic Outtakes", because these "outtakes" are incredible acoustic pop-punk tunes. I want to rename the EP, "Acoustic Gems".
DirtyHands - "Here Comes The Fight". DirtyHands new single, "Here Comes The Fight", reminds me a lot of 90's modern rock ballads, and I love it!
Lost In Society - "Lights Out". Alt-Punk band Lost In Society is back with a new single, "Lights Out", to remind you that high energy rock, with a memorable chorus, is not dead! Hell yeah!
The Normal Living - "Pleasant Valley Flood". "Pleasant Valley Flood" is a 3 song EP from The Normal Living, that showcases the brilliance and diversity of the band. "Hurricane" is a perfect rocker to get things started. "Change" kind of builds from a mellow blues hard rock base, To a sweet, harmony-laden chorus. The title track closes out the EP with a catchy mid-tempo pop-rock tune that left me wanting to hear more.
Commons 2 - "Art Studio". An "Art Studio" can be a place of complete creative freedom. Commons 2's new EP of the same name showcases that creative freedom with 4 uniquely different sounding indie rock songs. There's a little blues, some shoegaze, pop-punk, and indie-pop, all tied together by some personal sounding lyrics.
Not New, But Memorable Corner
evelyn forever - "nightclub jitters". In the late 90's evelyn forever ruled the Jersey Shore local music scene and seemed primed to break in a big way. But like so many talented bands, they never quite got to the next level. However, they put out several amazing power-pop albums, including their 1997 debut, "nightclub jitters", which included "Rock And Roll Girl", a song which I think could still be huge today if they had label's PR team pushing it.
Alas, in the early 00's a band member left evelyn forever, and the band became Billion Boys Club, with a slightly heavier sound. By the late 00's they had disbanded completely.
That's all for this week.
Remember BlowUpRadio.com, plays these and many other New Jersey based artists on our internet radio station, so please check us out. #SupportGoodMusic - If you like any of the above artists, please purchase their music from their site. And if you would like to part of BlowUpRadio.com's New & Notable, please send downloads or contact Lazlo at Lazlo-at-BlowUpRadio-dot-com. We're also on Mastodon at https://gardenstate.social/@BlowUpRadio
