Owl John Is A Riveting Solo Debut Ride

Not everybody remembers it, but Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison started out as a solo artist. Even Frightened Rabbit was a solo project before Hutchison enlisted his brother Grant for his debut album, Sing The Greys. It wasn't until the band signed with Fat Cat Records that anything changed.

By the time Pedestrian Verse was released last year, Frightened Rabbit had grown to five members. Despite being one of the band's best efforts, made up of dark moods and darker deeds, Hutchison was becoming largely disenchanted with its direction and decided to take a break as Owl John.

Although this break includes guitarist Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and Simon Liddell (Olympic Swimmers), the outing is clearly Hutchison. As he has occasionally noted, more members meant being less noisy and more anthemic. This isn't the case here.

Owl John is stripped back and indie rock raw. 

The debut album features ten tracks that open up Hutchison in ways Frightened Rabbit never could. Opening the album with Cold Creeps immediately sets the claustrophobic tone, which is significantly more pained than being alone. Even surrounded by people, the stress tightens up on him.

It's this unabridged look inside of Hutchison that makes Owl John such a compelling album. Even on shorter tracks like Hate Music, Hutchison outlines all the character flaws and labels carried around by John. He is everything from a homeless man and priest to a wino and a thief.


Hate Music rings with an unforgettable indie folk rock intensity. It's about a man who sees all his frailties and failings as unsurmountable. Everything he has done in the past has ensured how he expects to be put to rest.  If you have a chance, check out the recently released video too.

Red Hand, toward the end of the album, is considerably smoother in comparison. The song includes his all too familiar scowl, but remains surprisingly gentle given the suspiciousness and eventual disappointment that frames it until the end. There, Hutchison considers a resolution that whatever wrongs have been done don't really mean anything.

The reckless energy, always looming darkness, and well-balanced distortions mark most of the tracks. Don't Take Off The Gloves smacks of betrayal. A Good Reason To Grow Old whispers at wisdom. Stupid Boy is a self-deprecating confession that wraps up the album on a musical high note and a lyrical low note that almost apologizes for every other topic covered.

While Owl John is a departure from Frightened Rabbit, there are some anthemic glimmers on the album. Two and Songs About Roses soar as much as any compositions one might expect from the band. They're good tracks, even if it's easy to acquire a taste for the rougher edges found everywhere else on the album.

The brilliance of this album resides in how personal it is. There are reasons some people have likened it to a purge, even if there is something more elegant in the offering. Owl John offers up a rich diversity and independence that allows fans to see Hutchison again as opposed to the collective nature of Frightened Rabbit. In many ways, you might be surprised to find you like his solo work even better.

The Self-Titled Debut Of Owl John Reveals 9.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

As for Frightened Rabbit, the band seems to be getting along fine with the new lineup since Gordon Skene left over creative differences. The departure has given Simon Liddell a greater presence during live performances. Owl John has also committed to a few shows since the album release. Visit Owl John for details.

The self-titled debut Owl John can be found on Amazon or downloaded from iTunes. You can also find the self-titled album by Owl John at Barnes & Noble. While there is no way to know when Hutchison might start working on another solo contribution, there is no doubt this one will leave you wanting more.

The Orwells Take On Disgraceland

With a couple more years under their belts and a bigger label, The Orwells find being outcasts is easier as teens than young adults. When you've finally signed on to being one of the popular kids, everything produced begins to feel like an apology as opposed to the authenticity that gets you there.

The result is kind of a crazy paradox where everything sounds better but that doesn't necessarily mean that everything is better. Disgraceland is about being inadequate and left on the sidelines because it isn't always easy to enter society when you start out as a reject from high school. Except, they really aren't.

Two years ago, they sounded like older souls projecting what it might be like right around the corner. And now that they are, it doesn't have the same harsh wisdom. It's just sad, even if it sounds all right.

The Orwells started out as an alternative to sports.

When The Orwells debuted two years ago, they already had three years under their belts as a backyard band started in middle school as a means to get girls. Nowadays, the passion has fizzled out for purposeful punk-induced vintage rock. It's bigger, bolder, but maybe not as honest. It's hard to say.

The Righteous One is less about anything than the experience of being there. The track itself comes across like overly polished garage rock backing the carefree lines of being somewhere but too messed up to really care where. It's a big contrast to some of the headier writing on their debut.


Dirty Sheets covers much the same ground. It's a song about touring, being a mess, and putting women on a pedestal until the sun comes up. When it does come up, it's time to slink out before someone wants you to play the name game. It's pretty clear that would be too much for this crew.

Patriotism is too much too. As part of the stay-on-the-fringe persona, The Orwells belt out Who Needs You, a sixties-inspired anti-draft ditty that sounds good but feels out of place in an era where the armed services turn more people away than they recruit. The expectation is a bit overblown.

It's all right to some degree. Disgraceland is a party album, with the better songs feeling a bit more authentic like Southern Comfort, which touches on what it feels like when you become one of the older people at the party. It becomes a bit more uncomfortable when you don't know the newcomers.

It also becomes a bit more uncomfortable with the singularity of tracks like Bathroom Tile Blues, Gotta Get Down, and Blood Bubbles. The tracks all sound different but they mostly recast the same theme. It essentially becomes a bit tired. Thank goodness for Norman and North Ave., which aren't necessarily as good musically but do allow the band to stretch their legs a bit more.

North Ave. is a nostalgic teen wisdom track that feels like the last few empty pages of a high school yearbook. Norman, in contrast, is a sentimental party song gone bad and pleading for forgiveness, especially from whatever women he wants to be accepted by while nursing that hangover.

All in all, Disgraceland is decent album that takes the band in the wrong direction. It can be simultaneously appreciated in small doses and loathed for abandoning what could have been a better progression from the DIY vibe of their introduction tracks like Mallrats and All The Cool Kids.

Disgraceland By The Orwells Lays Down 4.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

The band still benefits from Mario Cuomo's vocals and the continually improving talents of a five piece with all their original members. They're not nearly as sloppy as they used to be (even if you wish they were), but most people agree that their stage presence is intact (no matter what happened on Letterman). Fans will love it for awhile even while critics give it a lukewarm reception.

Disgraceland by The Orwells can be found on Amazon. You can also download the sophomore album from iTunes. Barnes & Noble carries Disgraceland by The Orwells on vinyl. For tour information, visit Facebook.

Meg Myers Sings In Shadows No More

While there are plenty of pop idols that try to act bad and get attention, Meg Myers dispels the need for antics by writing provocative and gloomy tracks that get under the skin. The emotion-laden tracks get your attention with rattling rockers and then quickly descend into the after effects of life.

There is no question that Make A Shadow is a five-song set that represents her mastery of the craft and the diversity of her range. The result is an alternative pop sound that easily snuggles up against the darkly tinged undercurrent of indie rock influences.

Make A Shadow reinforces the rawness of Meg Myers. 

Make A Shadow kicks off with the direct and seductive single Desire. After a series of passionate and even-paced pleadings, Desires drifts into some atmospheric tenderness before guitars change the tempo and bring the track to a fitting climax.

The guitar solo makes the song memorable, even if the genius is the songwriting. While any other singer could have made the song crash, Myers manages to make it intimate and meaningful. It's especially fitting how she lays out what she wants before asking "how do you want me," over and over and with insistence.



The guitar wrap up on Desire also becomes the perfect introduction for her briskly paced Go. It opens with a few plucky guitar notes before moving through an opening verse and coastal punk-inspired lyrics. There is significantly more attitude in Go than in the opener.

The contrast between the two tracks make a case for dark pop in that it tends to avoid exploitative themes and centers on empowerment. In one song, Myers is willing to share all of herself. In another, she is ready to build a wall or cut out all together.

The title track, Make A Shadow, doesn't pull punches either. The track is thunderous in its brighter pop chorus and restrained in its darker indie verse. In creating this sort of arrangement, it lands right where she wants to take it — playing from the shadow as opposed to the bright glare of a spotlight.

Even so, it seems unlikely Myers will remain in the shadows for long. Heart Heart Head carries some unnerving emotion as she sets the song up for three-quarters of it before wailing away in its climax. She screams hard enough to purposely crack her voice. And yet, somehow it works.

There is no doubt her fans will love it, even if I was more impressed by the bookend at the bottom. The Morning After is a compelling confessional, with acoustics making the song impossibly memorable. Nobody has made a better denotation song this year.

As much as I like her Los Angeles-based rocker roots, the fragility of The Morning After feels like seeing Myers for the first time. For a minute, the cityscape she now calls home felt farther away than where she was born and raised in Tennessee. She isn't so raw around the edges anymore. And the rawness that is left has been kept on intentionally.

Make A Shadow By Meg Myers Blinks 8.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

If you appreciate strong singer-songwriters who evoke the spirit of femme fatales, then Meg Myers is well worth a listen. Even better, she is only getting started. Her first album, Daughter In The Choir, caught me unaware when I first heard it but her new material proves her potential.

You can find Make A Shadow [Explicit] by Meg Myers on Amazon or you can download the EP from iTunes. Mostly, Myers has been playing residency shows in and around Los Angeles. I expect that to change soon. Look for an upcoming tour listing on Facebook.

Drenge Likes To Play At Bloodsports

Since 2011, the two-piece grunge/post-grunge band Drenge has been touring the UK countryside. They already put out a 12-track debut there, one that is still finding its way stateside.

Their break on this side of the pond came about late last year. Drenge had locked in spots opening for breakout bands like Radkey and Deap Vally and then played the iTunes Festival 2013 in London. Shortly after, their single Bloodsports was featured on advertisements for the television series Misfits.

Although the release has been lagging behind several months, the single Bloodsports and its accompanying B-side Dogmeat have finally come ashore. If either track sounds familiar, it's only because both were mastered as part of a live iTunes Festival outtakes EP with five of the band's best aggressively crude and sometimes brooding songs.

Bloodsports has given Drenge an auspicious entrance.

Consisting of Eoin Loveless (vocals/guitar) and his younger brother Rory Loveless (drums), Drenge originates from Castleton in Derbyshire but had more or less taken up residence in Sheffield. Like many two-piece bands, they aim to surprise people with a riotous stage presence that can be felt through the speakers.

They like to deliver almost everything they play relentless and raw, without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. It's who they are and they make you believe it, with studio sessions that are as stark as their live sets.

But it's not just the unbridled passion that makes the music they produce memorable. Drenge brings together grunge, blues, and sludge to make their own post-grunge sound.


Bloodsports comes across like a post-breakup monotony song with the breakup lasting for a mere two lines. Then the track descends into a backup trance of sorts, filling time until she comes back or something better comes along. Who are you going to bet on?

The verse is ferociously cold before drifting into its frenzied riffs. The lyrics are crisp and uncluttered, the instruments drone on and then explode. It makes for a great introduction of what is yet to come.

The B-side (second on their debut alum) Dogmeat is equally callous. Although some people describe the sound as harsh, the music just rolls along. The angst is in the writing more than the delivery.


Both Bloodsports and Dogmeat are among the earliest tracks laid down by the band. They wrote most of their material over a year and a half and recorded it chronologically. So the debut, due out in the States later this year, includes a self-contained evolution. The last tracks are newer.

In listening to the entire album, there is a richness that grows out of the rawness. You can even hear some of it in the live  iTunes exclusive. Those tracks include Dogmeat, Bloodsports, Nothing, Backwaters, and Fuckabout. (Backwaters was written before Nothing).

The last track, Fuckabout, is surprisingly subdued, one of the best yet from the Loveless brothers. The lyrics are as sharp as anything they had written previously, but the composition captures the depth of their talent. It's one of my favorite songs and ensures a revisit when the debut LP is rereleased in the United States.

Bloodsports/Dogmeat By Drenge Fire Up 8.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Drenge keeps the surge of duo rock acts alive with two biting tracks from their debut album already out in the UK. With the band already in the studio laying down more material, expect a promising career from these uncompromising artists who were never looking for a career in music.

Bloodsports/Dogmeat by Drenge can be downloaded on iTunes. The 5-track live session from last year's iTunes can also be downloaded there. You can also pick up a debut import from Amazon. They have a few shows lined up in the US before heading home the long way via Australia. Tour dates are listed on Facebook.

The Joy Formidable Writes Wolf's Law

The Welsh-raised, London-based the Joy Formidable turned heads last year with The Big Roar. This year, the roar is even bigger as the trio releases Wolf's Law, which adds confidence to the already convincing mix of brisk and dangerously addictive alternative rock dished up by Ritzy Bryan (vocals, guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matt Thomas (drums, percussion).

Producer Andy Wallace (Nirvana, The Misfits, Avenged Sevenfold) deserves props too. The vocals and guitar were recorded in Maine. The drums, orchestra, and choir were added in London. No one would ever know it based on what they laid down — 11 tracks with all the veracity of The Big Roar albeit with much more polish.

This wasn't written in retreat like previous outings. It's grand, grown up, and without any dirt. In doing so, the Joy Formidable took on a new risk as the grit is what attracted plenty of people before.

The Joy Formidable grows up with Wolf's Law. 

Despite the more commercial aspects of the album, with simplified songwriting, the Joy Formidable has kept everything that counts. The guitars still buzz. The percussion still pounds. Everything is preserved that makes this surging power trio stick, right down to the diversity of Bryan's vocal delivery.

The Ladder Is Ours, which opens the album, is a prime example. It starts with an easy orchestral open that winds up everything tight before the band breaks into the bristling, loud, and strangely beautiful and dreamlike qualities of Bryan's voice. The song teeters between soothing and unabashed.



The video, like any released by the band in the support of the album, is a big production like the music.  Cholla is even better, with a bigger and bassier foundation. It fits the lyrics, the breakdown of a relationship that has hit a standstill.

Cholla also nails one of the aspects of the band that continues to make them a standout. As the song barrels ahead, the trio tightens it all up midstream by dropping everything back to a near silent status. The whisper of it is as powerful as the big sound they deliver. So where are they going? Big.

After pulling back on Tendons and Little Blimp, Bats powers up simple lyrics and a bipolar instrumental. It's one of the more underrated tracks on the album, partly because the lyrics are so repetitive, but it;s the heaviness behind it that brings the band closer to the abruptness that ensures they don't sink into any sameness.

The growing diversity in their arsenal rocks and rolls.

On the other end of the spectrum is Silent Treatment, with Bryan quietly sharing a lullaby of the song. Hearing it live is even more powerful because the acoustics are so much more pronounced, but the studio session still captures the folk-like qualities of a song about how much someone is willing to take and still hang on.

Silent Treatment is a remarkable track to usher in Maw Maw Song. The track is transfixed on tribal rhythms and sweeping melodies to carry it. What makes Maw Maw Song work is it contains some of the best guitar noodling ever put out by the band and creates a thunderous atmosphere that is anthemic.

The track proves that although the Joy Formidable is more polished, they aren't any less experimental. If you ever wondered what metallic prog might sound like if it were played by an alternative pop-rock trio, then Maw Maw Song is probably it. It's also likely to become their biggest callout song on tour.

Also under reviewed is the hidden track Wolf's Law, which cuts in on the closer The Turnaround. For me, it was one of the most smashing moments on the album and probably a mistake to bury it. Wolf's Law deserves to be its own track and the video makes it right.



Forest Serenade and The Hurdle both tap some sounds from the band's earlier stylings without as much grit, making for solid bookends for the spiraling six-minute anthem The Leopard And The Lung. Plenty of people have called it a favorite and then deliver oddball criticisms, claiming it's too long. Any shorter and the atmosphere of it would have never materialized. Period.

Wolf's Law By The Joy Formidable Breaks 8.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

You know a brand is headed in the right direction when half the rabble is disappointed because it's not hard enough and other half is lamenting that it could have been harder. True, I miss the dirt too. But in the greater context of their repertoire, the Joy Formidable has only sharply added to its tenacity and its addictive live performances.

Wolf's Law by the Joy Formidable is available on Amazon and can be downloaded from iTunes. For added richness, consider the vinyl version from Barnes & Noble. The band is currently touring in Europe with plans to hit the United Kingdom in February and the United States in March. Check schedules via Facebook.

The Joy Formidable Makes A Big Roar

There is something undeniably earthy about the pop-rock delivered up by Welsh-raised, London-based The Joy Formidable. No matter that their time on stage was cut down from what the band was due, many people at SXSW discovered the deep-seeded charismatic energy of Ritzy Bryan (vocals, guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, backing vocals), and Matt Thomas (drums, percussion).

Although without the feedback rained down during live performances, The Big Roar is an album that makes them a heavy-rotation standard for anyone who enjoys vibrant pop vocals set on fire with immensely heavy guitar textures.

It's almost unbelievable that Bryan and Dafydd grew up in the rural Welsh countryside. Until you find out that someone's parents liked to play music loud. The it all comes together after that. Once they drop their soft smiles, they play with feral veracity.

The Big Roar was written in retreat, much like the original tracks.

After spending less than six months together, they duo stomped out enough material for their first album. Their first single was released in 2008, which was followed up by an eight-track EP filled with what they love — dirty, loud, rhythmic guitars and thick bass lines.

"Some of them start [with acoustics]. Some start just as lyrics, some as drumbeats, guitar riffs. We swap up the way that we write all the time," Bryan said in an interview with Clash Music. "Some of it comes from Rhydian first, some of it comes from me first and some of it comes literally from just pissing about in rehearsal."


The reason Whirring seems so big is it breaks up the monistic expectations of a pop song, allowing it to break into a full-fledged heavy hemorrhaging of gutsy indie-infused rock. It builds, breaks down, builds again, and climaxes. We picked the live version to capture the electricity of the band, but the animated video is big fun to watch too.

Everything about The Big Roar works too. Their escapes to a small London apartment in between a heavy tour session paid dividends. Starting with the epic near 8-minute The Everychanging Spectrum Of A Lie through the broody, low-tone belts of The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade, there's not a track to skip.

A few early breakthroughs are redone.

While anyone who loved A Balloon Called Moaning, it's obvious some of the tracks are the same and different at the same time. Basically, they reworked how some of them play after picking up four years of experience on the road and whole lot more raw energy. My favorite off the album is easily I Don't Want To See You Like This with its downplayed chorus and powerful lyrics.

A few people didn't care for the shoegaze-grunge hybrid as the Guardian called it, but writing from the small confines of a cubicle is a bit different than standing in the sweaty enclave of a concert hall anytime Bryan starts beating on her guitar. Ahem, Guardian reviewer. Get out more.

I won't go so far in the other direction as to overindulge in review lines that claim everybody else is mediocre. We seem to find some gems in the heap (some weeks tougher than others). But even among those that sparkle, few are as strikingly steady enough to be a triumph like The Big Roar.

The Joy Formidable Cracks With A Roaring 9.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The Joy Formidable is a brisk and dangerous exercise in sweeping anyone who listens under wave after wave of heavily played riffs that seldom slow down. Trust me on this. Anybody who sees them live will develop an addiction. Your best chance to catch them stateside is right now. They are touring from coast to coast through April 29 before returning to London and then hitting their hometown with an additional concert in Germany.

The Big Roar can be downloaded from iTunes or from the link to Amazon. Barnes & Noble also carries The Big Roar. File it under someone to watch in 2011. They leave a mark.