Combining tons of pop smarts, the prog elements of Tool, the aggression of Alice in Chains, and a burning drive, Madleaf was a very welcome surprise this year. Coming from Greece, the Pope and I really wanted to ship our red leather interview couch out to the Mediterranean, sip some Ouzo at a cafe and chat with the boys, but then the budget came in. Damn. We settled for asking bass player an...
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A Sunday Conversation with Madleaf
Ripple News - Sarke at Wacken
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Fan-filmed video footage of Ripple favorites, Sarke's performaing at this year's Wacken Open Air festival — which was held July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany made it's way onto youTube.As all you waveriders who read The Pope's intense review, Sarke is the Norwegian band featuring Sarke (Khold, Tulus, Old Man's Child, Sensa Anima) and Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone). The group's debut albu.
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Killing Lazarus - S/T
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Artist:Killing Lazarus
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Album:Killing Lazarus
Don’t you love it when music does that special something like evoke an emotion, whether by calling up a memory or hitting a nerve that causes reflection? I mean, isn’t that really the whole point of the art. Back in May’s edition of Rumors Heard in MySpace, I wrote about an Irish band that we stumbled on called Killing Lazarus and I described the music that they had posted on their site. In
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From the Depths of Electric Earth
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I knew there was something wrong when I came home from work the other night. Why was the postman still in front of my apartment building at 6PM? Why was he clutching his lower back and cursing my front door? The Ripple return address on the package on my doorstep couldn’t have anything to do with it, could it? I pushed the exhausted mailman aside and tried to lift the package but could not. I g.
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Proto-metal Report - Poobah - Steamroller
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One of the things I love most about the early period of metal, was the electrifying energy and passion that these bands poured into their craft. Most of these bands were nearly D.I.Y in their ethic, pumping out dark and heavy music that was shunned by radio as if it carried disease. Few fans lined up to greet these bands, yet they kept on coming, one after another; Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang, H...
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Rumors Heard in MySpace, Vol. II, Episode 8
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Happy end of August, Waveriders! The kids are getting their fresh new haircuts and being prepped for the return to school, the summer nights are a little more chilled, big men in pads and leotards are chasing around other men holding an oblong object of sorts, all of these events just leading to autumn. Sigh . . . that means hockey season is right around the corner. You can’t see my smile right.
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A Sunday Conversation with Meldrum
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Album:Lifer
A little over a year ago and shortly after the recording of their new album, Lifer, guitarist and band namesake, Michelle Meldrum passed away due to a cystic growth on her brain. Where it would have been a hell of a lot easier for her surviving band mates to wallow around in self pity, they decided to walk a different path, to put the final touches on the disc and to soldier on in the memory of...
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Ripple News - Punk Label Black Numbers makes Entire Catalog Donation-based Digital Download
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Beginning today and continuing for the next two weeks, New Jersey independent punk label, Black Numbers, will partner with Bandcamp.com to offer its entire catalog as a donation-based digital download. All albums are available in several bitrates and formats, including mp3, AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and Apple Lossless.To start downloading - and ideally, donating - go here. If you chose not to donat...
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Grand Atlantic - How We Survive
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Sometimes you just know.It doesn't take more than a second. An instant. One note, one beat, or in this instant one mutated guitar tone exploding into a spectacle of crashing chords and resounding bass. That's all it took for me to know.Grand Atlantic have produced one of my favorite albums of year.Coming from Brisbane, Grand Atlantic molds the psychedelic post-punk ethereal moods of their co...
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Dozer - Beyond Colossal
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Dozer’s been around for about 14 years but I never paid any attention to them. Probably because Killdozer is one of my favorite bands I figured that just plain Dozer couldn’t match the herculean efforts of the Madison mad men. Turns out that was a dopey move on my part. Dozer’s 2008 album Beyond Colossal lives up to the title and makes them worthy to share the second syllable of Killdozer’
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Ektomorf - What Doesn't Kill Me
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Album:What Doesn’t Kill Me
Y’know, there’s that fine line with angst ridden metal.On one side of this line, it can be insipid, self gratifying, meathead music. On the other side, it can actually be honest, vibrant, and a snapshot of one’s mental anguish over deeds done wrong. From that line, the drop to negative is an incredibly steep drop to the bowels of derisive mockery. The reward from walking this treacherous, co
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Ripple News - Stone Axe Tour
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Now, it wasn't that long ago that Tony Reed and his partner Dru Brinkerhoff blew us away with their blues-stewed concoction of amazing retro-rock, Stone Axe. Knowing that this was another project from the ever busy Mos Generator madman, Reed, I just assumed it would be a one-off sort of project with no hope of a tour or chance to see the guys blow through their fiery Free/Bad Comapny/Whitesnak...
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Garage Rock Mania! - Lost in Tyme Fanzine CD and the Debut 7" from The Royal Hangmen
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Artist:The Royal Hangmen
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Album:Mary Jane
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Track:Mary Jane
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A Sunday Conversation with Sound & Shape
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Complex. Melodic. Virutostic. Compelling. Just a few words that could be bandied about when describing the intensely cool new band, Sound&Shape. Squeezing the band onto the Ripple red leather couch, we asked guitarist/singer Ryan Caudle and drummer Jerry Pentecost to fill us in on what makes the band tick.When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and...
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Ripple News - Paul Collins of The Beat and John Wicks of The Records Exclusive Videos and Living Room Tour Update
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The Pope and I just can't get over how extremely cool this is.The chance to see two major pioneers of powerpop, shedding the amps, and playing a series of intimate, acoustic, living room show in your own fricking living room just doesn't come around everyday. These two cats shouldn't need any introduction. Paul Collins (along with Peter Case in the Nerves, and then in his own band The Beat) a...
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Tia Carrera - The Quintessential
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A Ripple Road Trip
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With the busy, hectic lives we lead, I've learned to totally appreciate traffic. Yep, that may sound crazy, but with all my dashing around from place to place, all the Ripple business in the works, all the rushing, traffic offers me an opportunity (forced opportunity) to slow down, take my foot off the gas (literally) and just chill. Turns out that time in my car is also my best time for list...
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Ripple News - Bigelf on the Prog Nation Tour
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Artist:BIGELF
New York progressive metal veterans Dream Theater will take their PROGRESSIVE NATION tour overseas for the first time with a run through Europe and the UK throughout Sept, Oct and Nov 2009.PROGRESSIVE NATION founder and mastermind, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, once again hand-picked the bands based on musicianship, originality and diversity…not necessarily by popularity and marquee value.
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