Dine Alone Records – Unsung Sundays https://unsungsundays.com What you should be listening to. Sat, 25 May 2019 05:23:04 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.1 Monster Truck: Sittin’ Heavy https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/monster-truck-sittin-heavy/ Sun, 21 Feb 2016 13:04:44 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=354 The Hamilton-based Canadian band doesn’t let up on their second album, clearly having learned from their tour mates in the past three years. Sittin’ Heavy has the band refining their style and fine-tuning their brand of hard-nosed rock and roll in the process.

The post Monster Truck: Sittin’ Heavy appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

]]> Monster Truck’s 2013 record, Furiosity, was one of the year’s standouts — it won a JUNO award in Canada. Living up to both the band’s name and the album’s title, and loaded With pummelling blues-influenced hard rock riffs, the band came out of seemingly nowhere and surprised everybody — including Slash (of Guns N’ Roses fame) and Alice in Chains. In fact, Slash and Alice in Chains (among others) both took the band on tour, giving them the seal of approval from some of rock’s oldest stalwarts.

And undoubtedly, the band has learned from those experiences. Their aptly-titled sophomore album, Sittin’ Heavy, finds the brand tightening up their brand of rock ‘n’ roll. Their vocal harmonies are better, their riffs are more defined, and their musical vocabulary is broader.

Songs like For The People find the band experimenting with country-influenced tones, and the lead single Don’t Tell Me How To Live is carried by a massive, undoubtedly Alice-in-Chains-inspired riff. Things Get Better feels like bar-blues hard rock, a style they’d only flirted with on Furiosity.

And while the band certainly hasn’t quieted down, they’ve learned how to hold back for the sake of the song’s structures. Black Forest (a Zeppelin-influenced track if I’ve ever heard one), and Another Man’s Shoes (Alice again, particularly in the bass line), both experiment with pulling back on the rhythm guitar and giving the bass centre attention.

Most importantly though, Monster Truck is as confident as ever. That confidence sells the record and makes its raw energy palpable despite its glossy, near-perfect production. Monster Truck is aiming for the ceiling with Sittin’ Heavy, and they darn near blow it off.

The post Monster Truck: Sittin’ Heavy appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

]]> Noah Gundersen: Ledges https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/noah-gundersen-ledges/ Sun, 23 Mar 2014 12:03:49 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=870 Ledges is refreshing compared to much of the folk rock on the air now. By stripping it back to basics and telling us stories, Noah Gundersen makes the genre feel fresh again on his feature-length debut.

The post Noah Gundersen: Ledges appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

]]> Noah Gundersen is folk music’s it guy right now. With Ledges, his long-awaited first full-length LP, he’s really knocked it out of the winter. Listen to the presence he brings on gospel-influenced knockouts like Poor Man’s Son (I can’t find a studio version on Youtube, but it’s great).

Musically, this reminds me of the gospel peak of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in the Howl era (who were covered in Issue 6). I love Isaiah, which might be my favourite track on the record. Ledges is clearly the song Noah is gunning for a hit with. And while Dying Now is as emotionally accomplished of a folk song as a guy in his early 20s can muster, the most emotionally powerful track on the record (at least for me) is Cigarettes. Now there’s a heart-wrenching tune. I might be biased though. Not only is Cigarettes the song I would have written for a bad breakup a couple years back, the entire album is the album I would write right now if I picked up a guitar again.

Noah Gundersen feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre currently owned by pop stars and banjo-swindling electric rockers. Ledges is refreshing not because it’s a response to the current folk scene, but because it feels so natural and authentic that it couldn’t be anything less than real.

In a genre of full of fakers and people looking for the next chart hit, Gundersen is making his own way. And it’s beautiful.

The post Noah Gundersen: Ledges appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

]]>