Recently, I made the decision to pick up a Salem Weekly and look it over for any up coming shows. I only needed to open to page one before I was gravely destraught. "The Mid-Valley's Best of 2010" Salem Weekly Newspaper edition was staring me in the face. Desperately searching through a hodge-podge (thanks) of last minute assembled catergories to find the music related results, I was suprised by some of the choices in the catergory of "Best Salem Based Bands" which were, some what, half-assed.
So now after taking a breather and re-grouping I make my evaluation of the Winners:
Electric Cities
-----------------------------------------We Sang Like Trumpets - Electric Cities
Upon seeing their first write up in SWN I was intrigued. Their recordings of various live shows displayed a performance that was amateur and nothing of real interest, with vague similiarities to Early Thursday and Refused- minus the impact. Their is potential here, and that shouldn't be over looked, but as far as memorable music goes... they would be, sadly, forgotten in a line up with almost any other band in this particular genre. Not the top of my list for best Salem based band.
Enemy Combatant
A band who's claim to fame came, assumingly, after their write up in SWN. I gave these guys a brief listen and had to stop to cringe, slightly. The lyrical content is weak, the musical talent is elementary grade, and filled with teen angst. Which could be cool if any of them were teens, or even looked under the age of 30...
Foxtrot
Yes, a breathe of fresh air. Foxtrot, has clean clear music with strokes of Indie and Folk. slightly difficult to find online, once you do discover their page you find they have a steady fan base and line up of shows, showing they are a very active band. The quality of their first recordings are rough and slightly muffled, but the music itself is entertaining and matured.
The Funhouse Strippers
Classic rocking: "dance your ass off at 12 midnight when you're drunk out of your mind, wake up in a back alley" good time. It's fun and simple. Nothing wrong here, but not really what I would consider the best.
Monoplane
Owner of Ranch Records David Ballantyne and Owner of The Space(R.I.P) Doug Hoffman's love child. This band is certainly list worthy. Teetering on the edge of plain insanity and good rock, Monoplane brings grungy, edgy, classic southern rock back to life. Just see it for yourself...
---------------------------------------------------Do Over - Monoplane
Neversleep
Many times I have seen these oversized stickers slapped across some run down vehicle and never knew why. Now, thanks to SWN, I know that this is another angry, slap your mom, Metal band. Heavy on the bass with a side of one too many breakdowns. This is obviously not my cup o' tea, but every city has their Nickelback and Staind followers, which gives bands like this a leg-up on the competition. Gotta love that guitar effect though, very... dated. Hold on to yesterday, Neversleep. Apparently a large chunk of Salem is too.
Salem Concert Band
Yep, they are "Salem" based and yes, they are also a "Band". Bravo.
The Ty Curtis Band
Lastly we reach Ty Curtis or rather "The Ty Curtis Band". This is just plain old hard work showing its efforts, and sounding good in the process. It's soulful country-esque blues with vocal similarities to Marc Broussard and music similar to good ol' BB King. I got no problems here.
The real grief which overcame me stems from looking over this list and not seeing what seems to me like obvious talent, such as: Massive Moth, symmetry/symmetry, Kopath Bear, The Volks, Camino Deluxe or Norman (a band who is listed as being from the Willamette Valley!). These bands are in my opinion a hand full of bands in Salem that are suffering losses due to a lack of effective music outlets here in Salem. Friends it's time to step up and step out. The music here is beautiful. You just need to come out and have a listen.
Till then, I'll be here desperately trying to ween those of you "home dwelling hobbits" out and into the world of live pulsing local music.
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