Thing of the Day
ZLAM DUNK AND SMILE AND BURN
December 22nd 2010
A couple of new albums are the thing today...
BREAKING NEWS or so says this breaking news email breaking in o our email box. Here’s the headline…
“Austin's Zlam Dunk Give Away New Album Noble Ancestry For The Holidays”
Fine
you say, but it is any good? Free albums and such coming at you from
all over the web these days…. Well, here comes the review right now… 
ALBUM: ZLAM DUNK - Noble Ancestry
- Zlam Dunk deal in feisty North American indie rock, bits that sound
like bits of At The Drive In, or bits that sound a bit like bits of The
Rapture, or bits of Fugazi, or TV On The Radio and bits that are a bit
like lots of bits of other things of that vague nature – vague in terms
of we probably got most North American alternative punky indie rock
covered in those four namedrops, which in turn is about the same as the
way the rather shouty Zlam Dunk have got things covered with their
catch-all North American sound. Kind of like these Texans though, I
somehow feel I shouldn’t, but I kind of do - they’re full of energy,
they’re confident enough about being able to punch their way through
and their stabby guitars and their jagged voices never really stop
coming – persistent bag of alternative slightly punky flavoured
indie-rock these Texans have for you should you want it. Indeed, not
the most original album you’ll have heard in 2010, still a more than
healthy blend of North American energetic post punk garage rock
commitment. They have that little something in there that allows them
to pull it off.
Zlam
Dunk are from Austin (did we say that already?). They have a touch of
menace about them, I like their energy, their sleeping on wooden floors
and their selling of souls, their touch of Husker Du and...
well, hey, I don’t know how I feel about whole albums of music being
free and kind of becoming just a little too throwaway for its own good,
but free it is. So you can download it and taste it for yourselves then
throw it away if you don’t like what you taste – do give it more than
one chance though, they got a little something in there that might not
bite you first time around…
Download "Noble Ancestry" for free here! (be quick though, it's only for the holidays): http://zlamdunk.bandcamp.com/
For more information, visit:
www.facebook.com/zlamdunkmusic
www.myspace.com/zlamband
Meanwhile, something else that may not be worth a whole “thing of the day” to itself, but worth a mention never the less…
SMILE AND BURN – Flight Attempt Of The Kiwi
(Fond Of Life) – Rather infectiously uplifting album of hardcore
flavoured punk-pop goodness. That’s right, nothing you haven’t heard a
million times before, you know every move the five of them are going to
make well before they get there, but hey, in this case, so what? These
Germans do it all rather well - decent songs, sing-along anthems, fist
punching the air, smile on your face, same old formula with just a
little extra energy, personality and just a touch of attitude that
carries Smile And Burn through. If you like your North American
sounding punk-pop (from Berlin) delivered with a bit of hardcore energy
attitude, a touch of a kick, a hint of positive creativity then these
eleven slices of healthy energy with their Hot-Water Music-esque vocal
style will put a rather positive smile on your face.
The
album is out now, Smile And Burn are constantly touring mainland
Europe, they threaten UK dates for April 2011. Nothing radically
different, sometimes it doesn’t have to be, this is just enjoyably
good… www.smileandburn.com or www.myspace.com/smileandburnpunk
