NEW MUSIC ROUND-UP: GREG PUCIATO, STRAY FROM THE PATH, OH, SLEEPER, AND VOLUMES

Alright, there’s been a bunch of new shit released today, but we got a little distracted making fun of unknown bands and sucking Devin Townsend’s kazoo. So now it’s time to play catch-up.

First up today: The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato has released  a cover “of a song called ‘Driving’. Originally written/recorded by Oupa,the solo project of Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg,” according to Mr. Puciato. As Tracy Jordan once said, “I’m not familiar with about half the words in that sentence,” but I do dig the track. You can check out Puciato’s version below, or the original here.

Driving(Oupa Cover, Written By Daniel Blumberg) by Greg Puciato

So, I guess I’ve heard Stray from the Path before, but I didn’t remember that I had heard them, which is a bad sign. Listening to their new single, “Mad Girl,” I was mostly struck not by the silly ray gun sounds at the beginning, but, rather, by how boring the track is; it’s almost all plateau, with no real increases or decreases in the energy level until about half-way through the song. If we use the whole “a song is a story” metaphor, than nothing happens for fifty percent of this particular tale. It makes the whole song feel kinda gelatinous.

Oh, Sleeper… again, forgot that I’ve heard, and disliked, this band before. But, yeah, there are no redeeming qualities to their new tune, “Hush Yael.” I only made it nintey seconds before I gave up. I guess the nicest thing I can say about it is that at least it has some structure, which is more than I can say for Stray from the Path. But Stray from the Path didn’t have vocoder, so, I dunno, maybe it’s a wash.

And we conclude today with “Affirmation of Ascension,” by Volumes. Vince recently referred to this band’s music as “generic 2nd-gen djent,” which is a good description, although I’d assert that there’s some generic 2nd-gen Sumeriancore thrown in for bad measure. So, yeah, this happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZLYBSrlw8Q

-AR