Tag Archives: pop punk

We are the Brick City Three. Who the **** are you?

Album reviews, Rock music, , , , ,

Running this blog I often get bands (or their PRs) offering to send me free CDs. Almost without exception it’s usually when they’ve got a new album to promote and are looking for a review.

Recently, however, I received the following email from a guy called Todd Jasko who was once in a band called the Brick City Three:

“Quick random question for you: my band is trying to get rid of our CDs. We’re goofy party hard rock. Can I send you one for free? More detail: we had a band. We had a blast. Our drummer got sick and passed away. Now I’m left with 30ish CDs and I would rather give them away free than try to sell them. Happy to mail you one for free if you like! Or if you want to check us out first, we’re called Brick City three and we’re free digitally on Bandcamp. Let me know, and thanks for your time!”

Intrigued, I checked them out online, instantly liked what I heard and emailed Todd back to take him up on his very kind offer.

https://brickcitythree.bandcamp.com/track/show-me

A few days later, said CD arrived in the post all the way from New Jersey. Quirky, punked-up, party rock with witty self-deprecating lyrics and irresistably catchy hooks, it’s been blasting out of my stereo all week. As per the email, it’s not a recent album. It came out in 2008 and the back cover still advertises the band’s Myspace account! So I’m going to resist doing a full blow-by-blow review but the good news is that the band still have some unreleased tracks and Todd is planning to put a final album together. That, I definitely will review.

A bit more background on the Brick City Three:

Brick City Three was formed in 2006 in Newark, NJ (aka “The Brick City”.) Mike (bass) and Cal (drums) grew up in Jersey listening to Rush and Yes, but none of their friends enjoyed rock music, so they didn’t know any local guitarists. In the early 00’s, Mike met Todd through Mike’s coworker (Pete Levine – former drummer of Flowerhead), and Todd’s habit of remembering people’s birthdays led to him reach out to Mike in August of 2006. Mike remembered Todd from some previous jams at Pete’s house, and he asked Todd if he would want to come out to play some music with Cal and him. Considering Todd was anything BUT an in-demand guitarist, singer, or songwriter, he jumped at the chance! Their first jam included covers of “Rockin’ in the Free World”, “Dig In”, and “Space Oddity”, and they enjoyed it so much that they decided to do it again!

One of their improvised jams during that initial meeting stuck in Todd’s head, and he asked Mike and Cal if he could try bringing an original tune to their next jam. Their second jam birthed this first song as a band, “Show Me”. Eventually, this song would be their album opener as well as every show’s closing number.

Rehearsals continued most Saturdays in Newark, and by the spring of 2007, the band had enough solid originals to start playing shows. What they lacked in talent they made up for in enthusiasm! After a few months, they settled on the moniker “Brick City Three” since Newark was such a big part of their formation.

Between 2007 and 2011, the band played several shows in NYC and NJ, released one studio album, and developed a repertoire of approximately 20 original songs and 15 cover songs. And they weren’t afraid to mix it up! For example: they knew that Mike and Cal’s friends at the Juke Joint (a backyard venue in Newark) weren’t huge rock fans, so they once surprised the crowd with a more dance-friendly set of covers ranging from 70’s disco to 80’s hip-hop to 90’s R&B including a variety of guest singers.

Sadly, Cal’s health slowed the band down, and he eventually passed away in 2015. But we are still left with memories, video, and hours of audio from shows and rehearsals. Todd is currently planning to put together a final, second, posthumous album in the near future to honour the band’s and Cal’s legacies.

Brick City Three and Cal – we salute you! And I very much look forward to hearing the second (and final) album.

Update:

Since I wrote this post Todd made this heart-warming video about his project to distribute the band’s remaining CDs around the world. Watch it here!

More information on the Brick City Three here: https://linktr.ee/brickcitythree

This week’s featured artist: pop-punk trio Project Revise – new single out 19th March

Music news, Rock music, , , , , ,

Taking their cues from the classic pop-punk anthems of the late 90s and early 00s Project Revise are a three-piece from Worcestershire inspired by bands such as Blink 182, Goldfinger and Less Than Jake. Project Revise regularly feature on Spotify playlists like ‘New Punk Tracks’, ‘Skatepark Punks’, ‘Pop Punk’s Not Dead’ and ‘Punk Unplugged’. The band performed a live session for BBC Introducing which was broadcast back in January 2019.

​Their latest single ‘Hold Your Ground’ is released on March 19th, immediately qualifying them as this week’s featured artist. A catchy, hard-hitting and instantly-memorable slice of pop-punk is all about everyday struggles in life, according to the band, and how to overcome them while still trying to remain true to yourself.

Guitarist/vocalist Chris Tamburro tells Darren’s Music Blog:

“Hold Your Ground really pulls together all the old school punk rock and emo influences we have between us. We really feel as though our musical direction has been progressive over the last year with our previous few singles, but this song really pushes things even further! We genuinely cannot wait for everyone to hear it and are excited to finally get back into the rehearsal studio again to work on some more new music!”

The video for ‘Hold Your Ground’ features almost 70 of the band’s followers from social media joining in with the lyrics, including an appearance from Bowling For Soup front-man Jaret Reddick.

Project Revise are:

Richard Marshall – Bass & Vocals

Chris Tamburro – Guitar & Vocals

David Yarnell – Drums

‘Hold Your Ground’ released 19th March 2021

https://www.projectrevise.co.uk/

News: Honestly, Anywhere channel noughties emo vibes with four-minute pop punk roller-coaster

Music news, Rock music, , , ,

Honestly, Anywhere a four-piece emo pop punk band based in Suffolk release their debut single ‘Dead Friends’ on 1st June. Infectious and angst-ridden in equal amounts the band describe it as a four-minute roller-coaster of 00’s inspired pop punk deals that with themes of mental health and suicide.

Vocalist, Elliott, fills us in on the band and the single: “Honestly, Anywhere are a 4 piece pop punk band from the south of England. Channelling the vibes of 00’s emo culture, HA bring a sound similar to Blink-182 circa self titled with angsty lyrics, fast paced drums, dirty bass lines & punk fuelled guitars. The band are a reincarnation of 2007 pop punk band It’s Not Me, It’s You which disbanded in 2009 due to members pursuing other projects. After over 10 years of going back and forth and a new bassist, we decided to get back together, release some old music to a high standard and see what happens.”

Dead Friends band

Honestly, Anywhere are:

Jamie – Drums
Austin – Bass
Mark – Guitars
Elliott – Vocals

Dead Friends is released 1st June 2020

Dead Friends Artwork

https://www.facebook.com/HonestlyAnywhere/

News: Drew & The Devotees ‘Hard Working People’

Music news, Rock music, , , ,

With the general election coming Drew and The Devotees have re-released their single ‘Hard Working People’. A slice of pop punk influenced by the early work of Billy Bragg and The Clash, the song rails against poverty and injustice with all proceeds from the single going to the food poverty charity the Trussell Trust.

Drew Howgill: “Hard Working People was written in 2014/15 inspired by (Green MP) Caroline Lucas’s book in which she criticised politicians for the over-used phrase – which by implication excluded carers, students and others unable to do the 40 hours a week grind. The song is about poverty and observations of increasing use of food-banks. 41,000 in 2010 now up to 1.6 million.”

Drew and The Devotees were formed in 2006 as a songwriting project band, initially with Alef Ahmed in 2008 and from 2010 onwards with US producer Jeffrey Teruel of STIC Studio, Manchester. A follow-up single is due next year with an album out later in 2020.

‘Hard Working People’ is available via digital platforms including Spotify, Amazon and Soundcloud https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Working-People/dp/B00WITORFK

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