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Not long after returning to his North Carolina roots from a number of years drumming with bands out west, native Wilmington singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gregory Phillips resurfaces with his debut E.P. using the moniker Kaleidoscope Dream.

Upon his return to his hometown, Phillips went right to work diligently recording the five terrific tracks that ended up on the E.P., Arrive. We are always excited to hear from a talented artist that we’ve not heard of before. And in this case, that was especially true.

“The E.P. is a group of songs that are guitar riff-based, but also have heavy keyboard-oriented elements that create a musical atmosphere around them,” he says. “This combination reveals influences of rock, indie, pop and a touch psychedelic flavor.”

Kaleidoscope Dream’s style is clearly alternative rock as evidenced on the opening track, “Headlines,” which may remind listeners of The Cure or even Joy Division. The album flows from one track through the next with a mix of styles ranging from indie rock, psych, pop, and some blues.

On “Headlines,” Phillips says he knew he had a good bass riff to start with which makes sense since the track is driven by a gut-punching bass line piped through a Fender jazz bass and Opto compressor with a gritty aspect.

“The rest of it came together pretty quickly by stacking a few guitar parts on top of each other using two different PRS guitars, a CE24, and a McCarty Hollowbody II,” Phillips says.

“Unfortunately,” he adds, “shortly after I had the instrumentation done we had another instance of gun violence break out in El Paso and I couldn’t stay silent on the issue.”

For the standout track, “Charlotte,” Phillips says, that he was ‘noodling around’ and came upon the song’s riveting main guitar riff.

“The hardest part about writing this song was that it was for someone very close to me who lost both of her fathers. I love to bounce my ideas of my friends but this one I had to write in private. When it was finally done and I played it for her we both cried our eyes out.”

Phillips captured the feeling that he set out to with a meaningful song that also has a sweet lick. Together with tight melodic chord progressions, the song “Where” creates an ambiance that is easy to fall into.

“Treadwell” was the first song Phillips says he wrote front to back without collaborating with anyone else.

Part of the reason for that, he adds, is the lack of a big pool of musicians in his area that a musician otherwise finds in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

“It’s really hard in my area to find good musicians that you can count on. I had wasted a year trying to make something work with another group.”

He says that he had gone on vacation in the mountains and came upon a Korg Minilogue synth for sale in a pawn shop. “I was eager to implement it into a song and this happened to be the one it was recorded with.”

“I wanted this song to be kinda my own personal ‘come back anthem’ after being kicked in the shins, and I think it served its purpose.”

The Korg element of the track is almost irresistible and really conveys the authentic sound he was shooting for.

With the bluesy, “Broken Tree,” Phillips’s use of keys and synths did not end with “Treadwell.” In fact, for this track, he added a Korg Kross for the main piano parts along with the Minilogue synth. Phillips also employed a PRS CD24 for the guitar parts.

“I bought the CE24 when I made the decision to break away from drums as my main instrument and return to my original roots as a guitar player. I really like the CE24 for parts that need a bit more edge and bite.”

This effect, it seems, was influenced by the lyrical content of the song which Phillips says has to do with watching a friend “suffer from an atrocious family life.” The track also uses chord progressions to help create the feeling he wanted.

“These songs are very special to me…the inspiration for many of them come from people very close to me that had some very unfortunate times in their lives. I wrote to them hoping they could find resolution and reasons to look at their lives in a new way.”

I think we all have had obstacles in our lives and often we let these things get in the way from enjoying life the way we should. Even though the songs were written about a certain person or person experiences, the stories are unfortunately universal. I hope that many others can take something from them in a positive way.”

https://www.kaleidoscopedreammusic.com/

The five-track E.P. Your Eyes Are Colored Fierce is a 15 and some minute-trip through chugging, raw garage/alt. rock-leaning lo-fi tracks.

Billy Conquer is essentially bassist Samuel Edmonson (bass) and vocalist and guitarist Stefan Scott. The two met in high school and played in various bands around their home city before launching Billy Conquer in late 2018.

The opening track, “Fight,” is a beautifully-melodic with fuzzed-out guitar jams. You cannot miss how the entire vibe of the song jumps higher in key with the vocals. This is done so effectively in a way that is not commonly done successfully by bands.

“Fight” is about losing your cool or “taking an argument further than it needed to go,” Scott says. “When you play that memory back in your head, revise it in a way that would have resolved the conflict or even brought you closer to whoever it was you were fighting with. Makes you feel warm inside doesn’t it? This song is about that.”

This is a guitar and bass-driven track with chord, pedal, and vocal staggering plus grungy/90s alt. rock burnout at the end.
Edmonson’s bass playing exudes a hypnotic rhythm coupled with Scott’s technique-driven, melodic guitar playing to more adventurous, heavily sustained guitar riffs.

Next, the duo launches right into another heavily melodic, stoner-like alt. rock masterpiece, “Wasted State.” The underlying slacker-like vibe, interesting guitar sound effects, the fuzzed-out jams and the droning effect of the bass backed by simple format drums all come together so wonderfully with a Sonic Youth-like natural flow.

In listening to this infectious song, it’s obvious, and as the E.P. evolves, even more clear that these guys are having a good time. You can actually feel that listening to this E.P. and that’s a rare thing.

“There was definitely a lot of good energy in the room,” remarks about having a good time while laying down splendid DIY stoner rock tracks.

“Everything was recorded live in one session lasting about five hours,” he adds. “We wanted it to feel and sound like any other band rehearsal or live show. We have been playing music together for a long time and what we have found is that we perform and write better when we are having fun.”

“Wasted State,” Edmonson says, “was inspired by the college keg parties at Western Colorado University,” which he says is also known as ‘Wasted State’ by some students. The band heads up there every spring break to perform a house show at Sam’s brother’s house. The audio at the end of the song is taken from a phone recording of the show.”

This ode to guitar-heavy alt. rock within the ‘indie rock’ realm, or packaging if you will, is continued on the rambunctious “Backyard Song,” with its strong lo-fi bumbling bass lines.

The song is perfectly set for a nice summer day, which Edmonson says was the aim. “The song is about the times spent in the backyard of a suburban San Antonio home where the band would frequently practice and hang poolside on sunny days.”

The E.P.’s title track, “Your Eyes Are Colored Fierce,” keeps things at a chill alt. rock signature but with much more freeform style of playing by the band members creating a bit of a woozy, swirling feeling that is perhaps just what they were going for.

Edmonson says it’s a song about bar-hopping in Colorado. “The structure and parts of the song are exactly the same as when the band first jammed it together. During recording, Stefan accidentally hit his loop pedal at 2:16.”

For an E.P. flowing with kick-ass songs, the band didn’t include any marginal tracks. We love how the closing track, “Getting Away With It,” picks things up and adds a bit more cheer to wrap up an exciting, time-machine enabling, heavy and non-conformist E.P. that gives us just a little more hope that talented young musicians out there will appreciate rock and pop/rock.

We can also hope that bands like Billy Conquer keep reinventing and creating spectacular alt. rock in their own way while staying true to the ethos of DIY and musical freedom.

As a band unit, they have put in their dues over the years, attracted a following and remain true to themselves and their music the whole way through. San Antonio’s rock scene and culture are all the better having Billy Conquer among its ranks.

Last spring the band dropped its debut E.P., A Perverted Life in the South. The E.P. was recorded, mixed and mastered at Matador recording studios in San Antonio by Tommy Munter who has also worked with Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters), Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters), and Daniel Mendez (Lit, Heart, Dashboard Confessional).

All of the songs were co-written by Scott and Edmonson with lyrics by Scott. The E.P. was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tommy Munter at Matador Recording Studios in San Antonio, Texas. The duo is most influenced by artists like Yo La Tengo, Pavement, and Neil Young.

https://facebook.com/billyconquerband

With years of musical experience, two veteran songwriters/musicians, John Rigg and Edmond Bruneau, aka Robot Raven, have just dropped a compilation of some of their most popular tracks from albums released over the years. The compilation is simply called Rockers.

Straddling the lines between classic rock elements, rockabilly, lo-fi, and newer rock styles, Rockers is a collection of 18 tracks from the band’s releases over a string of many years.

The collection, available via Souncloud, kicks of with the theatrical rock vibe of “Password” followed by the noodling single, “Turn Me On.” The latter track sports a mid 70s glam rock sheen that is also a bit ironic at the same time. The intensity of the vocal deliveries is not to be overlooked.

“Crank It Out” feels like the 70s post-punk underground movement where the punk elements had not yet transitioned into keyboards and soaring guitars. Rather, here we have angst and badass rock attitude on a track that reminds this listener of the Kinks’ and Ray Davies-like growls.

There is a spaghetti-western rolling, rocking, and ball-grabbing, “A Girl Like You,” complete with slide guitars and vintage guitar riffs, not to mention the ever-present scruffy vocals.

“John wanted to do a swinging/surfin’ number that would be an upbeat version of early guitar instrumentals he used to learn from The Ventures or The Pyramids,” Bruneau says.

“He sent me a demo singing scat where the lyrics would fit, but he originally used ‘a girl like you’ in the refrain and I liked it. So, I just filled in the rest of the blanks. He told me back then it was easier to do a key change than write a Mid-8 break.”

The Elvis-inspired “Earworms” reminds us a lot of “Viva Las Vegas,” with its hurried vocals and hip-swinging rhythms, backed by horns and a riveting, ringing guitar solo. There is also a Jerry Lee Lewis feel to the track, which is an interesting accomplishment: that is, to miss those slightly different styles into one track.

One of the collections’ big tracks is the semi-viral “Me 2” which is not surprisingly an ode to the MeToo movement that sprang up a few years back and which is relevant again today with the conviction this past week of Harvey Weinstein.

Rigg and Bruneau take on a sensitive subject as middle-aged guys growing up in America who have seen their share, we’re sure, of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of a male-dominated society. It also proves the fact that the majority of men are *not* pigs. The lyrics are in fact profound and deep.

“Survivors of sexual assault and harassment have for too long been in the shadows,” Bruenau writes. The song and movement “gives victims a way to speak up and seek accountability. The movement has grown to include both women and men of all races and ages,” he adds.

Another standout song is the relationship storytelling of “The Little Things” – that we all are guilty of taking advantage of at times until something profound happens to realize that the ‘little things’ are what matter most. The song has an arching melody and rattling guitars.

As songwriters and musicians, the duo has a tongue-in-cheek allure, without being irreverent; their music is multi-facted (while sticking to a decidedly classic rock vein), powerful, and clever. It’s not hard to imagine having a good time at one of their shows.

Fans of avante-garde, quirky, off-beat tracks and bands will likely dig the frenetic and unusual mix of styles on “DNA,” with its down-on-the-corner chugging vibes and the repetition of the line: “DNA/Stay away from my DNA.”

It’s enjoyable as are many of the tracks on this compilation. Robot Raven has definitely made their contributions to off-beat indie/classic rock music with this collection of tracks from their previous four album releases.

The compilation ends with the compelling “Children of the Universe.” The song has a brimming nostalgia to it. “It came from a simple thought: what if we could remember how we all lived our lives together before we were born?” Bruneau remarks. ” And just maybe, instead of creating terror, war and violence, we could use our energy for peace, understanding, and goodwill. We all once were stardust. Definitely the hippy song on the album.”

Rigg has four releases to his credit, including early work with the stadium rock group Abiqua and solo drops. He is also a world-renown robot builder and inventor and owns what may be the world’s largest and most complete museum dedicated to toy and replica robots, the Robot Hut Museum, located in Northeastern Washington state.

Bruneau gained attention in the early 1970’s as the drummer of the infamous Seattle garage band, SKy Dog Band and has written numerous commercial jingles with Bruce Innes. He is a poet.

Rigg/Bruneau have written over sixty original songs together and are considered some of the most proficient song gurus around. Their penchant for the “classic rock sound” shapes Robot Raven’s unique and interesting arrangements, although the group never fears to divert to other musical genres occasionally for the sheer fun of it.

www.robotraven.com