#joeycamp

Success Hasn’t Spoiled Them Yet: The Successful Failures Keep Winning With New LP

With the release of “Ichor Of Nettle” (which you can read my review from October 8, 2017 here), the Successful Failures had seemingly reached the pinnacle of their musical career. With their humble beginnings in 1998 (which actually started out as a solo project for Dipsomaniacs frontman Mick Chorba), and throughout the 2000s, they have continued to release quality product. In 2005 (the year that…

Answer the Phone: Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders Are Callin’

When a music aficionado sees the word “American” implied as a genre, a certain aesthetic may coalesce in their limbic cortex. Depending on the age that they musically matured, this wide angled lens could include “Americana”, signalling banjos, beards, and craft brews. Or “Alt-country”, which has pretty much spread to each and every performer or group that gets ignored by mainstream “Hot Country”…

The Sweet Things: New LP Provides Musical Confectionery Booze

If you’ve ever spent countless hours on YouTube, chances are that you’ve come across the Tipsy Bartender at some point. Marvel at this overly happy mad scientist whose shtick is concocting cocktails that would send Willy Wonka to Alcoholics Anonymous. His recipes fuse liquor with such confectionery treats as Gummy Bears, Sour Patch Kids, Warheads, Twizzlers, and Oreos, possibly guaranteeing the…

Get A Candy Snatchers Cavity: Lost Gem Hits the Sweet Spot

The commercial rock ‘n’ roll landscape in the early 1990s was a dreary, unhappy collective that had zero interest in locating its own sense of humor. This doesn’t necessarily mean that quality music wasn’t being released, but with the recording industry’s “let’s kill the ’80s!” attitude, good time rock was being exterminated. Depending on where you stand on the subject, this new trend called…

Attention Ladies and Germs: The Gentlemens Are Back To Attack

For many of us born and bred on American shores, we are naturally conditioned to encapsulate a consumerist mentality. As we become accustomed to our own United States-manufactured products, a familiarity with foreign-produced luxuries also enters our capital-driven obsessions. Desires for imported merchandise from Japan, Chile, or even Iceland fulfills our commerce-flavored wet dreams that…

Instant Smile Produces Instant Classic: New Direction Gives New Sensation

Philadelphia-based Instant Smile has accomplished quite a bit since I last discussed them hereon this site. The duo of Greg Phoenix and Erin Berry have continued to release exciting, original music that refuses to allow any sort of pigeonhole violation. After their proclamation on the underground music scene in March 2017 with the singles “Eight Year Itch” and “Night Shift”, the Smiley ones…

The Good, the Bad, and the He…Who Cannot Be Named Is Back, and It’s Brutal

“Who was that masked man?” has probably been asked more times than “What date is it?” by anyone that’s attended a Dwarves gig. He, as in He Who Cannot Be Named, the Luchador mask-wearing/jock-strap clad guitarist, has been an iconic figurehead in the deepest recesses of punk for roughly 30 years. Refusing to confess his true identity, He has maintained this on-stage mystery while flanking the…