High Voltage Magazine

HYPE IT UP: Avian X

posted by High Voltage Staff | Thursday, November 20, 2008 | 4:41 PM
Hyped By: Izzy Cihak


Finally, high school cheerleaders and burgeoning scenesters have something to bond over. The sound of Avian X, Natalia Ivachkevitch's foray into the glamorous world of NYC Synth Pop, provides the link between Madonna and The Sounds. With all the dance-able sass of Shiny Toy Guns, but lacking the Post-Punk-inspired edge of peers like Theo and the Skyscrapers, Avian X would be fit for a Warped Tour stage or an opening slot for the Material Girl alike. "My Life" could be mistaken for a Katy Perry B-side, "Fears" pairs gently haunting synths with a powerage of dance club soul, and "Fierce Explosion" produces a sweet and easily palatable darkness reminiscent of The Birthday Massacre. Despite the trend, it's still hard not to love neon-clad platinums raised on Parallel Lines.

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HYPE IT UP: Sylvie Lewis

posted by High Voltage Staff | Tuesday, November 11, 2008 | 9:52 AM
Hyped By: Izzy Cihak


Since her 2005 debut, Tangos and Tantrums, Sylvie Lewis has been playing the part of the fairy princess of the world of singer/songwriters and dinner theater venues. Her ethereally Jazzy vocality and a delicately other-worldly Folk musicality combine to create a sound that could underscore any Disney climax or the cutest moment of your life. Last year's Translations is a nearly flawless collection of fables imbued with an endearingly quirky schizophrenia. Songs like "And Of Course, Isobel…" and "Just You" are just slightly offbeat takes on mythical romance and "If It Don't Come Easy" and "Old Queens, Monet and Me" are pleasantly jaded social commentary that could seemingly only be found in a storybook. This Fall this Rome-by-way-of-Los-Angeles-by-way-of-London songstress is bringing her magical brand of storytelling to the states while supporting Sondre Lerche. Listed below are your opportunities to be enchanted by Ms. Lewis… or at least see a singer/songwriter that doesn't make you want to burn down every coffee house in the world.

TOUR DATES w/ Sondre Lerche
Nov 14 - The Mod Club - Toronto, ON
Nov 15 - Studio Juste Pour Rire - Montreal, QB
Nov 17 - Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA
Nov 20 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
Nov 22 - Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA
Nov 24 - 9.30 Club - Washington, DC
Nov 25 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA

MySpace | Official Site

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HYPE IT UP: The Bronx

posted by High Voltage Staff | Saturday, November 1, 2008 | 4:34 PM
Hyped By: Chelsea Schwartz


Don't let the name fool you, the five piece rock band known as The Bronx actually hails from Los Angeles and are releasing their third self-titled studio album on November 11th. The music is the perfect mix of AC/DC, Jane's Addiction and you're favorite hardcore Warped Tour-esque band of the moment, while not feeling hardcore in any way. Basically The Bronx knows how to bring the rock!

I feel many good things to come from this band.

MySpace | Official Site

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HYPE IT UP: Sacred Objects

posted by High Voltage Staff | Tuesday, September 23, 2008 | 10:21 AM
Hyped By: Izzy Cihak


Sacred Objects, musical moniker of Damian David Ciccarone, is worth a listen if only for the fact that he has the balls to list Kriss Kross alongside the Velvet Underground as an influence. The product, however, is neither reminiscent of Nickelodeon Rap or Godlike sonification from the Lower East Side. Sacred Objects, instead, blends phat beats, synthetic distortion, and a sincere and beautiful darkness lacking in modern music. "Senseless in Seattle" sounds like a schizophrenically Industrialized drum circle lead by ohGr after chomping on a handful of psychedelic enhancements, Maynard James Keenan only wishes he could be tortured enough to produce something as delicately painful as "owlctapus," and "EMPTV" is what would happen if Daft Punk remixed a Bauhaus B-side. In these three songs alone Scared Objects has managed to merge and modernize three generations of music inspired by Bela Lugosi, PVC, and deviant sex

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HYPE IT UP: Gas Station Robber

posted by High Voltage Staff | Friday, September 5, 2008 | 12:13 PM
Hyped By: Naimah Holmes


Mysterious... one of many words I'd use to decribe California's own Gas Station Robber. Even while corresponding online with the band over the course of a few days I had no idea with whom I was speaking. And that's the way Chris Holbrook and Craig Conard like it. Image isn't their biggest concern, but getting their music to you without a middle man is. With that in mind, GSR allow you to download their songs at their website, and will continue to do so as long as they're making music. Every month a new song is available for you to download and adore.

Their approach towards image, or lack thereof, isn't new. Others have gone the way of covering their faces for whatever reason, but their urgent lyrics and moving instrumentation set them apart. With GSR it's simple, they want all of the attention to be paid to their music. The result is that of a band whose intentions are clear, making music with relevence. Every aspect of what is done is looked at and taken care of with kid gloves for Holbrook and Conrad.

The haunting guitar effects of "Cigarette" will catch your attention against the calmness of a voice with urgent lyrics pleading for a release not a need for rescue: 'I'm locked inside like everyone I know/And still the outcome's the same/Don't stop me from walking out unfazed/Now stop me from walking out unfazed/ Don't stop me from walking out unfazed.'

"Please" is a simple message of self defeat: 'Wait all night to show the one/That I'll be alright with one less to fight/Stay or leave/I will waste I will waste away" and later "Please just leave me alone/Stained and I'm the frozen one/Now is the time for the one left to find/Turn a leaf.'

"Falling Off" finds it's tempo to be more upbeat with lyrics riddled with longing, desire, and temptation with lines like 'Tonight we're alike/A room, tonight my blood is wine/Stuck in a place where I will stay/Come back please and take me away/Afraid with you of coming down/Afraid of falling off.'

"Killed the Chase" offers the most lush arrangements. The music seems to ebb and flow around a strong voice in this cautionary tale of the search for love and meaning: 'We now belong to all the things left in the way/And I have been sucked right in and thrown away/Another day down the same road to grey/Another day cuts the face and floats away.'

The effect of GSR is soothing. Picture driving through the desert at night with the top down on some old beat up corvet, waving glow sticks while looking for shooting stars.

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MySpace | Official Site

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HYPE IT UP: And Then There Were None

posted by High Voltage Staff | Saturday, July 26, 2008 | 7:18 PM
High Voltage introduces the launch of our newest section, HYPE IT UP. Just a little taste of our latest discoveries. First up, And Then There Were None!

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Hyped By: Naimah Holmes



New Hampshire produces Techno/Dance/Club banging bands? Apparently so, and their name is And Then There Were None (to be known hence forth at ATTWN). This is more than that cutesy, danceable, overly eager stuff your BFF sent you via sendspace. THESE are quality jams with heavier lyrics than those synth-loving tweens are ready to handle! ATTWN is Matt Rhoades (Vocals/Programming), Sean Sweeney (Guitar/Vocals),Nick Massahos(Guitar/Vocals), Ryan Manning (Drums),and Matt McComish (Synths). All of that manpower behind songs such as "Action is the Anecdote," with it's booming chorus and bridges covered in hand-claps, the cautionary "John Orr the Arsonist" and the dizzying "Occam's Razor" you will dance 'til you drop. Or at least brace yourself halfway through so you can enjoy the guys' rendition of "Heaven." So make room in your basement or bedroom, passenger seat space is required for the dance party ATTWN will create.

MySpace | Facebook

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