Hi everyone and welcome to the official Gigatracks blog. Here we are going to be tossing up articles and what-not that fall outside of the usual Gigatracks content. We’ll be bringing you music lists, news, reviews, rants, playlists, mix CD’s and any other assorted crap that we come up with. Basically, if it has to do with music, you’ll find it here.

So check us out often as we hope to be constantly adding new material for you to peruse and new opinions for you to disagree with. And don’t forget to drop us some comments and let us know what you think.

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More great rock from our favorite label, Tooth and Nail. Emery delivers modern hard rock just like we like it. Full of hooks, sing-along choruses and walls of guitars.

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Shimmering electronic indie pop that’s in the same vein as The Postal Service. Watch for the chorus coming in around the 2 minute mark. It’s the highlight of an already impressive track.

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Not to be confused with Jack Johnson, John Jackson does deliver up some mighty tasty singer-songwriter fare. ‘Fifteen Minutes’ sports a very singable chorus and solid songwriting. And it’s ‘Creative Commons’ as well, so feel free to share!

2006 was the single worst year in recorded music history. You want to dance with me on that one? I’ll let you because there are only about ten albums, maybe fifteen, that you can actually use in a defense of the year 2006. Even so, those albums do not offer a strong enough case to trump any other year of recorded music, making it the single worst. Period.

And in 2006, I saw that trend hit home as I watched some of my perennial favorite artists make their worst albums yet. It was a sad time because of all the years for music, 2006 was really the year I needed them to stand up and produce some good stuff for me. But one by one, my favorites released albums. And one by one, those albums took one spin in my player and then got shelved. The letdown was a tough blow for me to swallow, but none was a tougher chew than that of Pat Green. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wired All Wrong is the unholy union of Matt Mahaffey from Self with Jeff Turzo of God Lives Underwater. And it actually is a pretty good blend of these two acts. ‘Nothing At All’ is the first single from their release ‘Break Out The Battle Tapes’ and its loaded with electro-beats, varying changes from section to section and very cool overall vibe. The pseudo-rap of the verses really gives the track a solid head-nodding feel. Think a more club-friendly version of Beck (who coincidentally Matt Mahaffey toured with as his guitarist). And like most of the other works of of Matt’s career it’s very catchy, but just a little too weird for radio, which means that it’s creative and fresh sounding.

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The first thing you will notice when ‘Losing My fear Of Heights’ kicks off is that the singer sounds a bit like Ed Kowalczyk from Live. After a minutes it disappears though, however Sittser’s sound is reminiscent of Live and also some of Jars Of Clay’s music as well. Clear, polished production and sweeping arrangements, complete with piano breakdown, make this commercial radio ready. It’s mid-tempo rock done well with great lyrics, instrumentation and hooks. Not too hard, not too soft, it’s just right for pretty much any mood. Read the rest of this entry »

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What would happen if Emmylou Harris and Patsy Cline got together and tried their hand at recording Ryan Adams songs? Just check out Neko Case. She delivers heartfelt country (real country, not that pop crap that passes for country nowadays) and folk wrapped in songs that make the heart weep. On the chorus of ‘Star Witness’, when she sings “Hey there there’s such dandy wolves ’round town tonight” she sounds like an Appalachian angel. With such a beautiful voice carrying such a beautiful melody, this track is just downright irresistible.

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It’s been a while since we posted an electronica track to GT. It’s gotten very difficult for me to find something in electronica that really does it for me. Most artists seem to find a neat drum loop and a catchy little keyboard riff and then wear that bad boy out for about six minutes straight.

Well, not so with Artemis’ track called ‘Fountain Of Life’. This is a remix of the original track and the remix is performed by DJ Anser. It’s got a nice floating female vocal layered over hard hitting drums and it’s washed down in ephemeral synths. Very Massive Attack-like. It’s good to find some high-quality electronica again. This track is a good step in restoring my faith in a genre that I was beginning to lose hope in.

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More pop-rock here. We’ve been on a role finding some great little pop rock gems recently and ‘Burn The Maps’ from Castledoor is no different. Although, in the spirit of full disclosure, I found this track quite some time ago and I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you. I know, I know, I should get this stuff posted sooner. But at least I got it out there and I’m sure your ears will be glad. It’s got a nice little loud-quiet thing going on and soaring chorus vocals. Basically, it’s got everything you need to make a great rock song.