rock

Orba Squara’s “The Trouble with Flying” is a bit more than just a latest release – it’s a chunk of his life. Sure, it’s a collection in which you’ll hear over a dozen cleverly crafted tunes, but Squara took it another step. He turned his trip across the U.S. that influenced much of the work on the record into an online web documentary – and a damn good one.

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Damn. Talk about busy. If you ever get your hands on the resume of San Diego resident Chris Leyva, it may take you a good hour to actually get your head around it. This guy does it all! Check out this track record:

      · To date, Chris has been involved in 17(!) album releases.

      · In 2003, he started up a small label, Black Cherry Records.

Any band that can find concrete evidence to support comparisons to Godzilla, consider themselves beer snobs and take off into the musical universe with a tune called “BEER!”… can call PensEyeView.com a friend any day. That band – Psychostick – really started grabbing attention in 2005 when The Squizz XM station 48 began playing the aforementioned "BEER!" which hit the #1 spot on their top 10 countdown for seven consecutive weeks, remaining in the top 10 for even longer.

On Chella Negro’s debut record, “Silos & Smokestacks”, you’ll learn what it takes to be an honest folk artist, singer/songwriter. It seems more and more, the traditions of folk music are lost – whether through advancements in recording technology, desire to be different, or the power of all of our social networking sites – folk music is becoming more and more electronic, a bit less than the acoustic values it was built on.

When an artist’s breakout track is titled, “I Like Trucks”, you’d probably expect him or her to be born with a knee-thumping country background – someone out of ol’ Tennessee; a Nashville native no doubt.

Big B – you’re not kidding. The 6’7, 330lb. hip-hop innovator and self-proclaimed “most notorious white trash renegade” is in the thick of reaching for the heights of hip-hop royalty, combining his spit-for-spit with the roots of punk rock – style more evident than ever on his fourth album, “American Underdog”.

If you venture out into another one of our backyards – Washington, DC – you likely don’t think of it as being home to some essential roots reggae… but boy would you be surprised. I’ve heard my share of great roots acts between Baltimore and Washington, but none may be more talented than Dub City Renegades, a collection of artists loyal to true roots reggae; studying it, appreciating it and sharing it.

You can lose an afternoon – easy – just listening to the grooves of California-based Rebelution – the band that formed in 2004 between Eric Rachmany (vocals/guitar), Rory Carey (keyboards), Wesley Finley (drums) and Marley D. Williams (bass). As they adequately put it, their reggae renditions are pure “kick back, ‘worry free’ vibes, catchy refrain, and optimistic, inspiring, and engaging music that leave listeners with the sense that they have the power to make this world a better place.”

Alexis Babini’s songwriting is so damn good, he should have a friggin’ PhD in the art… but his bachelors will have to do. He graduated from the esteemed Berklee College of Music, and his thoughts echo mine oddly enough: How can you teach songwriting – refine it down into courses that can indeed turn into a degree? Babini talks about it, “Berklee is sort of a double edged sword. There's a lot of learning to be had but it's strange to see them take the art of songwriting and make a science out of it.