Modern Rifles' CD Release Party was a lot of fun on Friday night, once again Ron, my buddy (and drummer) came out with me to have some drinks and see some music. The night started even later than usual, giving me plenty of time to play some free pool (badly).

It's always interesting to see how a rock band will incorporate non-traditional instruments. Irradio takes the standard rock quartet and adds a sax/flute player.





Unfortunately, you could barely hear him. Too bad.



I don't really pay attention to lyrics much when I shoot, but I could hear a couple inspirational themes. Their myspace lists them under indie and gospel, so I'm happy to know they might think the same thing. I often have radically different takes on what a band's music is about after just hearing them once. That's only one of the reasons I don't talk about the music much on here, just go to their myspace.



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I just saw Marasol a couple weeks ago, and I decided to buy their CD this time.



The songs are good, but there's a rawness to their live sound that doesn't come through on CD. The vocals are a bit more forward than they should be, for my taste, and the vocal and guitar overdubs obscure the rhythm section's tightness. They are a pretty new band, just about a year old, and they are going back to record a full length soon, which I'm sure will showcase a more mature sound.





They're a sort of a peppy version of Hum, lots of simple, memorable riffs. And they bring their own lights! Yay! The only club dimmer than the Ken is the Kava Lounge.

Modern Rifles' new CD, I was Young, It Was Dark, has been in constant rotation on my player since I bought it a month ago. It's a seriously good CD.



I've talked about these guys enough already, just go seem them and buy the CD, you won't regret it.





I don't know why, but I always end up eliminating most of the color for their sets. They just look good in B&W, no?