Once upon a time, a musician only had so many options when it came to effect pedals. Now, with the aid of the Internet, hundreds of custom boutiques are variegating the market with unique, wildly experimental pedals.
Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.
All it took was one warm-up word: “check.” When vocalist Sean Ingram (shown left) screamed that syllable sans microphone on Wednesday night, the forthcoming mayhem from math-core groove masters Coalesce was evident.
Long-distance relationships — not to mention incestuous ones — generally are a bad idea. But somehow the rules don’t apply for Able Baker Fox, the latest indie rock offering from guitarist Nathan Ellis of The Casket Lottery and three key members of Small Brown Bike.