Pull A Star Trip. Singer/songwriter with a couple of adreneline injections, or hardcore with acoustic guitars? They have been compared with Dashboard Confessional, which I can agree with to some extent, but here’s an extra intensity and energy which seems endless. And even if it’s not at all the same genre, I can’t help thinking about The Proclaimers and foremost their “I’m gonna be (500 Miles)”, in the energy and the interaction. Maybe somewhere around all this you can find Pull A Star Trip’s music.

In 2009 Pull A Star Trip released their first album “E-Vasion Inn”. Here are two tracks from the album:

Countenance vs. Fingerprints
LA Travel Guide

You can find Pull A Star Trip on Myspace and you can listen to “E-Vasion Inn” on Spotify.

The band name Tvivelfront sounds almost like punk rock to me. The music though, which is sung in English, has a little punk in it, but feels more like a raw and rockish variation of The Cure, with a touch of Broder Daniel.

On their EP “Kid Ikarus”, which was released in March, I find three tracks with a basic, distorted sound with a nice live feeling. You can visit Tvivelfront’s site or Spotify to listen to all three songs. Here’s the title track:

Kid Ikarus

The danish-swedish band Black Light White Light went to Göteborg this winter to record three songs with the producer Johan Forsman. These tracks are now available on the debut EP “Director’s Cut”, three tracks with psychadelia-inspired rock.

Listen to “Director’s Cut” on Black Light White Light’s Myspace page. Here is “Higher Than Low”:

Higher Than Low

Today I have Stone Antica to present. Red Hot Chili Peppers-inspired rock I would say, with some Chris Cornell-vibes. The last impression comes a lot from Martin Sommansson’s vocals, which have a nice tone and expression. I don’t know much more about them than that they have released an EP before and are now working on a new album, to be released during 2010.

You can find Stone Antica on their site and on Myspace

Here are a couple of songs:

Can’t Get Out
The Grace of a Goddess Kiss

Jon Strider, whom I wrote about last year, is back now with a new album, “Fresh Tracks”, which was released in February. Except from two tracks, he has chosen this time to collaborate with various songwriters, like Jane Getz, David Garriock, Michael Boesen et al. And it shows; there are larger leaps this time between different styles and expressions. The soft country rock is there, but gets accompanied by country, blues and other influences. It’s pleasant, nice melodies and well produced.

Here are two songs to listen to:

Magnolia Tree
Workin’ Is For People That Don’t Know How to Fish

Jon Strider’s site