Currently part of the Hope For The Hopeless tour with The White Tie Affair, Inner Party System and Kill Hannah, Medic Droid rocked the crowd at The Casbah in Tremont Music Hall during their Charlotte, NC stop.

Listening to the disk brings to mind a band you would find in a bistro or concert hall, but the live show in a hot club was way more punk. The contrast is apparent on their MySpace page. Their style description is Techno/Power Pop, but should include / Punk.   

The Garzo brothers, better known as the Los Lonely Boys, are based out of Texas and have just recently released their newest album Forgiven. The brothers like to call their style of music Texan Rock n' Roll because they combine Rock n' Roll, Blues, Soul, Country and Tejano.

The opening track "Heart Won't Tell a Lie" gives off a feel of Carlos Santana with a hint of blues and jazz that makes the head nod to the beat and the feet tap to the rhythms. It is easy to tell that these guys have been working magic with their music because the songs are sophisticated technically and musically, while making it seem so effortless. The album seems really low-key, and I'm not sure whether that will be to the band's betterment or detriment. Only time will tell.

In the wake of releasing their latest album Censored Colors, Portugal The Man embarked on its summer tour.  Hitching a ride with them was California-based band, Facing New York. Included in their travel plans was Fort Lauderdale's Culture Room.

Though their regular bass player, Zack Carothers, was off on family leave, and frontman, painfully shy John Gourley, sang the numbers with his back turned three quarters toward the audience, it didn't stop them from cranking out one extraordinary song after the other. Each one received resounding cheers of approval.

Produced by Mark Needham (The Killers, Louis XIV, We Are Scientists), the Republic Tigers debut release Keep Color has been a bit difficult to categorize.

Attempts to throw this Kansas City quintet into one of the numerous musical sub-genres have resulted in the birth of embarrassingly overblown adjective-noun combinations such as "euphoric psychedelia" to "exuberant symphonic pop", which might lead to inaccurate impressions that The Republic Tigers resemble, in any way, The Flaming Lips. Wrong.