The core problem with the majority of up-and-coming progressive rock bands that are attempting to get their feet wet in the music industry is they tend to be labeled or grouped with another act before they even have a chance to find their true sound.

If the band shows any signs of trailing off the standard path of the verse-chorus song structure or push the envelope in the general construction of a song, they’re generally lumped together with a handful of prog-rockers that carry some familiarity.

Closure in Moscow is no exception.

The Australian five-piece, which formed in 2006 and first attracted attention when Associated Press magazine published a small feature on them, have been compared to such bands as The Mars Volta, Circa Survive and Coheed and Cambria (who they have shared the stage with) along with more seasoned bands like Rush and Tool.

Front man Chris De Cinque is a cross between Cedric Bixlar-Zavala and Claudio Sanchez. He has those same soaring vocals that Zavala implements with TMV, but also has the versatility to follow Sanchez’s formula of catchy pop-induced choruses.

Guitarist Mansur Zennelli’s undeniable talent connects with De Cinque’s range extremely well. The riffs on their debut LP “First Temple” (the followup to their EP “The Penance and the Patience”) are reminiscent of TMV’s Deloused-period, but are still accessible enough.

Sure, some of their work is hectic and overbearing, but they don’t quite evoke the claustrophobic feeling you get with a majority of the prog-rock scene.

Below is the music video for “We Want Guarantees, Not Hunger Pains” off their EP “The Penance and the Patience.”

As a side, Closure in Moscow is also currently on a lengthy U.S. tour which includes several stops along the California coast this month and will continue through September (dates can be found on their MySpace page).

So much, in fact, that I’m usually bashing anyone and everyone who takes the video game serious enough to boast that they are an “expert” on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” or can nail that tasty Hendrix solo on the live version of “Purple Haze.”

The game just really grinds my gears.

And before you jump down my throat, take me out back for a beating and proceed with your angry tirade of “You’ve never given the game a chance” and “It’s just something to do for fun,” allow me to explain.

See, I’ve played Guitar Hero. My brother-in-law forced me to give it a shot and, yes, I still hated it. Then I was forced to watch him “take the stage” for nearly 20 minutes with his six-song “set.” So before you lambaste me, check yourself.

It’s not just the fact that someone has the audacity to drop nearly $100 on the “guitar” and the disc that gets me flustered, it’s the whole mentality that these people actually believe their accomplishing something musically.

It’s a freaking plastic remote control. You have no musical talent. You’re just pressing buttons on a multi-colored pseudo-fret and “strumming” a metallic bar, while vigorously tapping a bogus whammy bar to alter those heavy, long notes.

Maybe I have such strong resentment because I play the guitar and have practiced for hours on end or maybe I’m just taking things too seriously. Either way, I just find it utterly ridiculous that these gamers pat themselves on the back for accomplishing a feat that an eight-year old can easily fulfill.

And that gets us to the topic at hand.

When Rock Band was released back in ’07, I carried these same ill-feelings.

It was Guitar Hero…..only worse. The simulated guitar remained in tact, only now they had added drum pads and a microphone.

All you needed was to round up a few local musicians, find a decent place to rehearse (the living room) and you’d be on your way to a record contract.

I think Charlie Brown said it best when he uttered the phrase “Good grief!”

Now here’s where I’ll stop my lengthy diatribe and actually offer some news to those who relish these kind of fads.

Arguably the greatest band ever, The Beatles, along with Apple Corps/Viacom/MTV Games have released the trailer for the latest edition of Rock Band due out Sept. 9 of this year.

The game has been heralded for being a one-of-a-kind format where you can journey through the career and legacy of The Fab Four, while mastering 45 of the greatest songs in their catalog — making concert stops at Yankee Stadium and the Ed Sullivan Show.

Below are the first ten songs confirmed:

01 “I Saw Her Standing There”
02 “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
03 “I Feel Fine”
04 “Taxman”
05 “Day Tripper”
06 “Back In The USSR”
07 “I Am The Walrus”
08 “Octopus’s Garden”
09 “Here Comes The Sun”
10 “Get Back”

Now here’s where I need some help.

I’m a bonafide Beatles junkie. I play “The White Album” quite religiously and regularly strum “Here Comes the Sun” and “Blackbird” on my acoustic guitar.

I admit this trailer is enticing. It’s forced me, at least for a split-second, to consider pursuing the game when it’s released in a few short months.

However, I know that in the end it’ll be quite similar to my experience playing Guitar Hero. I’ll be left wondering what exactly I was thinking and will be regretful for even picking up the phony axe.

But the sheen of the Beatles is just so bright (die-hard fans can attest to this).

What to do?

Playlist Title: The Inaugural

1. “The Man in Me” by Bob Dylan — from the album “New Morning”

Every opening number to a mixtape has to have that one indelible quality that characterizes what you’re playlist is all about. Maybe it’s constructed to place you in a better mood or could it be that it’s setup to aid in taking out your aggression. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but his song isn’t one of those (I kid, I kid).

We here at “Soundcheck” will just say it right now so that it’s out in the open. We don’t care for Bob Dylan. Go ahead. Condemn us to hell right now, for we have sinned.

However, of the numerous songs in Dylan’s catalog, this is one we can tolerate. Could it be, though, the only reason we stomach the tune is because it opens the scene to one of our favorite flicks? You know, where the sky-blue bowling ball makes it descent up the return and into the hands of our good friend Donnie. Regardless, the dude abides on this one.

2. “Up Around the Bend” by CCR — from the album “Cosmo’s Factory”

Sticking with “The Big Lebowski” theme (I promise, it stops here), here’s one the best cuts from CCR. It doesn’t get any better than that opening guitar riff — classic rock at it’s finest. And, yes, they left the tape deck and the Creedence tapes.

3. “Ragged Wood” by Fleet Foxes — from the album “Fleet Foxes”

What do you get when you combine the smooth melodies of The Beach Boys and the vocal harmonies of Crosby, Stills & Nash? The easy answer — the Fleet Foxes.

Like most of you, we discovered the band after their stellar SNL performance months back and it’s refreshing to know the masses still appreciate good music. Their self-titled debut album is as close to flawless as one band can get and the third track “Ragged Wood” is a five-minute masterpiece. The song reaches it’s climax halfway through when the acoustics stall, leading to a fantastic buildup.

4. “Paper Thin Walls” by Modest Mouse — from the album “The Moon & Antarctica” (Check the live video performance from “Austin City Limits” below)

“The Moon & Antarctica” was possibly the last sighting of Modest Mouse. It was before the “Float on’s” and “The Dashboard’s” — a time when the band was at it’s purest form. Sure, the new stuff is decent, but the older stuff brought such thought-provoking lyrics like “Everyone is a voyuerist, their watching me, watching them, watching me, right now” and infectious, yet poppy guitar licks.

5. “Show Me” by John Legend — from the album “Once Again”

One of the most underrated R&B crooners gets his Jeff Buckley on in this guitar driven relationship-analyzer.

6. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by The Beatles — from the “White Album”

No need to really explain this one. It’s The Beatles. It’s George Harrison. There’s both an electric and acoustic version. Choose one.

7. “Just a Phase” by Incubus — from the album “Morning View”

One of the five greatest songs from the band. The first minute and a half really make this track, where Mike Edinger’s guitar and DJ Kilmore’s turntables compliment Brandon Boyd’s falsetto of “oh’s” perfectly.

8. “Respiration” by Black Star feat. Common — from the album “Black Star”

Quite possibly the greatest hip-hop album in my collection, Mos Def and Talib Kweli join forces with Chicago emcee Common for this standard cut. It’s refreshing to know there once was a time in this genre when lyricists produced creative lines such as “We played against each other like puppets, swearing you got pull/When the only pull you got is the wool over your eyes/Getting knowledge in jail like a blessing in disguise/Look in the skies for god, what you see besides the smog/Is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene.” The so-called conscious rappers are still around, they’re just overshadowed by the mound of garbage that is clear channel radio.

9. “Song to Sing When I’m Lonely” by John Frusciante — from the album “Shadows Collide with People”

We’ll cut to the chase with this one. The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s guitarist doesn’t need the band to garner respect as a musician — he’s that good.

10. “Cassandra Gemini” by The Mars Volta — from the album “Frances the Mute”

Alright, we confess –The Mars Volta easily is one of our favorite bands in the current music scene. They continue, album after album, to push the limits on how a song can be constructed with crazy time signatures, verbose lyrics and full-fledged insanity.

This 30-plus minute gem comes from their second LP “Frances the Mute” — a prog-rock masterpiece. To get the full effect though, we suggest giving the album a full listen.

The format has changed the way music aficionados choose to obtain their information, whether it be through music videos, leaked tracks, rare cuts or even live performances.

Though, more than any other of these outlets, it’s the interview that has been revolutionized by YouTube. It’s quite scary. In a simple search you can find anything and everything — from a scarce Led Zeppelin dialogue to a one-of-a-kind backstage question and answer session with Nirvana.

I bring this up for one reason and only one reason – Nardwuar the Human Serviette.

If you’re as much a rabid interview watcher as I am, then you definitely know who I’m referring to.

If you are completely clueless to the “Nard,” follow closely.

Ever wonder what you get when you cross a flannel wearing, beret donning, ultra-proud Canadian with the vocal stylings of a prepubescent child that has an astute understanding of the history of music?

The easiest answer would be Nardwaur, a personality from Vancouver, British Columbia who quite possibly is the greatest musician interviewer I have ever seen.

Nardwaur, who has said his name is just “A dumb silly name, like Sting; Human means human, as in Human Fly; and Serviette is something you can’t get in the U.S. because down there they’re called napkins,” not only has an endless knowledge bank that makes him one of kind, but his crazy antics and silly quirks make him extremely entertaining.

The Nard (who’s real name is John Ruskin and is also the lead singer and keyboardist for The Evaporators) interrogates musicians from a broad-spectrum of genres (from hip-hop, indie, rock and funk, etc.) and drills them with arcane questions. His research is second to none. If an artist read a book when they were ten years old and implemented an idea from it in any part of their music, Nardwaur knows about it.

It’s not your standard interview where you’re forced to listen to the same questions rehashed over and over again. The point is you’re always picking up something new, even if you dread the subject being interviewed.

Sure, there are some that don’t necessarily like the way he handles the opportunities he has been given to question some pretty powerful acts in music (including Jay-Z, The Mars Volta, Fleet Foxes and even a 1994 interview with Nirvana just months before the death of Kurt Cobain). However, if you give his unique approach a chance, you’re bound to expand your musical awareness.

Below is my favorite interview conducted by the Nard — a nine-minute chat with N.E.R.D that is some of his best work. Also check out his feature with The Mars Volta and his four-part session with Questlove of The Roots.

P.S. — Keep on rocking the free world and Doot Doola Doot Doo….Doot Doo!

No other band has been as over hyped the past month by a cast of music publications and bloggers alike than indie ensemble  Grizzly Bear.

After all, the Brookyln-based four-piece earned an impressive trio of nine’s from such outlets as Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound and PopMatters  for their May 26 release of “Veckatimest.” So when I first decided to give them a solid listen, there was definitely some skepticism. Anytime a band is given this much pub, there always seems to be a letdown of sorts.

Regardless, “Veckatimest” is a clear step up from their previous 2006 effort “Yellow House,” which in itself was highly praised. For one, the production value is impeccable — quite possibly the first characteristic you’ll notice next to the vocal consistency.

“Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others,” a pair of songs that were debuted on separate “Late Night” performances in 2008, are undoubtedly the album’s strongest efforts. I first heard them rock “Two Weeks” on Letterman last year and was immediately hooked. Something about the steady bouncing of keys, the calming vocals and the skyward harmonies really drew me in.

“While You Wait For The Others,” which was played  on Conan, is another favorite. The heady, walking strums of Daniel Rossen and the haunting proclamation of “You always ask me why, you’ll only bleed me dry” compliment the group’s harmonizing “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” heard during the buildup to near perfection.

The excellent, steady groove of “Cheerleader” and the psyc-folk of “Southern Point” show the band can conveniently teeter on the brink of pop while saving some room to experiment — though not nearly as far out as was seen in “Yellow House.”

Rossen really shines on the acoustically-driven ballad “Dory,” while Ed Droste’s evocative vocals on “Ready, Able” conjure up thoughts of Animal Collective or a poor-man’s My Morning Jacket.

Grizzly’s drumer/vocalist Christopher Bear summed up the album’s distinct direction to the pop side in an early 2009 interview when he said “I think that it’s kinda clearer, clearer equals more accessible. I feel like clearer equals more accessible in general as a rule.”

Clearer? For Sure.

Accessible? I’ll definitely say it is by far the most manageable Grizzly Bear album, but not necessarily the most reachable. The group stumbles gently on “Hold Still” and “All We Ask,” where the majority of the album’s cohesiveness is missing.

However, aside from the small  slip ups, “Veckatimest” is an otherwise superb showing from the band.

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjecYugTbIQ]

People either love him or loathe him.

The former for his undeniable skills both electrically and acoustically on the guitar,  the latter for his smug and at-times arrogant attitude and tabloid exploits.

The reason I bring this up is two-fold.

When any of my friends find out that I’m a fan of Mayer’s discography, I’m usually condemned for liking the stylings of such a pompous, egotistical, self-indulgent artist who makes just as many headlines for his social life as he does for his music (their words, not necessarily mine).  Furthermore, my pals facetiously label me as a “Sensy” (to borrow from Zach Braff’s character on Scrubs “Our music is acoustic alternative, we marvel at fireflies, and when we help a drunk girl home from the bar, sure we cop a feel… a feel of her hair as we’re pulling it back so she doesn’t get any vomit in it.”)

Okay, so maybe that description isn’t quite me — at least the part about the fireflies — and, sure Mayer’s lyrics are for the overly-perceptive. However, the alternative reason I bring this up is, after my daily surfing of YouTube, I finally had the opportunity to watch the uploaded DVD of “Where the Light Is –  John Mayer Live in Los Angeles”. Not only was the performance flawless, but, in a way, it made me somewhat angry over the fact that critics focus more on Mayer’s personal life than his music — whether it be who he’s dating or what was said in a recent interview.

Maybe I’m of the rare-type, but when I listen to music I’m more interested in what my speakers are producing than what the media is. I focus more on how the specific artist has grown since their last album. With Mayer, you consistently get that. He has transformed himself from a pop-rock newcomer in 2001 to a legitimate and well-respected blues guitarist for not only his solo material but also for his dealings with the John Mayer Trio.

Sure, he’s had some real duds along the way (see “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Bigger Than My Body”) that have teetered on the brink of appalling. Yet, for the few missteps he’s encountered, Mayer has always delivered solid work — from his major label debut “Room For Squares” (see “Neon” and “City Love”) that was acoustically-driven to the heavily incorporated rhythm and blues of his latest release “Continuum” (See “Gravity” and “I’m Gonna Find Another You”).

Now I can understand the criticism and no this isn’t a “Leave John Mayer Alone” outcry, but in the end shouldn’t it really be just about the music?

When it comes to smooth vocal harmonies, I am a complete and utter sucker.

The Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. — you name it.

So when I, like many other music junkies out there, heard Fleet Foxes for the first time a few months back on the bright stage of “Saturday Night Live,” I was truly amazed and, at the same time, mightily disappointed I hadn’t discovered them sooner. The five-piece, Seattle-based band quite literally stole the spotlight from an otherwise mediocre SNL showing with two flawless performances, which included the folksy “Mykonos” and the mesmerizing “Blue Ridge Mountains.”

The short set propelled the group to sudden indie recognition and their self-titled debut album soared as high as 36 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, while selling more than 200,000 copies in the United States alone.

On Monday, the Foxes played the annual Sasquatch! Festival in George, Washington on a day when such acts as Ben Harper, Erykah Badu and Silversun Pickups also took the stage. It was their first stop on a North American tour that will last through September and includes three gigs in the UK and a few other trips through Europe.

Below is the first decent video that has surfaced of their performance at Sasquatch! — a four-plus minute rendition of “Ragged Wood.” Though the audio quality fluctuates from good to horrible, you really can’t complain when you hear the breakdown halfway in and the consequential build up to the swoons of “Lie to me if you will.”

Plus, the guy in the back of front man Robin Pecknold attempting the air drums is worthy of the watch.

Am I on the right track?

If I am, which I think might be, let’s continue.

What exactly is “Soundcheck?”

That’s fairly easy to answer. “Soundcheck” is a blog (You don’t say, Sherlock?) devoted to music (Kinda broad, ain’t it?)

No, really what’s the deal with this blog?

No need for the snippy attitude, I’m getting to it.

“Soundcheck” is an opinion-driven blog that covers a wide-spectrum of musical genres from progressive and classic rock to indie and alternative rock and from underground and mainstream hip-hop to old-time jazz and, yes, even country. If it’s interesting music that captivates my attention, then I’m likely to write about it.

Within the posts you’ll find extensive reviews of new releases, profiles of past albums and artists, concert reviews, breaking news, videos and much more.

Sounds great, now can we know a little something about the author?

Sure, why didn’t you say so.

I’m a college student. I’m a journalist. I’m a former retail-worker. I’m a very interesting human-being.

Aside from those three facts and that one blatant attempt at being conceded, I should probably expand a little.

I, like many of you, am fascinated with music. From the crafting of a melody to the conjuring of a verse, each facet allows a musician to create from the ground up.

Pink Floyd front man David Gilmour once said “When you strum a guitar you have everything — rhythm, bass, lead and melody.”

I picked up my first guitar at a very young age (8), playing both the electric and acoustic, and later was captivated by percussion when I joined the school’s band in middle school. Throughout high school, I participated in everything from concert and jazz bands to even the school’s orchestra — playing a wide-range of instruments including the snare drum, the timpani, the bass drum and even the glockenspiel.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was average at best, but I tried nonetheless.

One last question, why should I bother reading this?

Again, yet another valid question.

Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you how great my writing is or how much merit my opinion carries or even how influential I am to my readers.

I’m just not going to do it.

It would be wrong and somewhat mean-spirited.

What I will tell you is that if you’re bored, love music and have nothing better to do, this blog will offer something to pass the time.

And after all, it’s not like you have anything better to do. Am I right?

Anyways, have fun (or don’t…..geeze) and feel free to leave a comment when you undoubtedly disagree with me.

– John Scafetta