Rocketship Park “Cakes and Cookies”
Rocketship Park is a hidden musical diamond in the infinite clutter of the indie rock dreck that deserves your attention. Masterminded by the talented Josh Kaufman, he spent many years writing and recording these fantastic songs but never officially compiled or released them. So here they are… Beautiful pop like the catchy “Fast Friends” and lighter-than-air “Pistachio” needs to be spread around.
The house party recording style on “Cakes and Cookies” creates a sing along atmosphere that’s hard to resist. Influences of The Beach Boys, The Shins and Eno are hinted at, but this is simply a great album that will generate interest in the bands past work. Best of all, it’s available as a pay-what-you-want option on Bandcamp.
Leadfinger “We Make The Music”
This solid Aussie bar band tries its best to break into stardom with it’s hard rocking 3rd album. Lead singer Stewart Cunningham does a great job on the title track opener, combining Thin Lizzy and Replacements influences with his Dylanesque vocal approach. Unfortunately after this, the songwriting gets fairly dull and forgettable. However the mandolin lead “Fourteen,” is indeed a cool Wilco styled gem that shouldn’t be missed. And the last song, “Beside Me, Against Me” is a truly impressive rock epic. But along with standard bar room blues (“Leaving,”) is a large amount of filler (“Untitled,” “Segue 2”) that makes this album miss more than hit. At least the band offers up some free stuff on Bandcamp.