Halfnoise

After his departure from American rock band Paramore in 2011, drummer Zac Farro set his interests on a new musical project titled Halfnoise.Farro is the band’s lead vocalist, showing his wide range of talent. He brings just as much energy to singing as he does on drums, and that can be seen vividly in live shows. He switches from singing to drumming so quickly and never misses a beat. I had the pleasure of seeing Halfnoise live recently and Zac’s solo project shines just as bright as his work with Paramore.

A new lead single has been released by the band, titled ‘Who Could You Be’ As always, Halfnoise delivers a great tune. Starting off with a groovy guitar riff that follows throughout the whole song, it’s instantly fun. Farro’s vocals are on point, and fit the song amazingly. The entire song has an upbeat tone with lyrics seemingly about a recent breakup and what could have been if they never started dating in the first place. Though this track doesn’t stray far from previous releases from the band, it still provides a great way to signify the start of a new album cycle for Halfnoise.

Simple Creatures

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low come together on a new side project that works surprisingly well. In a pursuit to explore new styles of music and songwriting, the alternative rock legends formed Simple Creatures. Their goal with the band is to create music that wouldn’t fit on a Blink-182 or All Time Low record. Both Hoppus and Gaskarth share vocal responsibilities which proves to be a very interesting dynamic. The band has a lot of potential, it’s up to them to see where they take it.

Simple Creatures’ first ever EP is out now, named Strange Love. This project is pretty good overall, but it definitely has weak points. Most of the songs are catchy but it seems that some of the lyrics are put together because they rhyme instead of because they make sense. Though Gaskarth and Hoppus are supposed to share vocal duties, Gaskarth definitely overpowers his bandmate at times. Mark is more used for the darker songs like ‘Ether’, showing that he may not have as much range as Gaskarth. He does sing well, but Alex seems much better from this project alone. The catchy singles ‘Drug’ and ‘Strange Love’ hold up well, since their release but still aren’t the best on the album. Another track that seems lackluster is the track ‘How To Live’ which is generally about wanting to give someone advice but them not wanting to accept it. The song seems boring and doesn’t have many instruments, it’s more of an electronic one. My personal favorite ‘Adrenaline’ has a great vibe to it. The chorus is super catchy and it gets stuck in your head all day in the best way possible. The closing track on the album is ‘Lucy’ It has a great instrumental and lyrics, and sounds like it would be so fun to see live. Simple Creatures’ first EP delivers in some places but it has some weaknesses. I definitely like the project and I’ve had it on repeat since it came out. Give it a listen, you probably won’t be disappointed.