The RoomThirteen team give us a peek into their personal collections and tell us what they will be listening to this April:


Jim Ody

The King Blues - Punk & Poetry
I love this album. It mixes up Punk, Ska & Rap beautifully. There are elements of Rancid in the Ska, and a definite Punk ethos, mixed with some great lyrics and the familiar London 'street' twang! The King Blues manage to sit there comfortably between Punk and street beats and rhymes with the ability to sound cool to punks and hip-hop heads alike.

Sean Spillane - The Woman OST
I saw this movie a few weeks back and thought that whilst the movie was somewhat twisted (although from the book of the same name by Jack Ketchum renowned for his sick stories this was hardly surprising!), the soundtrack was amazing. I then discovered that it was done by Sean Spillane, and also hard to come by on CD (iTunes does have it though, and you can get it on LP from Germany for around 30 quid!). However having sourced the soundtrack I have not been disappointed! It mixes up some great rock with lyrics that have been written especially with the movie in mind. Think Alkaline Trio with a slightly more folk/indie rock feel. It was released last year but the promotion appears to have been non-existent. Look out for a future review...

Avril Lavigne - Goodbye Lullaby
This may be a slightly surprising selection from me, but what can I say? If you strip away the silly throwaway Pop tunes, you do get a great singer with some fine power ballads. Yes, I know, it's not 1987 anymore, but the slow to mid-tempo tunes are what this Canadian does best. I admit that when I first had this album I was disappointed as most of the tracks are ballads, however the advantage of an MP3 players is that you get to have slow burners play in the background and then appreciate them when you give them a chance. Goodbye Lullaby is definitely one of those albums, and whilst we await the new album which I'm told is packed with more upbeat and hi-tempo songs then this is well worth a listen. And I'm not embarrassed to admit it.



James Stant

Max Raptor - Carolina
I've lost track of the amount of times I've clicked 'replay' on the Midlands outfit's new video on Youtube since its recent release. Carolina is a colossal fist-pumping tune with a beautiful melodic edge; it's well on the way to becoming one of my favourite punk rock song ever; it's simply that good. Their album Portraits is next on my 'to-buy' list.

Skindred - Roots Rock Riot
I will admit that I did not take to Skindred when I first heard an excerpt of their music. Perhaps I just caught a particularly angst-filled outburst and convinced myself, based on such a brief exposure, that Skindred were not for me. It's amazing how wrong you can be. Upon deciding to give them another listen, I picked up their Roots Rock Riot album and the conversion process began. The pairing of State of Emergency and Alright was the crucial eye-opener, making it exceptionally obvious that this aggresive yet melodic fusion of reggae and metal was going to make Skindred a band that I would soon begin to rave about.

The Kill Trons - Continue To Begin
The Kill Trons is the brainchild of Midlands-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matt Black, with the five track release Continue To Begin providing a collection of delightfully stimulating contemporary pop rock tunes. I awoke on Christmas morning with a vocal melody circling around my head and I later identified it as that belonging to opening track Juliet, There's Got to Be Something Else; if a song is strong enough to surface amid my waking excitement for Christmas morning, it's got to be something special.



Andrew Latham

Rollins Band - Do It
It's old and it's hard work at times but overall it's a raucous and gloriously intense offering and their version of the title track (originally by the Pink Fairies) is just fabulous.

Max Raptor - Portraits
Yeah yeah I know, this featured on my last two submissions but hey, I'm still listening to it and it really is that good!

Snuff - Blue Gravy
Out on tour at the moment and this offering remains some of their best work. A reminder that when they are on the ball there isn't really anyone to touch them. Marvellous.



Paul Chesworth

Shinedown - Amaryllis
Without a word of a lie, this is the album that will send Shinedown stratospheric. Bordering on pop/rock in parts, its a career defining album. When you listen to Brent Smith, he's that kind of guy that would lead a coward into battle. Great songs, great hook, great album

The Treatment - This Might Hurt
saw these guys supporting Steel Panther on the recent UK tour. Young band, and they are all ours (UK I mean). Played in the vein of UK classic rock like Zeppelin, The Treatment have all the pegs in the right holes - great songs, great singer. Watch out for these in 2012

Steel Panther - Balls Out
Seen as a comedy band, Steel Panther take the piss out of the hair bands of the 80s only Steel Panther write songs that some(make that most) 80s bands could only dream of. Killer hooks aplenty, especially Tomorrow Night which is one of the best melodic metal songs I've heard in years (probably since the 80s!). Totally vulgar, but even better than the debut. Catch my interview with Steel Panther on the site.



Bruce Cousins

65daysofstatic - Beatcast Coach Road Session
Dance Dance Dance makes me want to do just that. The percussion hits extra hard in this live rendition.

Cursive - I am Gemini
Cursive consistently put out great records and this, their latest offering, is no different. It grabs your attention first listen, but gives away more each time you come back and listen.



Sarah Rayner

Grimes - Visions
What I'm listening to this month? It has to be Montreal electronic musician/vocalist/producer Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) with her new album Visions. She has a slick, progressive, transcendently unique sound that's not like anything else I've heard on the scene of late. It's hipster vogue versus 90s RnB versus anything that's hot between now and the 60s mixed up in a great big electro pot. She's only been about for 2 years and already on album number four, so I'll be checking out her back catalogue too, and trying in vain to get single Oblivion out of my head.