The Switcheroo Series EP by Alexisonfire and Moneen

Review by Colin L

1.       Passing Out In America (The Passing Of America) – Alexisonfire (Moneen Cover)

This song starts out slow and with a cleaner more melodic texture to it than you would expect from the Alexisonfire palet. That is until George Pettit’s screams come into play, a little more gutteral but clean than his vocals on Alexisonfire’s previous CD, you can start to hear his transition into the more mainstream vocal stylings found on the CD Crisis. This song is a good introduction to the CD because it also introduces the listener into Moneen’s styling but Alexis make this cover their own song. I love this particular track, especially the line “make that call if you need help” it can fit so many situations and it’s also how I live my life,by that I mean I’ll always help a friend if they need help, if I can help that is.

2.       Accidents Are On Purpose (Accidents) – Moneen (Alexisonfire cover)

Moneen really did a mediocre job on this cover, it was weak for all intensive purposes, the guitar stylings are very stripped down and punky on this recording, and while I do like that tone, that style doesn’t translate well here, and the Moneen’s vocalists vocals on this track are far from flatering. Moneen could have picked a better song that repesents how they play better, they actually made the perfect selection later on in this CD with Sharks & Danger (renamed Sharks In Danger). Though it isn’t a bad introduction to Moneen, I would definately check out the dual song music video that Moneen and Alexisonfire did together, using Passing Out In America and Accidents Are On Purpose as the songs used in the videos. An interesting concept on a personal favorite song of mine didn’t really work out that well but the song is indeed listenable, though the acoustic guitar towards the end of the song just changes it into the form of weird cover.

3.       Tonight I’m Going To Wash The Hippy (Tonight I’m Gone) – Alexisonfire (Moneen Cover)

This song was one of Moneen’s earliest songs and a fan favorite and to hear Alexisonfire cover this song is amazing especially the way that Dallas Green sings it because it’s easily one of Dallas’ best works in my honest opinion, this is definately more of an Alexisonfire style song than Passing Out In America, George’s screams are more in the Watch Out! Stylings  on this song and it really works, even though Alexisonfire really changed up the sound of the original song for this one it still works. The lyrics are deep and the guitar and drum riffs combined are amazing. To me this is the stand out cover of the CD and I would love to see Alexisonfire play this one live, over the oft played cover called Charlie Sheen vs Henry Rollins.

4.       Sharks In Danger (Sharks & Danger) – Moneen (Alexisonfire cover)

Gone is the creepy phone call intro, stripped down to basically just a guitar and vocals, Moneen definately did this one right because their vocalist actually screams on this one where’s for the cover of Accidents the Moneen vocalist just sings cleanly and in a poor imitation of Dallas, this one is a lot more punky in vibe and tone, and with more aggressive almost hardcore styled vocals, Moneen could not have done better here. If your just getting into Moneen this is the song to check out, if you already like Moneen then you’ll still appreciate this song and might be a little suprised by it.

5.       Bleed & Blister (Version 2) – Moneen

I personally like this song a lot. Hate the lyrics but I love the guitar riff, it’s very remmenisant of Hey, It’s Your Funneral Mama – Alexisonfire in style, but not nearly as distorted. If you can get past the horrible lyrics then you might like this song like I do.

6.       Charlie Sheen vs Henry Rollins - Alexisonfire

High energy and the perfect song to close the album after the softish ending of Bleed & Blister, this song closes the 6 song EP, the lyrics that George screams are somewhat to the weaker side, but you’ll have a hard time understanding him on this song because he’s distorting his voice a bit. A fun song to listen to, especially if your feeling down.

If your a fan of either band then your for sure going to like this CD, if this is your first introduction to Moneen then it’s a good CD to pick up, if this is your first time listening to Alexisonfire this is definately a very good CD to listen to because it shows just how talented both bands are. However if this is your first time listening to both then you should probably pick up “Watch Out!” – Alexisonfire or “The Theory Of Harmonial Value” – Moneen. As both CDs are the perfect way to be introduced to either band.

it being our first valintines day together we decided to get eachother valintines days gifts, here it is https://www.greenearthstores.com/?p=pSingle&offset=31&sku=00205631785&state= tell me what you think

ok well I've decided that once I get a little better at guitar and can get a Black Heart Little Giant I'll be buying this: http://www.pulseonline.com/Schecter/BigTempestWht.jpg it's a Schecter Tempest Custom. Tell me what you guys think of it

jsut for games releasing in 09 I'm looking forward to:

InFamous
Heavy Rain
Uncharted 2
NASCAR 2010
NHL 2010
NHL 2K10

and what ever other games that look good in 09.

hey, just thought I'd give a little update on what's going on!

I just found out like 10 minutes ago that as of last night my 28 year old cousin Fraser has had a son! I'm feeling kindof sad about this though because Fraser, his wife and his son live in Scotland so I'll hardly ever get to see them

For any hockey fans that read my blogs here, you may or may not know that Swedish forward and leafs captin of 13 seasons Mats Sundin has signed with the vancouver canucks...

this is all I'm going to write on the subject, other then to say I think when the leafs face the canucks in Febuary, expect them to GOON mats up...

ok well if you read the gameinformer issue that has Uncharted 2 as the cover story and how it says that the sixaxis controls for grenades were ditched, well personally I liked the controls for that, I feel that that should have been kept as I found that to be quite a natural control, but that's just my personal opinion.

and this is my only gripe with Uncharted 2 so far, everything else I've seen and heard has seemed to be amazing

also this might sound like a weird thing to ask but do any of you think that Uncharted 2 might get an M rating? I think it probably will as in both trailers, Nathan has been bloodied up pretty badly, and that was always something they seemed to stray away from in the cutsences in the last uncharted, so what are your thoughts on this?