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Press on Victor Bravo
Reviews for "Hammer Meets Fire"
Victor Bravo upholds the myth that all you need to make rock is a couple guys, some instruments, and a garage... With obvious influence from bands such as Nirvana and Hüsker Dü, Victor Bravo’s latest album, Hammer Meets Fire, doesn’t disappoint... The vintage vocals combined with quality musicianship make the band worthy of getting out of the garage and into your ears. Favorite tunes include "Into Debt," and the first single off the record, "Jagged Cross." The listener won’t be able to help but imagine a room full of sweaty bodies hurling themselves around in rhythm to the songs.
Jen Stuart @ Independent Clauses
Reviews for "Sky Full Of Messages"
Furious slashes of guitars (courtesy of singer/guitarist Collin Frendz) crash past Dan Collins’ equally unhinged drum stylings, creating a raw, intoxicatingly messy sound that at its best recalls Mudhoney, Iggy Pop, and Nirvana. ... I predicted that their full-length album would be absolutely explosive. And it is -- everything here is vigorous and blazing and furious.
Melanie Love @ The Daily Vault
One listen to Victor Bravo and that uninhibited, "we’re the new order and anything is possible,"feel is back... listen closely and you’ll hear these two guys who hail from Maine but in their words "escaped" to NYC have a remarkable, fresh sound... The sound is splendidly harsh – something like The Clash meets The Sex Pistols and they all discover Red Bull... it still seems like New York City punk circa 1980s to me. And what a welcome sound that is.
Nancy Dunham @ Indie-Music.com
Victor Bravo sent me their 7-song EP a few weeks back, and I'm very impressed with it. It's badass, in fact. Very raw, very real, and very loud (is the only way to play it). This is the kind of music I grew up listening to. It's just straight-up LET'S FUCK UP THE WORLD WITH OUR SOUND, AND WE'LL TAKE NO PRISONERS kind of feel. I love it.
A guitarist and a drummer. That is Victor Bravo. With Sky Full of Messages, they've proven once again that bass really isn't necessary if you play loud, distorted music. This EP is an excellent gaze into the talent of these two men and with each release, they can only continue to evolve in their sound.
"Sky Full of Messages" is seven songs worth of straightforward, raucous punk rock. Collin Daniels revels in belching out the same handful of lyrics per song, while blaring through noisy guitar chords.
Reviews for "Shut Out The Sky"
Much like Mudhoney's classic ode to diseased behavior, "Touch Me I'm Sick," Victor Bravo produce nauseating noise that owes as much to early punk as it does 90's grunge. "Dallas" takes twangy guitar and breaks it into sludgy chords that would have pleased grunge-era Subpop, and "Toxic Tornado" packs snarled vocals into a song laced with angst. Victor Bravo don't stop there though: "Binge" is an angular assault worthy of Gang of Four, and the mid-tempo "Sarbanes-Oxley" dances around lyrics dealing with political scandal and fraud. NYC needs Victor Bravo. The city that nurtured the likes of Iggy Pop, the Dead Boys and even GG Allin should continue the legacy of sick, depraved rock n' roll; thankfully, here it is.
- Bill Dvorak, The Deli Magazine, Winter 2007
Check out the full review here!
Let’s see now, raw? Yes. Dirty? Uh huh. Fun? check! Yep, Victor Bravo has it all... VB does what all good Rock n’ Roll does- it makes you want to drink beer, jump around and have fun.
The songs from the EP on the site are great. The first song, "Dallas", starts soft and then kicks into a rollicking crusher with a bit of a funky beat. Simple, yet totally effective. The second song, "Binge" (my personal favorite), starts off reminding me a bit of the Replacements, then hooks a left turn into Husker Du territory before I know what to do with myself. The third song, "Sarbanes-Oxley" (named after the corporate accounting reform bill), is kind of a mid-tempo romp through the land of Enron, politics and fraud...
There are a million good bands out there, but Victor Bravo is great. Write it down somewhere -- on a cigarette box or HoHo wrapper if ya have to -- these guys are going to be huge.
- Rob Green, C60Crew, 6/10/07
http://c60crew.blogspot.com/2007/06/victor-bravoshut-out-sky.html
This explosive four-song EP shreds ahead with a sound harkening straight back to the flannel-waisted glory days of "college rock," and refreshingly so. In the midst of a scene still heavily reliant on the eighties, it’s about time someone pried a few nails off the old grunge coffin, which is exactly what Victor Bravo manages to do with balls and originality. Opening song "Dallas" could easily be mistaken for an outtake from Mudhoney’s quitessential Superfuzz Bigmuff, all the way down to the gritty Mark Arm-like falsetto, and the band makes no bones about its influences. Mudhoney is indeed given thanks on the inlay, along with Juliana Hatfield, L7, Superchunk, Love Battery - a veritable pantheon of indie greatness. The middle two songs sever this anchor in favor of some fully inventive and more up-to-date rockin’, followed by another Mudhoney-esque bombshell to round out the set. Victor Bravo may well be the grunge fetishist’s messiah, and this audacious cut, short but sweet, is well worth any good rock fan’s attention.
- Steve Gunn, Online Rock, 4/23/07
http://www.onlinerock.com/CDreview/review_victorbravo.shtml
The indie-punk trio Victor Bravo have released their debut EP, with a stunning four track set list... a slow building cresendo of bouncing guitars and a murderous drums beats, that will have you up and down, boucing across the dance floor... For a band that has only been together since last year, this is a great DIY release that fans of garagey-punk rock you can dance to.
- Matt G, Hussieskunk, 2007
http://www.hussieskunk.com/reviews/music/victorbravo-shutoutthesky.htm
Victor Bravo’s Shut Out The Sky EP is barreling full steam ahead. And you will only get one warning: do not step in front of this train...
- Corinne at PlugInMusic.com, 4/18/07
http://www.pluginmusic.com/features/reviewroundup.php?page=4
Victor Bravo [is] a band that is bringing the 90s alternative into a heavy 21st century sound all their own. We spoke with frontman Collin Frendz about the group's past, present and future...
- IndieWorld Interview at Rocknworld.com, 4/12/07
http://www.rocknworld.com/features/07/VictorBravo.shtml
Shut Out The Sky is four slices snarling pie, with dirty electric guitar and snotty vocals its primary ingredients. Colin Frendz, on vocals and guitars, and Dan Collins at the drums, are the chefs of this harsh dish... This music brings back memories of bands like The Seeds, where guys holed up in garages with guitars and amps, and shouted out the unfiltered truth... Bravo, Victor Bravo!
- Dan MacIntosh, Indie-Music.com, 4/7/07
http://www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5861
The songs on the Shut Out the Sky EP are straight forward, catchy, and Collin has a distinctive voice that again reminds me of both late-sixties garage rock bands and mid-seventies punk. Remember when the Ramones did an album of sixties cover songs?... 'Toxic Tornado' is probably my favorite song on here with a bouncy vocal melody, and Collin does a good job of snarling out the words. Not bad at all for a punk-rock garage band that has its roots in Maine and Indiana and is alive and well and kicking ass in New York, NY.
- Sebastian Gregory, Deadtide.com, 4/1/07
http://www.deadtide.com/reviews/albums/page.php?id=3815
[A]n instant favorite... Shut Out the Sky is a four-song, sixteen-minute slice of snarling punk plucked straight from Iggy Pop or Husker Du’s back catalog... with [Binge's] choppy bursts of guitars and Frendz’s manic posturing, the track is nothing short of dynamic, seamlessly mixing catchy refrains with aggressive energy... Rounding things out is "Toxic Tornado," a wailing, declarative rocker reminiscent of the Ramones. Tightly executed and brimming with frantic exuberance... If this is what they can do with a four-track EP, a full-length album is sure to be absolutely explosive.
- Melanie Love, The Daily Vault, 3/23/07
http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=4769
New York City’s rock renaissance continues with the advent of Victor Bravo, a basic rock power trio with a calling card EP, Shut Out the Sky. Drawing on the punk-fueled energy of classic underground acts like Hüsker Dü and the 60s garage rock tradition, the Bravos spit out four loogies of melodic, aggressive rock/pop, highlighted by "Binge" and "Dallas"...
- Michael Toland, High Bias, 3/22/07
http://community.livejournal.com/highbias/215436.html
["Dallas"] has an old school punk vibe that is adeptly mixed, upbeat and does not suffer from being played too fast to groove.... "Binge" is a dynamic rocker that employs flattering effects on a howling vocal performance, and showcases a creative guitar part, nicely supported by solid 8th note bass work and powerful, economic drumming... "Toxic Tornado" is an exuberant Ramones-style rocker...the band once again demonstrates they know how to effectively use their musical chops.
Since the late 1970's, New York has been a haven for bands honing the art of punk playing live at legendary venues like CBGB's and Max's Kansas City... Victor Bravo carries on this musical tradition with similar passion...
- Phillip E. Hardy, Sound the Sirens, 2/26/07
http://www.soundthesirens.com/articles/index.php?id=33,654,0,0,1,0
The furious instrumentation that starts out “Dallas” will remind individuals of acts like Foo Fighters (when they first started out). What Victor Bravo does during this track is create a more polished version of grunge music that still has rough jags at points... Hints of both Husker Du and early (think 1986) Goo Goo Dolls are also present during the early part of “Shut Out The Sky”... Victor Bravo is an act where individuals can see the possibility for greatness easily...
- James McQuiston, NeuFutur Magazine, 2/25/07
http://neufutur.com/Reviews/victorbravo.html
Victor Bravo is a stripped-down garage rock juggernaut of Collin Frendz on fuzzy guitar and echoey howl-at-the-moon vocals and Dan Collins on twitchy drums... terrific, swaggering snot-nosed anthems in the tradition of rural pissed-off teens from 1966 on. "Binge" is an irresistibly Dionysian release, though "Sarbanes-Oxley" (named for the 2002 corporate accounting reform act) is hardly a typical lowbrow theme.
- Kim Cooper, Lost in the Grooves, 2/8/07
www.lostinthegrooves.com/victorbravo
The album is well recorded and mixed for an overall professional appeal. My favorite track of the album would have to be "Binge," which blends pop appeal with aggression...the musicianship itself is well executed and sounds great...the album is well composed...many fans of the older style of punk-alternative bands will likely enjoy this disc...be curious to see what their new material will bring.
- Josh Hogan, Independent Clauses, 2/1/07
www.independentclauses.com/v2/home.htm
The indie pop rock stylings of Victor Bravo are aurally addictive anecdotes that get right to the point. The reckless up tempo jaunt 'Binge' weaves through its disregard for normalcy with stabbing guitars fueled by Collin Frendz's proud, declarative, Bacchanalian reveling. Dan Collins on drums finds a tight pocket of rhythmic balance with the bass on the snappy rant 'Sarbanes-Oxley' while the juxtaposed moments of 'Dallas' recall bursts of early Imperial Teen with its confrontational rawness.
- Aaron Simms, Freelance Music Reviewer in NYC, 8/1/06