The Wayside Shakeup (Philadelphia, PA)

As always, I recommend that you go ahead and click "play" while you are listening.

The blog has been going for about a month now and I just want to stop for a second and say that we have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of readership we have had so far and I would like to thank everyone and I hope you are enjoying what we have had to offer so up to this point. With that being said, this post, featuring The Wayside Shakeup is the first post I have had a chance to do from a submission. We are not pretentious assholes as many music bloggers tend to be and one thing that we are very thankful for is the opportunity to help bands out and get them some exposure.

The Wayside Shakeup is from Philadelphia, PA. As I listened to this self titled album for the first time, I thought I had accidentally clicked "pause" on SoundCloud and "play" on Spotify. From song to song, the genre seems to completely change. This band does not blend their influences, each of there songs seems to reflect a different influence. The first track, "I'm Not Responsible For Your Happiness," has a Pearl Jam feel to it. This song was not my favorite from the album, but things started picking up for me when I got to track 2, "Nothing But A Good Time." This song has a super fat groove to it and starts off very laid back, super danceable, and has a little funk to it. The next track, "Don't Run Away," is by far my favorite track on the album. The first part of the song has a kick drum drenched with reverb behind an acoustic guitar and Jack White style vocals. The middle section drops into a haunting, psychedelic chant-like high gain guitar solo. This song is very solid and although I am an "album in its entirety" kind of guy, if you only have time to catch one track, go ahead and skip to this one.

The switch between "Don't Run Away" and "Where You Gonna Go Alone" is a great characterization of what I was saying about the music weaving between so many genres. This song pulls in a kind of island feel that will resonate in a few other tracks through the rest of the album. "So Fast" is the other track on the album that I was really drawn to. The beginning keeps the same island feel as "Where You Gonna Go Alone." The gem in this song is the slow groove style jam with a mandolin solo layered on top. About half way through the solo, an electric guitar comes in and weaves its way in and out of the mandolin. This was a very tasty way to take it to the end.

The Wayside Shakeup describes their music as "ranging from shameless pop to wobbly blues." I would agree and take it a step further. They have a very strong 90s influence mixed with an island style jam feel. However, they don't hesitate to take their music to psychedelia and they even delve into country a bit. So, check out The Wayside Shakeup and show them some love on social media (links included below).

-Cory

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