Highway Cross; Heat Shy

It's a "bands featuring members of other bands you've heard of!" Thursday special!

First, Joe Pelone takes a break from cleaning up spittle to talk up the new Highway Cross 7-inch, Run Dry. Members of Cloak/Dagger!

Run Dry offers up four tunes on seven inches of vinyl, simply and expertly. The recording quality is a little cleaner that the graininess Cloak/Dagger favors (think Smoke or Fire), but the heart is still there. While nothing can quite top the joys of screaming "STAY WASTED" (I don't care how straight your edge gets, them shits is tru punx), Highway Cross still hit a sweet spot.

Read Joe's review of Highway Cross' Run Dry 7-inch right here.

Then, reader caseyawhite sends in a review of Heat Shy's full-length, Curtis. Members of Run Forever!

Opener "Crooked Hearts" begins with an acoustic guitar and vocals, channeling Bright Eyes perhaps, before layering synth and drums. This leads into the full-band standout "Daily Blues," about the struggle of growing bitter in life while trying to maintain a positive outlook. This is a theme that Huebel writes about heavily on Run Forever's Settling, but Heat Shy provides him with an outlet to keep the theme from becoming stagnant. Huebel and his bandmates also take advantage of the new project to try things outside the norm, and excel in doing so on the slower and darker "Tree of Spiders."

Read Casey's review of Heat Shy's Curtis right here.

Don't forget to catch up with all of our reviews at our reviews page. If you'd like to submit a review of your own, you may do that here.