Artist: White Radio

Artist: White Radio

Link: https://www.facebook.com/WhiteRadioBand

White Radio was formerly known as Ockam's Razor (review taken from the archives):

"Occam's/Ockham's razor" is the principle dictating that, among competing hypotheses, you select the one that makes the fewest assumptions. Sounds sensible, right? Ockam's Razor on the other hand (no "h"), is the 30-finger rock behemoth -- and it helps if you don't make assumptions.

If you did, let's say you assumed Ockam's Razor couldn't slaughter you with just three instruments, you'd be dead wrong. When in fact, Ockam's Razor devastates with expert drumming (e.g. 2:07 of "Better Luck Tomorrow"), compelling bass rumbling from gut to groin (e.g. 2:31 of "Unprepared"), and hard rock riffage that slices like a razor (a steel razor, not a "Razor" requiring a PhD in philosophy).

Album-opener, "Unprepared," unfolds like the screamo of post-hardcore band Thursday (e.g. Thursday's "I Am the Killer"): bass intro; payoff chord; bass fill; payoff chord; tense riff; payoff chord; calm emo singing over clean chord jangle, interrupted by the tense riff supporting intensifying vocals; and then, what else, the payoff chord. It's my favorite song of the EP, and it includes the memorable turns of phrase, "We sit in these houses so unprepared," "I'd save myself / But it's too late," and "Treating others like animals."

Nick Woodman's vocal melodies/deliveries are nuanced and tailored to the lyric. On "Better Luck Tomorrow," he's sensitive one moment, "We plant the flowers by your graveside," and sneering the next, "Get back!" He sounds like Richard Patrick (Filter) when exploring his upper range on "No More," and successfully exploits the vocal processing/doubling of "Inner Visions" to evoke Disturbed, Godsmack, and even Ozzy.

Woodman is also riffage incarnate. Just listen to the beginnings of "Better Luck Tomorrow" and "No More," and you'll know what you're in for. And consistent with "Occam's razor," you'll select the hypothesis that makes exactly one assumption (that the EP is as good as these intros, which it is). The hypothesis correctly selected? Ockam's Razor is a finely tuned rock trio firing on all cylinders and doing more with three than bands twice its size.

*** The author of this review, Carl Stewart, plays the dap for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8