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Tucson Weekly Live Review 8/06 by Linda Ray Moonlight Towers performed a 20-song set in the Plush bar, with the kind of energy, animation and commitment that deserves the big room with a capacity crowd. Their alternately ringing, hard-charging, bouncing, swooning and power pop felt like a personal gift in that intimate space, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one struggling not to get off my chair and dance around like an idiot. (more) ..................................................................................................... Austin Chronicle Music Feature 9/06 by Chris Gray Moonlight Towers are a taciturn bunch. Their tongues loosen once the Jäger shots and vodka & sodas start pouring, sure, but during the day, not so much. On the Austin foursome's August tour to Seattle and back, huge swatches of Big Bend country, Arizona's Sonoran Desert, California's Imperial Valley, Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains, the Rockies....(more) ..................................................................................................... Performing
Songwriter ...Speaking of well crafted power-pop, don't not miss the amazing Moonlight Tower's album Like You Were Never There. I've had "Everybody Knows Why" on repeat all day. (Issue 89 Vol 13 November 2005) ..................................................................................................... Pop Culture Press Austin's finest power pop export circa 2005, Moonlight Towers' second record is a blazing, shimmering nugget with soaring melodies and vivid songs to spare. A bit of twang creeps in there, too, but as Like You Were Never There proves, singer James Stevens can write ingratiatingly devastating songs.(more) ..................................................................................................... Cincinnati City Beat Record Review by Ezra Waller Finally, some Southern-fried Pop Rock from Austin, Texas, which has nothing in common with Spoon! Moonlight Towers is a refreshingly straight-ahead quartet that is brimming with energy and talent. Restraint is the name of the game, but not minimalism -- the sound is full, but not dense. (more) ..................................................................................................... Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Austin's Moonlight Towers bring a hearty Texas twang, a drummer who not only bashes but swings and some actual power to the old-school power-pop equation, suggesting a poppier V-Roys or maybe a twangier Superdrag. There's nothing especially revolutionary going on here, but the hooks are undeniable, from cuts as effervescent as the lead-off track, "Never the Same Again," to "Born To Die," a stately lighter-worthy ballad of the sort Tom Petty used to write.**** (four stars) ..................................................................................................... Chicago Reader Record Review by Monica Kendrick One might complain that the music this Austin quartet plays lacks regional flavor, but I don't think that's a bad thing: lots of Austin bands claiming to have regional flavor sound as phony as a plastic shaker of "Cajun seasoning" that's actually 40 percent MSG. I'm racking my brain for some way to resist the glistening, hard-surfaced, perfectly molded power pop on the Moonlight Towers' second album, Like You Were Never There (Spinster), but the only complaint I can make is that listening to a bunch of their songs at one sitting feels like too much--the same way one hard butterscotch candy is the best thing in the world but a whole bag makes your mouth hate you. ..................................................................................................... Punk
Planet .....................................................................................................
Texas Music Magazine Record Review Summer 06 by Rob Patterson The radio-ready, pop-accented guitar rock of this Austin band recalls at moments everyone from Tom Petty to the BoDeans, yet they shine with a light, like their namesakes, that's all their own and marks them as an act to watch in the future. Extra points earned for classy packaging. ..................................................................................................... Bullz-Eye.Com Record Review by Will Harris ...Hailing from Austin, Texas, home of more quality musical artists that you can readily shake a stick at, the Moonlight Towers blend the Americana sounds you’d expect from their neck of the woods with an obvious love of British pop/rock. Producer Mike Napolitano (Andrew Bird, the Twilight Singers) took the Towers to New Orleans to record their sophomore effort, Like You Were Never There, and the result is a rollicking good time, full of songs that even on first listen you can sense will make for a kick-ass concert experience. ..................................................................................................... Impact Press Orlando Record Review by J.C. Carnahan A crisp power pop rock sound lingers throughout this release from Moonlight Towers, a four-piece outfit out of Austin, Texas. Everything that has to do with heartache and love-ache are available here, with a polished southern twang and well produced musical moments that start with melodic vocals and end with well-calculated guitar and drum pieces. Like You Were Never There is sure to be a college radio staple and bound to bring the youngsters out to their live shows. ..................................................................................................... Dagger Zine Portland, OR Record Review by Tim Hineley The Modern Skirts are amazed the get recognition in music-soaked Athens, GA but hell, the Moonlight Towers are from Austin, TX. If there was ! ever a town that was saturated, then Austin is it. Still, the M.T.’s rise above the mediocrity of a lot of Austin music by keeping it simple. They have guitars, they have vocals, they have bass, and they have drums and they even occasionally have keyboards too and when they put it all together out come some sweet sounds. It ain’t brain surgery or rocket science, what it is is good pop/rock music with hooks, heart AND heartache. When James Stevens sings out come pearls of wisdom ala Bruce Springsteen or Jay Farrar, like he’s lived a million years (or a million lives) and the band is playing behind him like their lives depended on it and when you get right down to it, that’s what it’s all about. .....................................................................................................
Tampa Bay Weekly Planet Record Review by Eric Snider
..................................................................................................... F5 Wichita Record Review by Jedd Beaudoin The second outing from Austin's Moonlight Towers features lot of good singin' and good playin'. "Another Castaway" calls to mind Matthew Sweet while the tender "Born to Die" suggests the Plastic Ono Band in a supersession with Big Star. It is after all the songs that come to the fore throughout and "Everybody Knows Why" and "Got Your Love" stick with you long after the record's spun to its close. Catchy and contemporary with strong ties to guitar-driven pop's past (and its present) Like You Were Never There is a record you can't help but love, and you'll always remember where you were when you got turned on to it. .....................................................................................................
High Bias You know, progressive rock, psychedelic improvisation, black metal and balls-to-the-wall power rock are all good things, but sometimes you just gotta have some straightforward, no-bullshit songcraft, y'know?(more) ..................................................................................................... Sonic Slang Moonlight Towers' 2nd disc, Like You Were Never There, sounds exactly like you'd think a power-pop band from Texas should sound. Take two parts early 90's guitar fuzz (Superdrag or Matthew Sweet), add some honky-tonk flourishes, and blend it up with a dash of 1950's melody. That's the basic dynamic of this talented Austin four-piece.(more) ..................................................................................................... Chicago Flame Moonlight Towers: "Like You Were Never There" allows some Texan flavor ..................................................................................................... All-Music Guide Austin's Moonlight Towers are a four-piece rock band (two electric guitars, bass, drums) with a sound that has been a constant in popular music for 40 years. (more) ..................................................................................................... Austin-American
Statesman On this band's new 'Like You Were Never There,' Austin's favorite three minute heroes show everyone else how to write drum-head-tight power pop. ..................................................................................................... Jetbunny
Magazine Austin's Moonlight Towers practice a brand of classic indie pop rock that traces it's lineage back through the beginning of the rock and roll era. (more) ..................................................................................................... Amplifier Magazine.com If I don't recognize the name of band, I usually do my drinking at home to avoid them entirely. It's not that I'm jaded, it's just that I prefer to avoid the jagged letdown that comes from an ill-fitted opener wrecking the tone of a perfectly good evening. (more) ..................................................................................................... Austin Chronicle It takes Moonlight Towers just 30 minutes to write a new song. Actually, it takes singer/ guitarist/principal songwriter James Stevens longer to come up with the melody and the lyrics, but it takes the local fourpiece -- Stevens; lead guitarist Jacob Schulze; bassist Jason Daniels; drummer Richard Galloway -- no time at all to mold the idea into a stage-ready song. (more) ..................................................................................................... Austin Chronicle "It seems like in the Fifties and Sixties everybody did each other's songs," Moonlight Towers frontman and songwriter James Stevens says. "Nobody does that anymore." (more) ..................................................................................................... Austin Chronicle Moonlight Towers (Spinster) One good thing about the weather here: Those perfect summer albums go a long, long way. It has probably been pretty close to a perfect summer for the members of Austin's Moonlight Towers, who've sprung from out of nowhere and grabbed a piece of both the local barroom pie and the radio-ready-rock pie, even piling up some notable airplay time. (more) ..................................................................................................... The Oklahoman Austin's Moonlight Towers echo some of the great pop powerhouses of the past on their self-titled full length debut...(more) ..................................................................................................... Cloven Hooved Gangster What is fresh about Moonlight Towers is their ability to capture the familiar. (more) |
