New Music From Coastwest Unrest

Bruce Von Stiers

Coastwest Unrest is an alt folk / rock band. Its primary members are two brothers; Josh and Noah Dickie. They amassed a pretty good following with live performances and four albums under their belt.

Several months ago, these guys released their fifth album. Titled The Crazed Ones, the album has eleven songs and lasts a bit over a half hour. It was produced by Noah Dickie and Jim Greer and released by Reclaim Records.

For the band Josh plays the drums and does percussion. Noah does the vocals and plays the guitar, bass, piano and harmonica.

On this new album they had some additional help. Jim Greer did backing vocals, percussion, synths and played bass and guitar. Calvin Turnball played guitar on a song and spoke on that one and an additional song on the album. Andrew St. James played guitar and did backing vocals on a song. And John Howland played lap steel on three of the album's songs.

EPA (Edward Paul Abbey) is the first song on the album. The music in the background reminded me a bit of the Ramones. But the vocals are subtle.

Coming Home has a lot of drum and different sounding guitar.

The title track, The Crazed Ones, is in third position on the album. It is a head bopping tune. It has more of an alt rock tone.

The Mainstream is a slow and almost hurting ballad.

Lou Reed came to mind when I heard A Drink, A Lover, A Habit.

Theodora is a tough alt rock tune.

The guitar riffs in More Madness made me think of Hand Jive, only a slower, watered down version with sad vocals.

Cool acoustic sounding guitar begins Once She Starts. Once again, I am reminded of Lou Reed.

Piano is prominent in the ballad The Science of Saturday Night.

Bluesy rock guitar can be found in Re: Wasteland.

Bringing things to a close is Stateline. It is a solid alt folk song with nice guitar and decent vocals.

The Crazed Ones is a pretty decent album. I wasn't familiar with Coastwest Unrest before listening to it. But afterwards, I could understand why they have accumulated such a large fan base. Their music is interesting, with alt folk mixed with rock to make a fairly unique sound.

You can grab a copy of The Crazed Ones at selected music outlets.

To learn more about Coastwest Unrest visit http://www.reclaimrecords.com/ They also have a band page at https://www.facebook.com/Coastwest-Unrest-446945625462/

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© 2018 Bruce E Von Stiers