4B — Thursday, October 22, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Turns out Cleveland
isn’t as bad as it seems
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
By DANIELLE IMMERMAN
For The Daily
You have probably heard that
Cleveland is the birthplace of
rock ‘n’ roll, but what you don’t
know is that Cleveland is cur-
rently the hotbed of modern
rock music.
Yes. There, I said it. Cleveland
is actually good for something
other than bad sports jokes. I,
too, was unaware that Cleveland
could be talked about positively
until a year and a half ago when
I saw The Moxies perform live at
The Cleveland Agora. “Who are
The Moxies?” you may ask. The
Moxies, like several other bands
from Cleveland, are a three-
piece rock band that are not
only easy on the eyes, but easy
on the ears as well. Their debut
self-titled nine-track album was
released in 2013 and I haven’t
stopped listening to it since.
Marco Ciofani’s gritty vocals,
backed by Tyler Adams’s power-
ful bass and Landon Hall’s solid
beat, make for a trio that makes
you question everything that
is wrong with the 21st century
music industry. From “Night-
crawler” to “Raindance,” there
isn’t one song that falls short of
anything other than pure rock
bliss. Their music is a throwback
to when rock was popular and
the radio wasn’t complete shit.
Welshly Arms, like The Mox-
ies, is another rock band that
puts popular music to shame.
Welshy Arms is an amalgam of
dirty rock and soulful blues; the
product is music reminiscent
of The Black Keys, The White
Stripes and The Strokes, but
10 times better because they
haven’t had any mainstream
exposure. The four-piece band
started producing music in 2013
with the release of their success-
ful EP Welcome. Their music
video for “Two Seconds Too
Late” has received over 60,000
views on YouTube, and “The
Touch” was featured on the
CW’s “The Vampire Diaries.”
Recently Welshly Arms fol-
lowed up their 2014 Covers
EP with their self-titled debut
album. Songs off of the album,
like “Love in a Minor Key” and
“We Move Easy,” are just a few
examples of how their lyrical
brilliancy
and
instrumental
creativity set them apart from
mainstream “talented” bands
that grace the stages during
award show season.
In addition to constantly
churning out new music over the
past two years, Welshly Arms
has made a name for themselves
in the Cleveland music scene;
I’ve been lucky enough to bare
witness to their sold-out show at
the Beachland Tavern and their
explosive performance at the
House of Blues Cleveland, both
of which secured them local
celebrity status. Just this past
week, I saw Welshly Arms play
two consecutive shows with the
energy and enthusiasm that is
absent in most touring bands.
Unlike most artists, Welshly
Arms is a band that deserves
to be played on the radio. The
band’s music is timeless and
classic, yet innovative. Classic
rock vibes mixed with soulful
blues undertones work togeth-
er to create a refreshing sound
that is clearly distinct and sty-
listically the band’s own.
Welshly Arms is amazing, and
will probably (hopefully) break
out of Cleveland in the com-
ing months. The Moxies, on the
other hand, have already left the
gray tundra that is Cleveland.
They now reside in Nashville,
but every month or two they
always grace us Clevelanders
with a performance because
they’re perfect and love to prove
just how perfect they are. Not
many bands out there can genu-
inely label themselves as rock,
but Welshly Arms and The Mox-
ies can. If there is any hope for
the survival of rock ‘n’ roll or
good music as a whole, this is it,
and it’s happening in Cleveland
right now. Welshly Arms and
The Moxies are just two phe-
nomenal rock bands, but in actu-
ality, Cleveland is harvesting
countless talented bands that
will give rock ‘n’ roll the rebirth
it so desperately needs.
Cleveland is good
for something.
Cleveland is
the hotbed of
modern rock.