New tracks from area bands

Dish, "Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour"

VITAL STATS: Dish are DeLand brothers Roberto and Nathaniel Aguilar. Roberto is a singer and guitarist. Nathaniel plays self-described "junk-gypsy found percussion."

THE MUSIC: On their MySpace page, Dish describe their music as "folk rock over buckets, pots 'n' pans." But that's an understatement akin to saying the Dalai Lama is sort of a spiritual dude.
   
Released on ROA Records, the 16 tracks of "Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour" ("Your Love Is My Reason to Live") find the Brothers Aguilar following all sorts of modern rock muses.

"Cold Is" percolates on a herky-jerky hook as Roberto channels Radiohead's Thom Yorke to sing, "I know what you want but you're not getting' inside ... I don't want your dirty water."
     
"Letter to You" mixes Beatle artiness, country-ish pedal steel and a fey Ray Davies vibe. "The Song I Couldn't Say" echoes the dreamy, echo-drenched atmosphere of solo John Lennon.

Several songs -- "I Saw a Bird," "Pictora" -- skip upon a breezy Latin groove ... think indie rock meets "The Girl From Ipanema."
     
"I don't mind killing myself if it means being with you," Roberto sings on the droll "Zombie Love Song." "I'm streaming love as you're eating me alive."
 
YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Radiohead, Jeff Buckley.
WEB SITES: www.roarecords.com/dish, myspace.com/dishtheband.
AVAILABLE: $12 plus shipping at roarecords.com/dish. Also available at Amazon.com and iTunes.

Charlie Gear, "Ode to the Laurel Lass"

VITAL STATS: DeLand fiddler Gear is recovering from burns sustained in an out-of-state motorcycle accident several months ago. Not to worry about his returning to his music, Gear said earlier this month just a few days before he was due to be released from a North Carolina care facility. The burns were on his legs and not his fiddlin' hands.
 
THE MUSIC: Gear says he has been migrating to the Celtic side of his musical psyche after years of mixing Irish folk with jazz, blues and New Age-y soundscapes. The evidence is heard in the 10 instrumental tracks of his decidedly Celtic-leaning new CD, "Ode to the Laurel Lass."
     
With his fiddle cloaked in just the right amount of echo and reverb, Gear taps into his inner Celt on such traditional Irish tunes as "Swallow Tail Jig," "The Morrison Jig" and "Don't Go Home ('Til the Whiskey's All Gone)." On "Ere the Battle," Gear takes the familiar jaunty melody of "The Irish Washerwoman" and gives it a bit of a martial twist.

"I Feel Like You Do" is, Gear says in the liner notes, "loosely inspired by the Peter Frampton tune 'Do You Feel Like We Do.'"
     
Gear's originals include "Final Crossing," a wistful ballad memorializing his late brother Jim Gear.
 
YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: The Chieftains, Natalie McMaster.
WEB SITE: charliegear.com.
AVAILABLE: $10 at Steve's Downtown Music, 108 S. Woodland Blvd., DeLand, or $10 plus shipping at cdbaby.com.

Malak, "Malak"

VITAL STATS: The Daytona area progressive metal band currently includes vocalist Brandon Jolly and guitarists Zack Nardone and Kyle Valery. Jolly is manager of Atlantic Sounds CDs, Tapes and Records in Daytona Beach.
 
THE MUSIC: The members of Malak aren't kidding when they list such influences as Return to Forever, that '70s-spawned jazz fusion band, alongside Slayer, those death metal masters.

"Who's to say your taste for flesh is such a perverse trait?" Jolly bellows like a demonic Rottweiler on "Carnal b.) The Modification," one of five tracks on the band's self-titled CD. (Shades of "Dead Skin Mask," Slayer's paean to Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter.)
     
"Trapped in one's self -- escape is futile when the key is your own mind," Jolly barks on the track "Pragmatophobia."
     
Meanwhile, guitars strafe the soundscape like bullpups in a fire fight -- except the lads occasionally turn to the prog side of their metal hearts by tossing in lyrical, start-stop guitar passages. The result is like daisies sprouting in a post-Armageddon landscape.

YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Between the Buried and Me, Meshuggah, Lamb of God.
WEB SITE: myspace.com/malakfl.
AVAILABLE: $5 at Atlantic Sounds (although Jolly says he is sold out until the band can have more copies pressed).

Rog Lee, "Florida Happens"

VITAL STATS: DeBary resident Rog Lee says his day job is "back porch songwriter and acoustic guitar player." Lee's song "City of Jacksonville" won first place in the Will McLean Foundation's 2008 Best New Florida Song competition.
 
THE MUSIC: On his previous CD, Lee unleashed his jester's heart and Twain-ish wit upon developers, tourist hustlers and other types who turned a blind eye on Florida's natural beauty.

"Florida Happens," his new, folky 12-song CD, finds Lee in more carefree and wistful moods. Or, more precisely, Lee comes across like some Zen poet-troubadour of Old Florida -- one who's wizened enough to know the Florida panther is doomed to be buried under a shopping mall's concrete, but one who's wise enough to know that's even more reason to chill out and enjoy the vanishing wonders of our fair state.

On the title track, Lee sings about ignoring the sun-blocking condos, the hurricanes and the unsavory folks drawn to our fair state, then he makes up his mind to enjoy the charms of his adopted paradise.

On "Beach Side Ramble," he sings, "As I drive down these abandoned old roads, I see old Florida dying in the rear-view mirror."
 
YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Gamble Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffett.
WEB SITE: roglee.com.
AVAILABLE: $15 (includes shipping) at Lee's Web site.

Chris Via, "I Can't Wait"

VITAL STATS: Chris Via, a 19-year-old Holly Hill resident, says he's been writing lyrics and melodies since he was 8. "Three years ago, I picked up the guitar and started to add music."
     
Via recently appeared as an extra in the TV soap "Guiding Light," and he filmed a part for the upcoming George Clooney movie "Up in the Air."
     
Via plans to enroll in music classes this fall at Daytona State College.
 
THE MUSIC: Lots of ladies appear on the 11 pop-rock tracks on "I Can't Wait": "Hard to Get Girl," ""Dream Girl," "Pretty Girl." Yep, you guessed it -- as those song titles attest, Via is caught up in the boy-girl thing.

Via possesses a breathy voice that would land him the role of Romeo in any "DeGrassi" production of Shakepeare's play about star-crossed lovers. Add guitars that are crunchy on the outside and sticky sweet on the inside, and it's all over -- all potential Juliets will swoon under the assault.

But beware, girls: Via has a thing for country lass Taylor Swift, a crush which he confesses on his hooky song "Hey Taylor" "(which adds a bit of fiddle to the rocky guitars).

The CD was produced by New Smyrna Beach musician-producer-songwriter Billy Chapin, a music biz veteran whose credits include touring in the bands of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, and co-writing songs with the latter.
 
YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Jonas Brothers, "High School Musical" soundtracks.
WEB SITES: ChrisVia.com, Myspace.com/ChrisViaMusic, YouTube.com/ChrisViaMusic.
AVAILABLE: $13.85 (includes shipping) at chrisvia.com. Also available at iTunes.