If It's Too Loud...

In celebration of his birthday and as a thank you to his fans for the reception of his newest album Heavy Metal , Miles Nielsen has released a new song for free. "High Street" is a bit more new wave than I had expected, but it keeps the Americana sound we expect from Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts. We're not talking A Flock of Seagulls new wave, but maybe some early MTV era Tom Petty. There's also a great Morphine style discordant horn blast in the middle of the song, so there's something for virtually everyone. You can download "High Street" for free on Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts' Bandcamp . You can watch the video below, and be sure to pick up a copy of Heavy Metal (if you haven't already) on the band's website .

I remember The Refreshments being better than most of the top 40 alternative bands out around 1996-1998. I don't think I've heard their big hit song "Banditos" in roughly 15 years, but since they also did the theme song for King of the Hill , we're all very familiar with them.  This is why I was surprised to see that Miles Nielsen had not only covered The Refreshments, but he picked a much lesser known song, "Blue Collar Suicide." What makes this cover a little more fun is that he does it with Roger Clyne of The Refreshments. Not many artists do cover songs with the original artist, so it's fairly unique in that aspect. It's a little less fuzzy and a bit more Americana (and also slowed down) than the original version, but that fits Miles Nielsen's thing and is pretty expected. You can listen to Miles Nielsen and Roger Clyne's version of "Blue Collar Suicide below. For some more information on Miles Nielsen and his band th...

Photo courtesy Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts I always try to make it a point to listen to a song that's sent to us before reading the accompanying press release and band bio. While listening to "Strangers" by Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts, I started making connections, like we music reviewers do. You know what I'm talking about. "It sounds like Band X hung out with Band Y at a drugged up rave," etc. The comparison I made for this song was that it sounds like Cheap Trick meets the current crop of more pop Americana that's all the rage these days. Turns out Miles Nielsen is the son of Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, so maybe some things are just hereditary. All family connections aside, you should give "Strangers" a chance. It's a great blast of pop Americana, but more in line with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers than The Lumineers. It's a confessional song about being able to open up to strangers instead of close friends ...