Music
Press
Material: New Ditty exhibit furious rapid-fire, metal. Crushing their audience with machine-gun riffs and blazing intensity, they rarely venture into melodic territory. A two-second homage to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" along with song titles like "Bipolar Bear" and "Heineken Skywalker" offer a whiff of whimsy. Following a conventional mold, their one cover of the evening, a Down tune, best exemplifies their musical pedigree.
Musicianship: This hardscrabble quintet is a tight unit. Well-rehearsed and professional, they're competent players who can pound out tunes exactly the way their fans like them - heavy. Lead singer Taylor Murray's vocals primarily emulate metal's cliche style of guttural indecipherability. The corollary to this is that when their sound opens up into mellower, more expansive realms, the weakness in his voice become evident.
Performance: These guys rocked. Whipping the late night, undersized audience into a proper frenzy, several shirtless fans were inspired to engage in mosh pit behavior, despite the dive bar's limited space.
Evidently, New Ditty attract a gregarious group of fans naturally the sort who are drawn to Murray's aggressively charismatic performance, which alternates between mic twirling and assaulting the crowd with water. At one point, he nearly lost control of the frenetic show when one listener briefly usurped the mic. When they reached the end of their set, rather than building to a proper encore, Murray merely announced the group was done and abruptly walked off stage.
Summary: New Ditty use distortion and monster riffage to cover up their weak spots. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but a touch of emphasis on contrast, pacing and dramatic tension would create a more mature sound. They could also place a greater emphasis on lyrics, which get lost in the high-energy maelstrom. Despite these shortcomings, New Ditty are guys to watch closely - this act's passion and skill could take them to Olympian Heights.
-Andy Kaufmann - Andy Kaufmann
Discography
First Studio recording -FULL FRONTAL- IS SOLD OUT!!
Song-RAISIN HELL-ECLIPSE/STREETCULT RECORDS
COMP.CD -2008
Song-BIPOLAR BEAR-METAL EDGE MAGAZINE-AUGUST Comp CD with Issue(BIO in Magazine)
Photos
Bio
Who could have ever known that Plymouth Rock, home of America's pilgrims, would also be home to an earth-shattering, metal band? New Ditty (a play on nudity and the nickname for a song) are leading the new wave in the Massachusetts rock scene. The group, featuring the Murray Brothers, lead guitarist Jesse, bassist Corey and vocalist Taylor, as well as drummer Vinnie Malaguti, formed in the fall of 2006. A year later, the group added Shawn O'Kelly as their rhythm guitarist. The group released their full-length debut album, Full-Frontal, in early 2008. The album, which was recorded at Concrete Studios and produced by Tony Mori, is a collection heavy-hitting southern-style metal laced with thick grooves wrapped in a layer of distorted guitars. The band rocks out like Corrosion of Conformity, Black Sabbath and Pantera and mixes it up by experimenting with sounds out of an Alice In Chains, Deftones and Shadows Fall playbook. ND has performed hundreds of shows across the state of Massachusetts, including performances at the New England Punk Goth Metal Festival Fest., Rockfest and the 1 Loudstreet Music Festival. They have also performed numerous benefit shows for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). ND was most recently featured on Metal Edge magazine's August 2008 compilation. Their song, Bipolar Bear, was featured alongside music by heavy hitters such as Soulfly and The Melvins. New Ditty will tour until the end of the year before working on new material.
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