Toronto area songwriter Matty Powell spreads his wings in his debut CD ‘Kiss The City.’
 He has a very appealing voice from the first track, “The Creek,” sounding like a mixture of Rob Thomas and Dave Matthews.

It is a pretty laid back effort for the most part, with tender strumming, pretty piano playing and tasteful solos on like on ‘Freja’ but he picks up the tempo a little on the First Nations flavoured ‘Yellowquill,’ featuring some traditional drumming backed by exotic edged vocals which are reminiscent of ’90s Canadian rockers the Watchmen.

‘A to Z of Apple Trees’ is another highlight due to the subdued organ and a tasteful guitar solo.
‘Cigarette’ is one of them more upbeat John Cougar Mellencampish root rockers, which sound like  Dave Matthews plugged in and turned up.

‘Insecurities’ is  another highlight, with a dirty country riff and a blues flavoured guitar solo.
 The CD ends on a mellow, tenderly fingerpicked note with the title track.

DOA is calling it a day as frontman Joey “Shithead” Keithley intends to run for B.C provincial political office for the NDP party in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain riding.

  DOA  have been the standard bearers for Vancouver punk and Canadian punk rock, pretty much ever since there was punk in Vancouver and Canada. However they are in the midst of their final tour dates, and presumably have released their last CD in the somewhat ironically titled “We Come In Peace.”
 Peace and love aren’t the first adjectives to come to mind while describing DOA's music. Try terms like  “angry,”  “loud,”  “social activism” and punk rock.”

 Nonetheless if “We Come In Peace” is the last DOA CD, and hopefully it isn’t, then it is a fitting end to a storied career.

  Joe Keithley, as usual, supplies jagged guitar riffs and snarls about war, poverty, violence, war, the media, war, greed, Occupy Wall Street and for some variety — zombies.

There is a lot of musical variety on “We Come In Peace.” There are plenty of the politically charged three chord rockers DOA is known for, but they also flirt with Celtic music on “Dirty Bastards,” there is even a touch of reggae on “We’re Bloodied But Unbowed” and the outstanding “War Hero.”

They also play with country -rock on the highlights “ Lost Souls,” and The Man With No Name,” which has a spaghetti western feel.

 They even go back to their roots by supplying a smoking version of the Beatles’ “Revolution.”
They also bring in old friends like the Dead Kennedy’s Jello Biafra who sings on one of the highlights “We Occupy,” about the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Another highlight “Do You Wanna,” also sounds like is sung by Biafra, as it features the same style adenoidal vocals, however Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent does the honours on that one.

  The Headstones’ Hugh Dillon adds extra vocals to “Boneyard,” and they welcome back several former  DOA members including Brian “Wimpy Roy” Goble, Ford Pier and Floor Tom Jones to sing extra background vocals.
 “Bring out Your Dead,” the zombie song, is a highlight because of the catchy guitar riff and searing guitar solo.
They wind things down with another reggae tinged number “Walk Through this World.”
 The Cd ends with an acoustic version of the DOA classic “General Strike.”

Canadian Celtic-punk icons the Mahones are back, striking while the iron is hot. They had a lot of critical and commercial success with their last CD “Black Irish,” and do their best to better that on their latest release “Angels and Devils.”
  They come out flying with the intense “Shakespeare Road,” featuring some incendiary fiddle playing and wild tin whistle.

 It perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the CD— boundless punk energy mixed just about perfectly with traditional instrumentation, fine tuned to the modern era.
 Lyrically, “Angels and Devils is vintage Mahones”— lots of singing about drinking whiskey and life as an Irish punk rocker as on the title track, which is a tribute to  both of these things.

 There are also some really pretty medleys of traditional Irish tunes, indelibly stamped with the Mahones own brand of whiskey drenched punk rock.
 They have some high powered friends on the CD like The Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey, who snarls his way through “Spanish Lady,” and Irish punk forbearers Stiff Little Fingers’ Jake Burns adds extra lead guitar on “Angels and Devils” and “The Waiting.”

While it is all good, “The Waiting ” is a spine tingling mid-tempo rocker featuring layers of instrumentation and a catchy, mournful melody.
 “King of Copenhagen” is a tin whistle powered,  catchy three chord rocker which reminds me of the Romantics’ “What I Like About You.”

Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor adds his voice and  guitar to Shakespeare Road and the United Steelworkers of Montreal’s Felicity Hamer adds her beautiful voice to “Angel’s Without Wings/ Merry Christmas Baby,” one of the few slower tracks on the CD, which has got to be an ode to frontman Finny McConnell’s  lovely and talented wife Katie (who I believe is also Greg Keelor‘s cousin), who adds wailing accordion throughout the CD.
 The Brains’ Rene D La Muerte and Colin Irvine also add electric guitar a dark energy to “Whiskey  Train,” another frenetic ode to the joys of whiskey.

They go political for a moment on the energetic punk rocker “ The Revolution Starts Now.”
 They wind things down  a couple of covers — a hot version of Husker Dü‘s “Makes No Sense at All,” then end with a sizzling version of  Stiff Little Fingers’  “Tin Soldiers.”

Like good whiskey, the Mahones get better with age. They are  23 years old, having formed in 1990) and are just starting to hit their stride.