Metal Lungies

The now-defunct punk post-hardcore band known as All My Heroes shined briefly on their first and last album Magnolia Street, nearly two years ago on the fledgling Florida-based label Secondhand Records. Originally recording a four-song demo under the name Citizen Kane, AMH transitioned from demo to album and successfully refined their voice without changing it.

While Hawthorne Heights taught us what it was to be accessible faux-screamo, AMH seems to be a genuine punk band with a little throat-scratching edge to it. They love their guitar riffs as much as their bass lines or their cymbal intros, and while any band could set up the double bassdrums and belt out empty anthems in gutteral tones (I love that word), it takes a little more to coordinate.

Undoubtedly the layering of screaming over singing is a tried and true method, but timing is also important. They save it for the end of verses, for the chorus, for words they want you to remember, and use it often but wisely. While guitar solos following the melodies of songs tend to come out tacky and predicitably unimpressive (see Weezer’s Green Album), AMH knows how to combine both for emphasis, and in a flash of a sixth grade art class epiphany when Ms McKenzie introduced negative space, riffs or vocals in this duo which are purposely left out make even more of a statement.

Overanalysis aside, this album is enjoyable, especially if you too are reminded of Knight Rider in all of its Hasselhoff and talking car glory by the intro to one of the songs. It is certainly a pity that the band broke up due to artistic differences – which probably means the drummer slept with the lead guitarist’s sister – but in all seriousness, this is another band that could have been.

What are the bands’ members doing now? Apparently selling clothes and a hip-hop band. Oh Miami.

-JP

http://www.allmyheroesrock.com/

Recent and Upcoming:

November 16, 2004 – Magnolia Street

The embarrassingly catchy punk pop machine that is Cute Is What We Aim For starts off their debut album with something very few would dare: bare vocals. Sans instruments, drums, or any musical cover, you have six seconds of the honest and somewhat shaky Shaant Hacikyan in front of you, before he steps back under an umbrella of guitar and drums.

This album has a lot of things, and modesty is certainly not one of them. The band offers no apologies for filling their songs to the brim with lyrical complexity – assonance, alliteration, and tons of internal rhyme – case in point, the album title, The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch. Your high school English teacher would be proud.

Few bands would drop lines like “I’m obsessed and stressed with this mess I can’t think of things” for fear of overdoing it, or looking like they took notes at Open Mic Freestyle Friday. But to Cute’s credit, they are persistent and consistent enough that they actually sound like they know what they’re doing.

The lack of modesty goes hand in hand with the abundance of narcissism and self-admiration. It is best summed up by the intro to one of their songs: “I’ve got the gift of one-liners.” If that doesn’t shout SELF-INVOLVED, please adjust your sets.

Content aside, the delivery is adorned with clean low-distortion guitars, well-timed hooks, and synth-friendly versolos (when a lead guitar doesn’t do a solo, but does that repetitive, distinguishable arpeggio over a verse… okay, I just made that term up).

Curiously, there has been plenty of negative press surrounding this band, with accusations of heavy post-production on this exact album (Auto-tune Works Wonders!) and large funds from Daddy pushing the success and signing of this band to Fueled By Ramen. But bad press is good press, and if they can do it on stage as well as in the studio, then to hell with the critics.

-JP

http://www.cuteiswhatweaimfor.com/
http://myspace.com/cuteiswhatweaimfor/

Recent and Upcoming:

June 20, 2006 – The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch

In a world filled with Fall Out Boy fifty-word-minimum-essay song titles, you still have to give it up to Escape The Fate for the first track on their debut EP There’s No Sympathy For The Dead, entitled “Dragging Dead Bodies in Blue Bags Up Really Long Hills.” So relax critics, this is a not a serious metal/hardcore band producing a concept album using blood-curdling guttural screams to convey their feelings on the idea of death. And honestly, if you’re looking for deep lyrical meaning in metal and hardcore, you might looking in the wrong place. Metalheads, please correct me on this one.

Undoubtedly, the accessibility of ETF’s sound is both their strength and weakness. When a new band provides the goods, fans either embrace it, proclaiming their eternal love for them, or reject it, citing buzz words such as “sellout”, “mainstream”, or “I don’t listen to that emo crap!”. More and more people are paying attention to record labels too, and what they stand for. In ETF’s case, Epitaph, the label started by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, has a long history of punk and punk rock acts, and is certainly a difficult label to live up to.

But whatever the verdict, the EP is full of busy vocal arrangements (singing, screaming, sing-screaming, and layering up the butt), tempo changes, double bass drumkick action, and when the guitars calm down enough, some pretty decent soloing. There is never a dull moment on this album, and if there is, you are probably too busy thinking about how you are really too good for this album.

Folks, the key is to not take them too seriously and enjoy the music, if you do in the slightest bit. Honestly they sound completely silly on their website, “‘I don’t wanna come off like an asshole,’ says outspoken Ronnie, ‘but we’re gonna be that change in music. I have a vision. I want people to have fun, put their fists in the air.'” I mean that’s not exactly going down in Bartlett’s, but whatever. Save the drama for your mama!

-JP

http://www.escapethefate.com/
http://myspace.com/escapethefate/

Recent and Upcoming:

Sept 26, 2006 – Dying Is Your Latest Fashion
May 23, 2006 – There’s No Sympathy For The Dead (EP)