Please Mr. Gravedigger "Here's to the Life of the Party" CD
[Pluto]
Hmmm... this is another one of those bands that's coming from both a hardcore/punk background and an all out rock 'n' roll/early punk sound, but this here seems to me that it's coming more from the "hip" side of the fence than the truly "punk" side, if you know what I mean. It's not bad, but they do fuck with some of those goofy keyboards and shit, and that's what rubs me the wrong way - the quirky sort of pseudo new wave/indie angle. That shit is trendy as hell and it sucks, so do the math. The songs here are okay, I like the basic rocked out chord progressions and the recording, but the keyboard accents are worthless and I'm not really into the vocals either. The vocals are lightly filtered with faint distortion and have that overly aggressive shout/scream that some of these bands can pull off, but the "attitude" here seems cheesy somehow. I don't know... it's not as one-sided as some of these bands are, there's a good variety of tempos and some tracks are longer and darker ("My Darling Mina") rather than shorter and catchier or more straightforward, etc. But it's still not as good as the bands that are coming at this stuff from the true hardcore/punk aesthetic. They're a little more caustic at times as well, and that's no good. It all boils down to those god damn keyboards, though. Even the most minimal presence can ruin a solid rock riff. "We've Made a Comeback" uses some singing backup vocals, which keeps the song interesting and makes up for some of the almost irritating layers of disharmonic guitars; and the last track is actually an untitled instrumental based mainly around the keyboards, and shockingly enough it's good, ha! As mentioned the recording is cool, a bit more polished than most of these bands, focusing more on space than actual ruggedness. The drums sound good, the bass tone is fine, the guitars are pretty smooth with little bite, and I enjoy the mix. Since I hate the keyboards I think they're too loud, but that's life. The layout looks pretty damn cool, using lots of high contrast imagery, minimal colors (pink, white, maroon, and black), etc. A xeroxed insert with the lyrics was included, and there's a shitload of blank space in the booklet, so I'll guess there was a printing error somewhere along the line and assume the lyrics were supposed to be in those blank areas of the booklet. The lyrics are decent for the personal issues they explore, I'm not really interested, but they're not so bad. "I'm starting to feel at home with clenched fists stiff wrists and sore bones we're endangered with new anger a great distaste that made us strong..." In the end this is just not my thing. Listenable, but not my thing. (5/10)
Running time - 32:21, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: My Darling Mina, We've Made a Comeback, Untitled]
Pluto Records - http://www.plutorecords.com

This review has been displayed 1171 times.