I heard this band once before a few years ago, and I actually had many of the same problems with their work at that time, though the songwriting here has indeed improved. But this is one of those CD's that drives me fuckin' nuts, because I'm a huge sucker for catchy songs, and these fuckers write some great songs, but the recording is so damn thin, and I am not into the layout. I mean, who the fuck wants to listen to a solid set of catchy yet emotional and sincere songs about serious topics when the packaging shows a bunch of hip, trendy looking emo/indie dudes wearing all black and jumping around and throwing rocks on a beach or some shit? I mean, hey, if that's who you are, go for it, enjoy yourselves, and I commend you for it, but fuck, guys, don't slap that shit on your god damn record cover, you know? It's just so damn uninteresting. Yes, I can be a dick, I'm sorry, I'm insane and picky and I have my opinions. But moving on, what we have here are 12 energetic as hell punk rock tunes with tons of melody and a lot of memorable arrangements with vocals that are basically yelled and shouted with hints of singing and tons of layering that really gives things a live vibe that's shockingly effective here. There's not a terribly large amount of variety throughout the disc, aside from the use of faint spoken vocals and feedback/guitar noise in the interlude-esque "Dear Boys,", and "I Wish Branca Was Here" in its use of lush clean guitars and reverberated basslines with accompanying horns over noisy guitar riffing and a solid percussive backbone, but there's nothing at all wrong with melodic power chords accented by lead lines and zippy palm-muted riffing when it's delivered with the energy that these cats possess. It kind of reminds me of the Bouncing Souls sans the cheese, then mixing the sincerity and message of Avail with the over the top anthematics of Against Me! or whatever. Ironically I'm not really a big fan of any of those three bands, but I do really like what Latterman's delivering here, so go figure!? As mentioned though, the production is too thin. I can't quite nail down what it is that's missing since the basslines are pretty damn prominent and audible, but... there's something in the mix that's pulling away from the end result by sucking out some of the low-end, and I think it's mainly the drums, followed by the guitars and vocals. They ought to turn the bass up even more, but every other element needs more warmth and more low-end, because these songs are way too fucking good to be suffering from an inefficiently thin sound like this. They're basically all set from a tonal standpoint, they just need to figure out how to sweep more oomph into the percussion and thicken up those guitars a little, while keeping the vocals a little farther down in the mix so that all of the backups won't overpower. In the band's defense, this disc was apparently recorded in one of their bedrooms, so... that's not half bad considering the recording doesn't hinder the quality of their songwriting too much here, even if it does have a detrimental effect, so I'd easily have given this shit a 7/10 with a thicker mix. It actually causes me a little bit of physical pain, this whole thinness issue, because I really fuckin' dig a lot of these songs a lot. Seriously. Yeah, the layout also blows, but what can you do? At least the quality of the print job is professional and they included all of the lyrics and stuff. Aside from the live band photos I think the imagery is weak and I don't really care for the color scheme or whatever, but the lyrics are well done. Song titles like "Video Games and Fantasy Novels Are Fucking Awesome!" and "Zombies Are Pissed" are of course not at all indicative of the content of the songs, which deal largely in personal reflection on socio-political issues: "Oppressive thinking lives inside you and me. Indoctrinated. We always fuck up. We have to challenge who we were taught to be. So please don't talk to me. Sitting so high up in your trees. ?Cause there's bullshit in my backyard I can already see..." Sometimes they can push the politically correct card way too hard for me, as the aforementioned "Dear Boys," appears in the booklet as a massive two-page rant on patriarchy complete with an apology to "queer folks" who might be offended by the "hetero-centric" nature of the piece as well as the band's use of the "gender binary" that kind of comes across as forced (Specifically the apology, because, I mean, really, who wouldn't understand that these guys have the absolute best of intentions?), but most of the actual content is much less in your face, though no less direct from a messaging standpoint. At the end of the day, overlooking all of my picky bullshit comments, these guys are a damn good band and I bet they kick ass live. I can't ignore the fact that a fuller recording would really make these songs more forceful, but I do like this record, and as songwriters these guys are awesome, so I'll really be looking forward to their future work, because if they nail down the production I'll be hooked. It frustrates me, 'cause man, I can't change the way my ears hear things, and these guys could really blow me away one day. And they're so close! Any fan of catchy melodic, zesty punk rock should look out for Latterman. You just can't deny the infectious nature of a track like "Fear and Loathing on Long Island" or "Yo, Get Into It".
[Deep Elm]
Running time - 31:31, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Yo, Get Into It, This Project is Stagnant (Get it Out of My Face), An Ode to Jon Contra, Part 2, Fear and Loathing on Long Island]
Deep Elm Records - http://www.deepelm.com
