Music Reviews - 10/16/06

MXPX - Let's Rock - Side One Dummy
It's incredibly hard for me to hate this band. Seriously. Despite whatever their person religious beliefs are, I've met these guys on a couple occasions and they're incredible human beings. Extremely nice, grateful that you're seeing their band (even if you're there for the opener or headliner), just all around stand up individuals. Plus I've seen some fucked up stuff happen to them while on stage. Like when kids would throw torn up bibles at them. Seriously, not cool. I'm personally don't feel Christianity and punk should go hand in hand, but if a band isn't pushing it in their music and they aren't preaching between songs, then what difference should it make? I could be wrong on this, but as far as I know, their personal politics are left leaning and as individuals, they fall under the "progressive Christian" banner. Whatever. At the end of the day, these guys have never wronged me, nor have I ever felt like they were preaching to me while I was singing along to "Chick Magnet." Sure, their early stuff was a bit more "Christian themed," but again, whatever. They were still in high school when they wrote those songs and believe me, I wrote some songs in high school that make me cringe.
Their latest album, Let's Rock is yet another big step into mainstream pop rock and despite this fact and despite the fact that this record is extremely polished, I can't hate it. It's not my bag, but I can't speak ill of it. If you like stuff that sounds kind of mainstream and polished, you'll probably really like this. Personally, since I got this in the mail, I've listened to it about four times and found it somewhat unobtrussive and made for a pretty good back drop while cleaning my apartment (apparently my upstairs neighbor likes it, because he didn't stomp on his floor to get me to shut up). Whether or not I'll ever actually put this on again is another story, but really, it isn't a bad record. I think if Side One Dummy's founder Joe Sib's band Wax was still together, they'd probably sound like this right now.
Side One Dummy
MxPx

O Pioneers!!! - Black Mambas - Team Science
Straight out of San Antonio Texas comes the O Pioneers!!! Named after a book by Willa Cather, about the transformation of the American frontier. The band is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Eric Solomon and drummer Jeff Groban, playing a brand of roots rock/punked up country rock n roll that is equally optimistic and passionate. Hearing bands like this and talking to them on a personal level makes you think that the scene they come from must be amazing and that the scene you come from sucks. It's not everyday that you meet bands, or hear bands or even go see bands that are excellent musicians, amazing story tellers and on top of all that energized, positive and humble human beings off stage. These kinds of kids don't exist anymore (if they ever really did). The O Pioneers!!! are those kids. The ones you read about in books and zines about the "good ol' days" of punk and indie rock. In my mind, when listening to the O Pioneers!!!, I assume that San Antonio Texas is an amazing town full of awesome kids teaching other kids how to be awesome as well. Whether this is true or not is completely irrelevant, because this is my fantasy damn it!
The guitars on this record are twangy in that Fender Twin Reverb sort of way and the drumming is absolutely rock solid. The vocals are urgent and a constant call to action. When listening to Eric's vocals, your throat hurts and you want to offer him a lozenge, because you know that he needs it.
If I were to put together a show (which I do from time to time), that I think would be absolutely perfect (and not geographically specific), I would pair up the O Pioneers!!!, Latterman and Bomb the Music Industry together. This would be probably the best show ever. Do what you want with that information.
Team Science Records