Death on Wednesday: Songs to ______ to

Death on Wednesday: Songs to ______ to
Label: SideCho
Release Date: 2003
Review Date: 2003

Southern California has a history of punk bands dabbling in goth/romantic tradition, which is what you might thiink you are getting into when you see the cover of this CD coupled with the band name and photos. You’re not gonna get an updated TSOL tribute here (wouldn’t that be nice?) or a beach culture version of the Damned. What you get is a more produced version of the Smoking Popes with a deeper voice and a less memorable hooks. Hey that’s the same thing that happened to the Smoking Popes, minus the deeper voice… Wow, this guy Nate Lawler is not just a crooner, he’s freaking Mel Torme. The press for this band is embarrassing. A lot of band’s press makes a big deal about their punk roots, no matter how tenuous that link may be. At they same time, most of those press releases try to distance themselves from those roots at the same time, as if it’s good to be punk at first to get your street cred, but you have to put that aside if you are serious. Hey, if it was good enough for the Clash to not be embarrassed of punk, it should be for anyone. Their press release is embarrassing. Really, who gives a flying fuck how many Grammy winning producers worked on this ep release that started out as a demo session. The Replacements released 3 or 4 albums worth of demo tapes for crying out loud. Besides having an inane title, “Songs to ___ to” has a slow ballad and an acoustic country tune, both of which were “trying to convey and album like (The Rolling Stones’) Exile On Main Street or (The Clash’s) London Calling… We want to be recognized as songwriters.” Er, uhm yeah. that’s pretty lofty expectations for a 5 song EP. The press on this release makes me want to blow the cd out the collective ass of corporate rock and let the shrapnel decimate the indie labels. Indie labels and bands take heed: Stop trying to suck up the mainstream. Just make the music you want and let it fall where it may. That being said, “Songs to ____ to” is ok if you want to hear Morrisey sing with Green Day. My guess is that they put on a pretty good live show.

Online Action: deathonwednesday.com
Online Action: sidecho.com