{"id":379,"date":"2002-06-17T00:41:56","date_gmt":"2002-06-17T05:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/?p=379"},"modified":"2013-12-26T18:29:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-26T18:29:12","slug":"box-o-car-faster-than-the-sound-of-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/music\/2002\/06\/box-o-car-faster-than-the-sound-of-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"Box-O-Car: Faster than the Sound of Speed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Box-O-Car:<\/a><\/p>\n

Box-O-Car: Faster than the Sound of Speed
\nLabel: Veronica
\nRelease Date: 2000
\nReview Date: 2002<\/p>\n

Box-O-Car is a guilty pleasure. Essentially watered down new wave for girls. A David Bowie and Psychedelic Furs cocktail may sound like a good idea, except that more often than not it\u2019s of the Shirley Temple variety. In a live performance they can be pretty convincing, especially if the lead singer is in full getup. Sometimes they appear lazy or a little bored. Box-O-Car sounds best after a few drinks on a night when they are feeling a little feisty. Faster than the Sound of Speed<\/em> isn\u2019t as good as one of those nights, but it will creep on you. Faster is well produced but a little self conscious when not pared with the visual elements of a live performance. Show favorites like “End of Summer” fall flat on the record. Skid Marks\u2019s nasal vocals are part of what helps Box-O-Car pull off a live performance, but he doesn\u2019t work it enough on the pitted aluminum sandwiched in plastic. If you\u2019re going to attempt this genre, you\u2019ve got to go all the way. The CD has some of the funny little noises and effects to help out.<\/p>\n

“Spaceship” opens up Faster with a catchy tune that may make you remember the 80\u2019s classic “Major Tom.” “Singular Sensation” is probably the best song on Faster. You\u2019ve got to give credit to anyone who can sing “Sometimes I\u2019m a red tomato… Some times I\u2019m a mashed potatoe” convincingly enough to have you belting out the refrain in your car. By far the weakest track is the annoying “#1 Tonight” which has a weak vocal performance and even weaker lyrics. Fortunately, “Satellite” is one short track away, and a contender with “Singular Sensation.”<\/p>\n

Without belaboring the point, Box-O-Car could have easily been one of those bands in the background of a John Hughes movie. Where those bands were often quirky for the time, Box-O-Car is only quirky because they are trying to make that kind of music twenty years after the fact. When Skid Marks ( Stop it, you\u2019re killing me!) wails out his lament “You think I\u2019m strange” it rings hollow because in this day and age of pierced heavy metal hip hop frat boys and metal goth, he\u2019s pretty goddamned vanilla.<\/p>\n

Despite the tone of my review, this CD didn\u2019t leave my player for about 4 weeks after I got it. I\u2019m a pussy for new wave, and these guys occupy a soft spot in my heart, mostly because of the audacity that they have in performing and believing in their music. Faster than the Sound of Speed was released two years ago in 1999, and Box-O-Car has a CD scheduled for release by the time you read this. I\u2019ll let you know how it turns out. Faster has several strong tunes on it, despite the weaknesses. If you\u2019re feeling frisky, pick it up.<\/p>\n

Online Action: box-o-car.com<\/a>
\nOnline Action: veronicarecords.com<\/a><\/p>\n

No Tech: Veronica Records 1573 Milwaukee Ave. PMB#468 Chicago IL 60622<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Box-O-Car: Faster than the Sound of Speed Label: Veronica Release Date: 2000 Review Date: 2002 Box-O-Car is a guilty pleasure. Essentially watered down new wave for girls. A David Bowie and Psychedelic Furs cocktail may sound like a good idea, except that more often than not it\u2019s of the Shirley Temple variety. In a live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[206546,98,206547],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-box-o-car","tag-post-punk","tag-veronica-records"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2002\/06\/box-o-car-faster.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skateandannoy.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}