The New American Standard ClassicsAmerican Standard |
|
This is good… really good. I had never previously been up on these guys, amazing when I think they first started back in the late '80s… and I guess the fact this is only their third album had something to do with it. But the name is definitely one to remember. The Jersey-based Punk rockers leave it all on the table for this one-I can say that without having heard a note from their previous "Piss & Vinegar" release. With a loose and lethal style akin to the likes of Pearl Jam meets Social Distortion, they flip through the history books a little bit here on the first few tunes recalling the melody-infused earlier leanings of post Hard-Core leanings with a true taste for musicianship and strong grooves that hook you in before you've had time to glance over your shoulder at what's suddenly clutching you. "Dayplanner" is a fast-paced opener with a fiery uptempo chorus which could easily be a Rock radio hit if programmers had a clue as to what integrity in music meant. American Standard is open-chord friendly and makes great use of minor key riffing-something more familiar to the Gothic-natured which they certainly are not but they've got the knack for writing catchy tunes-if we broke down the literal meaning of "tune" through the history books, well they've got it down. Make no mistake they're not of the Pop single variety and won't win any awards for playing it clean but they're very slick at changing the musical character from song to song without compromising style-in this case substance over style hits it right on the head. "Really," "Morgantown" and "Adoring," are all in a row stellar examples of the above mentioned band attributes and again signify this is a band charged up to play to their strengths rather than to popular appeal… and yet given half a chance this is appealing. One of the more respectable underground talents who've made company with some influential hipsters of the scene in generating the stripped-down and skillfully employed manner in which they enter and exit the speakers, guys like Smalley, Grenoble and Agnello, all of the producer/mixer variety, "The New American Standard Classics" has as much right as any album in recent years, "classically" titled as thus, to bask in a little self-indulgence. Released by Maggadee Records: http://www.maggadee.com/ Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]
|