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"…Anywhere But Here" The Ataris |
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Well you gotta give 'em credit for one thing, they don't give up and quit when the "game over" flashes across the screen… or in this case when the turnstiles weren't turning quite as much as they needed 'em too-so here's a story retold, a bright-eyed, Midwesterner, disillusioned and in search of that which he could not find within the totalitarianism and tall trees of a small town… and the tunes, all 21 of 'em reflect nearly as much-ranging from boredom to broken hearts to bustin' out and breakin' through. Lead singer Kris Roe's hard luck story from obscurity to near vagrancy to headlining the Warped Tour, The Ataris are a picture of Punk Rock perseverance ready for the mainstream payoff. There's no trickery goin' here, what you hear is what you get-"Anywhere But Here," presumably their send-off slogan upon waving from the back window five years before, is the new and improved model of their very first demo-era debut that got 'em signed to Kung Fu and made 'em unwitting leaders for generations of bratty teen followers with sinister urges… or the second coming of Greenday. The best tracks here are the ones that don't sound exactly alike-difficult to always decipher but can get 'em with a little patience-"Blind And Unkind," "Alone In Santa Cruz," the originally unreleased "Anderson," excluded for space saving purposes… dig? And then there's the abrasive "Neilhouse," and sarcastically prescient "Four Chord Wonder" where with four chords and three words they've shamed some 700 other bands before or after-"1…2…3…4" and "Ray" the two last cuts, cut the cord big time, throwin' back to that raw, who needs a fucking record contract anyway attitude that gives it that so necessary "messy" look when things were getting a little too slick overall. We're not dealing with pulpit preaching of the kind, theirs is the attitude of the carefree kid that want to have fun in the sun and get into some trouble, flash stupid grins, collect postcards, impress their friends… and do invisible acoustic tracks. "…Anywhere But Here,"
definitely a classier version, more complete, and the way they've been
going, don't think Relaesed by Kung Fu Records Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] P.O. Box 20252
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