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 Caught in the Carousel "There will be music despite everything"
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Broadway Calls
Good Views, Bad News
SideOneDummy
This summer, fans of pop-punk should set their ears to the release of Good Views, Bad News from the Rainer, Oregon power trio, Broadway Calls. This is an album where melody is the king, while joyous/targeted guitar riffs, unyielding drumming and a driving bass are the prince and princesses to the court of eleven songs that make up the band's new effort. The band had me at the opener "Midnight Hour," when Josh Baird's drum rolls set the tables for the chorus's vocal interplay between bassist Matt Koenig and guitarist Ty Vaughn. The result is a punk melody that you will raise a fist to while you sing along in the shower, your car or in any of the venues Broadway Calls will energize touring this superb album.
Anything you might read about Broadway Calls draw comparisons to Jawbreaker, Green Day and Generation X—all true, and not bad company, methinks. However, there's something else going on with these lads—an evolution of sorts. I can hear some of the playfulness of Jimmy Eat World throughout the album and a bit of Romeo Void in the bass lines—evident when Koenig gets rolling on "Be All You Can't Be". But it's more than that. It's something in the guitar's chord progressions of songs like "Give Up The Ghost," coupled with the taut and forceful rhythms of bass and drums and all summed up in their wonderful melodies. Sure, they may be taking on subjects that have been written about before—but everything is derivative of something. It's just that when subject matter near and dear to "ourselves" is put in the hands of three eminently talented musicians, you occasionally come up with something as strong as Good Views, Bad News.
VIVA!!
3.5/5 OI!'s
OI!, OI!, OI!, O
—Peter Hamm
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