MusicTalks
05/27/09, 05:47 PM
Karate High School - Invaders
Release Date: May 19th, 2009
Record Label: Eyeball Records
Let's face it: we have pop music and long, long ago, we had punk music. Sometime in between, these two musical genres found each other in a dark and whimsical alley where they fornicated like rabbits, creating a million bastard children that we now call pop-punk. Some of the offspring make their parents proud, while the rest of the offspring have their parents not showing up for Back-to-School night. Karate High School takes after the more paternal nature of pop-punk, with tribute to The Ramones and even Green Day - something that would warrant a good report card, but with one, big asterisk.
With their third release, Invaders, they attempt to make a record that people will listen to and like, with no hidden agendas or innuendos to ponder over. The bio on their MySpace claims nothing more than that they are a band who wrote some songs and put out a record. But how is it? Well, between tracks one and eleven, I found myself liking it and hating it. The real downer would be that I couldn't get behind Paul McGuire's vocals. I found myself caught between enjoying the tone and then, in other parts, literally covering my ears, looking perplexed. McGuire's vocals, at least on this record and in this setting, are shaky. Softer inflections and longer, more gentle notes come across as weak and shrieky. Parts where he belts out the lyrics are where he should concentrate because that's where I found the most enjoyment. Even songs from earlier releases sounded a lot more solid than the vocals on this record.
What I did like was that this is the first band in a great while where I feel like they could make a genuinely authentic punk record. Songs like "One Trip Around The Sun" and "If You Don't Live Here, Don't Surf Here" are tracks that give this record the edge it needs to keep you listening. The instruments and song structures are unique and different, allowing you to distinguish one track from another, which is more than I can say for several other bands that I've listened to lately (see previous reviews). The gold medal track on the album, though, would have to be "Punk Rock Uniform." The lyrics are witty and nostalgic with lines like "You might think it's ironic and a little bit wrong, to sing about punk in a pop-punk song." With definite single potential and a ton of accessibility, I found this track to be the gem of an album that I felt had a ton of potential, a ton of promise, but in the end failed to deliver to my musical taste.
For me, I'd have to attribute my lack of enjoyment, not to the structure the band possesses or the delivery of their music, but rather my original complaint: Paul McGuire's voice. It overshadowed the geniune enthusiasm I had for the album when I found the band on MySpace. With work on the negative and an album more towards his power vocals, I think that Invaders would have been a record that I could have listened to all summer long. But, in the end, it's a record that gives me some musical enjoyment, but also leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
The Ramones, Green Day, a nostalgic dose of punk with a side of pop, Ralph Macchio, sweeping the leg, skeeball
www.myspace.com/karatehighschool (http://www.myspace.com/karatehighschool)
Release Date: May 19th, 2009
Record Label: Eyeball Records
Let's face it: we have pop music and long, long ago, we had punk music. Sometime in between, these two musical genres found each other in a dark and whimsical alley where they fornicated like rabbits, creating a million bastard children that we now call pop-punk. Some of the offspring make their parents proud, while the rest of the offspring have their parents not showing up for Back-to-School night. Karate High School takes after the more paternal nature of pop-punk, with tribute to The Ramones and even Green Day - something that would warrant a good report card, but with one, big asterisk.
With their third release, Invaders, they attempt to make a record that people will listen to and like, with no hidden agendas or innuendos to ponder over. The bio on their MySpace claims nothing more than that they are a band who wrote some songs and put out a record. But how is it? Well, between tracks one and eleven, I found myself liking it and hating it. The real downer would be that I couldn't get behind Paul McGuire's vocals. I found myself caught between enjoying the tone and then, in other parts, literally covering my ears, looking perplexed. McGuire's vocals, at least on this record and in this setting, are shaky. Softer inflections and longer, more gentle notes come across as weak and shrieky. Parts where he belts out the lyrics are where he should concentrate because that's where I found the most enjoyment. Even songs from earlier releases sounded a lot more solid than the vocals on this record.
What I did like was that this is the first band in a great while where I feel like they could make a genuinely authentic punk record. Songs like "One Trip Around The Sun" and "If You Don't Live Here, Don't Surf Here" are tracks that give this record the edge it needs to keep you listening. The instruments and song structures are unique and different, allowing you to distinguish one track from another, which is more than I can say for several other bands that I've listened to lately (see previous reviews). The gold medal track on the album, though, would have to be "Punk Rock Uniform." The lyrics are witty and nostalgic with lines like "You might think it's ironic and a little bit wrong, to sing about punk in a pop-punk song." With definite single potential and a ton of accessibility, I found this track to be the gem of an album that I felt had a ton of potential, a ton of promise, but in the end failed to deliver to my musical taste.
For me, I'd have to attribute my lack of enjoyment, not to the structure the band possesses or the delivery of their music, but rather my original complaint: Paul McGuire's voice. It overshadowed the geniune enthusiasm I had for the album when I found the band on MySpace. With work on the negative and an album more towards his power vocals, I think that Invaders would have been a record that I could have listened to all summer long. But, in the end, it's a record that gives me some musical enjoyment, but also leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
The Ramones, Green Day, a nostalgic dose of punk with a side of pop, Ralph Macchio, sweeping the leg, skeeball
www.myspace.com/karatehighschool (http://www.myspace.com/karatehighschool)