Susan Frances
08/14/08, 11:10 PM
Phatboy - Cheesy Does It
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: July 23, 2008
Phatboy go chin-deep in pop punk waters on their latest EP, Cheesy Does It. Their music has the party rock gaskets of Bowling for Soup, the skateboard punk kiting of Blink 182, and the boundless energy of Sing it Loud. The quintet hails from three different towns in England namely Telford, Coventry and London, but their music does not bear any shred of Brit-pop. The EP is totally power punk motivated, graphed from the world music playing field. Phatboy’s music feels at home at any skateboard park in the world, and any place where contemporary punk enthusiasts gather.
The opening track “Easily” starts off with a short dialogue scene about rejection as a bully tells a little kid to get lost calling him a “fatboy.” You have to be made out of stone if you don’t feel sorry for the kid. Undaunted, the kid comes back stronger and manages the power punk throttles that gear up “Easily,” with lyrics that relate to people who are impressionable about looking cool, and taking drugs sometimes to make them that way, ”What becomes of us when we only seek the buzz? / Living for the come up / When it’s something new and it’s running through /You’ve found MDMA … So make the most of now before it brings you down / You knew from the start this would f*#k with your heart / The people around you let their love surround you so this fairytale can have a happy end.”
Phatboy keeps up the power punk voltage with “5_27” and the track that is named after them, “Phatboy.” The band comes at their target with full blast, and refrains from holding back on anything. The melodic treatments on the songs strengthen their appeal, and the break down and start up again in the center of “5_27” gives those moments of dead silence a chance for the band to regroup and readdresses their standpoint. The party rock vibe of the final track “Homephobic” acts as a springboard for the lyrics, “Where minds are small and broken / And culture is unspoken / We’ll beat this town and show them / That we want something more / Something to live for.” The lyrics and music show a lot of positive energy from the band as they ricochet off of each other.
Lead vocalist Sean Whitehead has a natural rapport with guitarists Ed Palmer and Lee Dorricott as they race and joust across the melodic fields. The bloated beats of bassist Guy Earnshaw and drummer Gaz Ayres thicken the melodies volume and crashing power. This is Phatboy’s first release and they are as proud as peacocks over it, but don’t put a fork in them yet, this is possibly just the beginning for the British quintet who have embraced power punk mania.
Bowling for Soup, Blink 182, Sing it Loud
www.myspace.com/phatboyuk (http://www.myspace.com/phatboyuk)
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: July 23, 2008
Phatboy go chin-deep in pop punk waters on their latest EP, Cheesy Does It. Their music has the party rock gaskets of Bowling for Soup, the skateboard punk kiting of Blink 182, and the boundless energy of Sing it Loud. The quintet hails from three different towns in England namely Telford, Coventry and London, but their music does not bear any shred of Brit-pop. The EP is totally power punk motivated, graphed from the world music playing field. Phatboy’s music feels at home at any skateboard park in the world, and any place where contemporary punk enthusiasts gather.
The opening track “Easily” starts off with a short dialogue scene about rejection as a bully tells a little kid to get lost calling him a “fatboy.” You have to be made out of stone if you don’t feel sorry for the kid. Undaunted, the kid comes back stronger and manages the power punk throttles that gear up “Easily,” with lyrics that relate to people who are impressionable about looking cool, and taking drugs sometimes to make them that way, ”What becomes of us when we only seek the buzz? / Living for the come up / When it’s something new and it’s running through /You’ve found MDMA … So make the most of now before it brings you down / You knew from the start this would f*#k with your heart / The people around you let their love surround you so this fairytale can have a happy end.”
Phatboy keeps up the power punk voltage with “5_27” and the track that is named after them, “Phatboy.” The band comes at their target with full blast, and refrains from holding back on anything. The melodic treatments on the songs strengthen their appeal, and the break down and start up again in the center of “5_27” gives those moments of dead silence a chance for the band to regroup and readdresses their standpoint. The party rock vibe of the final track “Homephobic” acts as a springboard for the lyrics, “Where minds are small and broken / And culture is unspoken / We’ll beat this town and show them / That we want something more / Something to live for.” The lyrics and music show a lot of positive energy from the band as they ricochet off of each other.
Lead vocalist Sean Whitehead has a natural rapport with guitarists Ed Palmer and Lee Dorricott as they race and joust across the melodic fields. The bloated beats of bassist Guy Earnshaw and drummer Gaz Ayres thicken the melodies volume and crashing power. This is Phatboy’s first release and they are as proud as peacocks over it, but don’t put a fork in them yet, this is possibly just the beginning for the British quintet who have embraced power punk mania.
Bowling for Soup, Blink 182, Sing it Loud
www.myspace.com/phatboyuk (http://www.myspace.com/phatboyuk)