Cementing The Seams

* This is cheating. The video isn't from youtube, its from If You Make It

The Sidekicks - I Burned the Crops from If You Make It on Vimeo.

The Sidekicks performing "I Burned The Crops" at Berea Fest this year

The Run-down:
The Sidekicks are a bunch of 12 year olds from Cleveland that play pop-punk with a degree of finesse and originality that is pretty difficult to duplicate. Last year they released the amazing and vastly underappreciated 7" EP "Sam" on Whoa Oh records, which was a follow up to their nearly-as-good LP "So Long Soggy Dog". The Sidekicks are currently recording a new album that is easily my most highly anticipated upcoming release. This band rules hard.

Why this video is awesome:
Excellent quality, good camera work and an appropriately energized crowd. This video is fun and the show looks at least a little more fun than that. The song helps too, the breakdown in "I Burned The Crops" ranks among the best I can possibly recall.

I don’t know if I should be embarrassed to like this record so much. The story with Menthol is that at some point (addendum: it was 1994, I don’t know why I was being vague), the bassist of 90’s alt-rock group Hum formed a side project called Mother and released “The Gold Record” before being forced to change their name because one of the other bands already called Mother evidently took issue with it (or something). By the next year they had written enough material under the new name to release Menthol’s self-titled debut. I don’t know if it would have sounded strange in context, but today “Menthol” sounds like it’s from 1995 (which it is, but you get what I’m saying right?). It’s a record full of throwback classic guitar rock/power-pop played with a sort of sincere cheesiness that I can’t help but enjoy every minute of. It has the strange feeling of a theme album although I’m certain it isn’t. With songs about stuff ranging from semi-historical figures (Francis Scott Key), teenage prostitution (Stress Is Best), and plane crashes (Reverent, Eyes Heavenward), “Menthol” is more a of non-sequitur thrill ride, but it flows so well I can’t tell the difference. Anyway, listen to this and bear in mind what I said. You shouldn’t be disappointed.

For fans of: Hum, Riddle Of Steel

Check out a few jams here

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If you aren't familiar with If You Make It you've been missing out on probably the best DIY punk on the whole of the interwebs. With free releases from bands like Get Bent, Iron Chic and Annabel, IYMI has become increasingly impossible to ignore. Next time I write something about them (and there will be a next time) I'm going to have to add For Those Who Can't Wait to that name-dropping array. These Long Island boys play post-hardcore that sounds like pop-punk. With driving guitar work and a knack for excellent, catchy break-downs, For Those Who Can't Wait's sole (I think) release is a sort of surprisingly powerful record that feels too big not to be released formally. Did I mention that it (along with all the other IYMI releases) is free. Oh, I did actually. Anyway, For Those Who Can't Wait have put together a truly unique and enjoyable record that I'd pay money for if I could.

For fans of: Serious Geniuses, Good Luck, Swellers

Download it here

This should be short. I am obsessed with this band and it's because of this record. I can safely say it's the only album I own 4 seperate versions of. Do I really need to say more than that? If you liked the Dolcim LP I reviewed, this is pretty much the same dudes playing pretty much the same stuff. An epic mix of the melodic and the chaotic, CUTC's first full length is near perfect hardcore. For real.


For fans of: Dolcim, Ampere, Loma Prieta, Raein

Cease Upon The Capitol on Myspace

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