| CD REVIEW Energy |
 |
|
Band : Energy I have no precise idea of when this American band from the vicinity of Boston (they're based in Stoughton, some 30 kms South form the centre of Boston itself), but certain is that their first demo immediately caught the attention of Rock Vegas Records, who released the band's Punch The Clock EPCD in early 2007 (late January, actually). Evident even at this "early" stage, was the fact that through its musical approach the fivepiece now consisting of lead singer Jason "Tank" Tankerley, guitarists Joe Freedman and Dan Mancini, bassist Conor O'Brien, and drummer Justin Flaherty – nephew of Gang Green singer Chris Doherty, and the latest addition to the line-up) were somewhat separated from the usual Hardcore and Punk Rock scene in that they use a Punk backbone with the vocal and musical melodies and style of late Ignite, Bas Religion, late '90s AFI, and even the melodic tendencies of mid-'80s Dischord bands like Dag Nasty. With most songs of a fairly fast pace (there's some calmer passages as well, but really rather scarcely), the guitarists succeed in bringing a very nice intertwining soundscape with somewhat of a Progressive build-up and interesting lead parts to boot. Tankerley has a real clean high pitch which is complemented on vocally by two other guys in the band. Funny, when you consider that he was originally gonna be the guitarist for this band. But then he'd always been hugely influenced by Glenn Danzig and Misfits, and he was always singing along at the top of his voice when listening to that band. At some time friends of is were doing some home recording of Misfits songs, and he volunteered to sing them. After that, the songs were apparently also brought live, and people were advising him to switch from playing guitar (which he admits not having been particularly good at) to expressing himself through singing! You can listen to a couple (literally, I'm afraid, and one of 'em only 28 seconds in length!) of songs from the album at myspace.com/thisenergy, and older material (mostly off the EP, but also a sole track off the band's 2006 demo, and a cover of Dag Nasty's "Still Waiting", which was released on a compilation titled Summer Sampler '07) is also available at purevolume.com/nrg and purevolume.com/this energy. Personally, I feel a very nice band is indeed in he making here, but I also feel there's still some room for development! Not surprising, when you consider that the average age of the band members was only 20 at the time of the recordings. Still, a very nice effort from the boys, and I wish the 11 tracks lasted longer than the 27 ½ minutes the album lasts! Vinyl junkies will be pleased to find out that leading up to the release of this "full-length", Bridge Nine also released a limited edition EP featuring the album songs "400" and "Hail The Size Of Grapes" alongside an exclusive cover of "Do You Wanna Dance" [originally written and recorded by Bobby Freedman in 1958, but over the years the song has been popularized by the likes of Cliff Richard (1962), Del Shannon (1964), The Mamas And The Papas (1966), Jimmy Rivers (1966), Betty Midler (1972), John Lennon (1975), T.Rex (1975), The Beach Boys, The Ramones (1977), and been recorded/ played by Laurent Voulzy, Peter Andre, Eddie Cochran, Ray Stevens, and many others...even David Hasselhoff made his own version of the classic song). 90/100 Tony. |