Band : Eight Page Pullout

Album title : Stand Up

Label : Lockjaw

Distributor : Progressive Publicity

Release date : 17/03/2008

Release : MCD (5 tracks)

EPP hails from the West Coast Scottish town of Oban, and its members (singer/guitarist Rikki Durrent , guitarist/ backing singer David Anderson , bassist/ backing singer Dave Adams , and drummer Gavin Hunter ) are longtime friends from their school days, which is when they started the band, now some 6 years ago.

Their early material was heavily influenced by bands like Blink 182 and Greenday , and both in music and image they were very much a rather simple PopPunk band. However, along the way they not only moved to Scotland's capitol city Glasgow, but they also added the likes of Eve 6 , Taking Back Sunday , Runrig , and Jimmy Eat World to their musical influences. In their own, very well put and descriptive, words (see myspace.com/eightpagepullout) their sound can now "...be pinned as Anthemic Punk Pop Rock, built upon a strong rhythm section of fluent, diverse drum pattern and complimenting intriguing bass lines. The guitars combine to produce an epic, anthemic, overall sound, with cruncy rhythm, and atmospheric leads. The vocals are dense and strong, and are primarily melody driven, with a sound that has evolved from being highly "American", to one that pays homage to their native Scottish roots."

I mean, with words like that all ready for me to use as citation, why should I even bother to try and tell it in my own? After all, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that you, the reader, understands what this band is about! The band has in the past played all over the UK (all major cities and quite a few of the smaller ones as well) on self-funded and organized tours, and they even took some steps on the European continent. In their own words, the band feels privileged to have played sold-out shows with bands like 4Ft Fingers , Rufio , Spunge and The Damned , and valued the learning experience very much. As a band, the members are a real team, to the point that they are not only best friends, but have also lived together in some shape or form for the last 6 years, thus creating a family notion with the credo "We'll make it together, or not at all"!

Meaning to promote the official debut EP to the fullest, the band will be touring throughout the rest of the year. Actually, when I first looked up some additional info about the band, there was only talk about dates between March 21 and April 6...but that list has now been extended with dates going even into September (for the moment still very much within the boundaries of the UK, though)! What's also changed is the amount of songs on their Myspace page, which now encompasses samples of each and every song on the EP. For 3 videos, check out the media section of the band's own website eightpagepullout.co.uk.

I'm sure that, upon listening to the available snippets of the songs, you'll agree that there is a certain "joy de vivre" in this band's material, a refreshing cheerfulness, and that the underlaying complexity of their music is far removed from the simple 3-chord kinda things they used to be influenced by. Very nice indeed, and although nót really quite my thing, even I enjoyed listening to these 5 songs!

84/100

Tony.