| CD REVIEW Shame-On-U |
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Band : Shame-On-U With no less than 5 released planned on the same day (check also reviews of Ade & A Last Day On Earth, plus Kill Twenty One and Prometium), late December must've been a busy period for the people at Casket Music/ Copro Records, and following an Italian, a Portuguese, and two British (say even English) bands, we now turn our attention to Switzerland. More precisely to the town of Herisau, where this Pop Punk-influenced Rock band hails from. But the formation of the current band is one of plenty of previous mishaps. It all started when guitarist Marco Latino started a band named Redback Spiders with school friend and also guitarist Dominik Rohrer and two other guys. They started to write a couple of songs, but soon enough our friends felt that the drive was missing in the other members, so they packed up their gear and started a new project named Attitude. Another friend from school, Ruben Baumgartner, became the drummer, and some time later the guys met up with Daniel Germann, whom became their singer during a first jam session with the band. As time passed on, the guys started writing their first decent songs, but the band was still missing a bassist, and eventually Daniel took it upon himself to teach himself how to play that instrument. Around the same time Marco also started singing, resulting in Daniel and him taking on lead vocals alternately, a method they continued to use to date. About a year later the band started falling apart due to the drummer having to work late, and therefore missing out on rehearsals. He left the band as a mutual decision, and a new drummer was found a couple of months later in one Sebastian Ott. The band now rehearsed a lot more, worked even harder on new songs, and changed their name to Bad-Attitude. The outfit finally did their first concerts, but the outcome was found to be only just satisfactory. As a reaction the band began rehearsing even harder. Almost a year passed by without any problems, but then the drummer lost his interest, apparently having other plans, so he quit. The band's core members were again without a drummer, but then they were introduced to one Lukas Köllä, a local student...whom was recruited in their ranks after just one jam session. The band was once again complete, ready to storm the stages full of energy. The band started to record their 11-track demo album Generation Today (issued in 2006), and started selling t-shirts and other promotional material through their homepage. About a year later, the guys were forced to change their name due to a German band already having rights to Bad-Attitude, and thus, finally, Shame-On-U was officially born! Only a couple of weeks later the band recorded a demo with 3 new songs, but only shortly after both Dominik and Lukas were forced to leave the band due to private reasons. In their search for new members, Marco and Daniel happenstanced on the already somewhat experienced drummer Roberto De Tata, whom joined the band on the spot. In late 2009 this unit signed a deal with Casket Music, so earlier in 2010 off to England the trio went, to record their label debut album at the label's own Philia Studio in Henley-on-Thames...with none less than the famed Nick Hemingway, whom not only produced and engineered the recordings, but also mixed and mastered the outcome. Still missing a second guitarist, Marco doubled duties to make the songs complete. After 5 weeks in the studio the guys went back to Switzerland to raise money to make up for the costs of the recordings, and the guys even managed to step outside their own country's borders to do that, even putting in a show at Zaandam, Holland's De Kade. Some time before the release of the album, by the way, the trio was completed to a foursome with the recruitment of second guitarist Chris Kuhn. As mentioned in the first paragraph of this now rather lengthy review, the band plays a Pop-Punk influenced Rock, which is certainly nót without appeal. I mean, when I can put on a record and listen to it several times while gathering ideas about the review, without getting bored too swiftly (because obviously I've come across so much Pop Punk in my days that I find but occasional appeal in the genre today), you can be sure that the album cannot be bad at all! Of course, the fact that the Pop-Punk thing is only an additional flavouring here, goes a long way in keeping away any signs of boredom. On top, there IS the fact that the band has two slightly different singers whom take the lead role alternately, and the undeniable fact that the band has gathered its best songs (5 culled from their debut demo, songs which have certainly had chance to grow over the years; all 3 off their second one, plus 3 more and a very nice instrumental intro...written by a band which now has some experience in finding their way about writing good songs) on their official label debut, further makes for a very nice album indeed! Finally, let's not forget the really nice sound given the material by the recordings' producer, eh!? To get people acquainted with their music, the band posted a full-length version of their album's title track plus samples of 4 more songs at (www.) myspace.com/shameonumusic (pity that does not include the nice ballad “Seasons”, not the ensuing wacky “My Grave”, which has one of the guys sing backings in Gregorian style). For more full-length material, there's live videos (including an excerpt of the band's participation to a clip contest for MTV) at shame-on-u.com! 90/100 Tony. |