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| EP
Review |
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Most kids who are into punk and the alternative
music rock scene first pick up a guitar and attempt
to cover songs by Green Day, Blink 182, NOFX and
a few of the other classic American punk bands that
have been at the top of the game for many years,
they then form a small band within their friends
and play some shows at their school hall or some
local youth club or run down venue, playing shocking
sounding cover songs to a small crowd that is mainly
made up of friends and parents, well this is how
Smudge started off, they formed a band when they
were at school and started playing Blink 182 covers
until they realised they were serious about music
and wanted to become a serious pop-punk band.
So fastforward a couple of years from when the
five youngsters used to knock out Blink 182 covers
to now and you will notice a lot of changes, for
example the band have all invested in hair straighteners
which seems to be the new accessory for bands
these days, they have all grown their scene hair
with floppy fringes but don’t worry they
are keeping it real and have left the hair dye
in the shops for the moment. Yeah anyway on a
more serious note the band are extremely serious
about their music and pretty much everything they
do, check out their website, merchandise, promotional
photographs and cd artwork and you will notice
that it’s all done to a really high quality,
look at the flyer images on their myspace and
you will notice that they have already toured
with some of the biggest bands on the scene at
the moment such as The Used, Aiden, Gallows, Zebrahead,
The Blackout, Brigade and many more, infact there
are too many to list.
Your probably now wondering what their music
is like, well judging from the bands debut 3 track
EP 'StayFeelRegret' they have a lot of talent
and are just waiting for the right people to pick
up on them to help them make a big name for themselves
in the mainstream. There have been a lot of pop-punk
bands come and go in the UK underground scene
over the years such as Fletcher, Fastlane, Gash
and there are also quite a lot of new bands on
the horizon in the underground scene trying their
hardest to burst out into the mainstream such
as Not Advised, Tonight Is Goodbye, A New Day
and I believe that Smudge are as good as any of
these bands and I think it’s all down to
which band makes the right move at the right time
as to who makes it into the mainstream.
The 3 track debut EP from Smudge runs for just
over 9 minutes and it starts off with 'Flat-Line'
a song that is really big sounding and oozes with
energy, the song is played at what seems like
100 miles per hour, it’s got some big riffs
and a huge sing along chorus that sounds more
lively than your own heartbeat. The other two
songs on the EP are good but it’s 'Flat-Line'
that stands out the most.
'The EP title track 'StayFeelRegret' is a sing
along affair from start to finish, frontman Jack
Valentine has such a clear beautiful melodic voice
that drags you into Smudge's songs like a powerful
tornado, the only difference is Smudge won’t
harm you and once you are into the songs it’s
hard to shake them off, not that you would want
to as Smudge are a melodic dream.
The final track of the EP is 'Lock + Load', the
song is quite similar to 'StayFeelRegret' and
is once again a powerful slice of poppy punk,
as soon as Jack opens his mouth you will be hooked,
Smudge seem to have a knack for writing good catchy
songs and have a winning formula.
Smudge are great, I love them, this is how pop-punk
should be, and if they carry on sticking to the
same formula when writing songs in the future
then they are going to go far, do yourself a favour
and head over to their myspace and get caught
in the action, you never know they could be that
new favourite band you have been waiting for.
5/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Jack Valentine (Vocals)
Danny Atom (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Gary Star (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Chris Catastrophe (Bass Guitar)
PK___13 (Drums) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Flat-Line
2. StayFeelRegret
3. Lock + Load |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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