EP Review
Smudge - StayFeelRegretSmudge - StayFeelRegret

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
 Band Members
Smudge - Band
Jack Valentine (Vocals)
Danny Atom (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Gary Star (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Chris Catastrophe (Bass Guitar)
PK___13 (Drums)
 Track Listing
1. Flat-Line
2. StayFeelRegret
3. Lock + Load
 Band Related Links
Smudge Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?