Excuse 17

Such Friends are Dangerous (Kill Rock Stars)
by Sheril Stanford

Excuse 17 has the requisite anger, repetition, and lack of melody that makes you wanna call it punk. But it has some unconventional and unpredictable lyric phrasing and a few cuts that play like, I kid you not, an homage to the B-52s, which makes it not quite that simple to categorize.

Check out the cut titled “Decatur H.S.” – you’d swear “Love Shack” was gonna be the next track. And this CD’s worth picking up just to get the best song you’ll ever find NOT to play at a wedding (“I now pronounce you dead…”). This band delivers snarly, cranky, stripped-down sound with high energy and clattering intensity, although a couple of the pieces seem slightly scruffy and aimless. But, hey, since when is music a goal-oriented activity anyway?