Slick Shoes

(Tooth & Nail)
by Scott Hefflon

By this time, it’s hard to get blown away by a new, young punk band. Everything is relative; meaning this “new” band is only as good as how close it comes to a pre-existing good band. Example: “Wow, Slick Shoes has fast as fuck (maybe faster, if the caffeine rush is wearing off) drumming like NOFX, Strung Out, and practically everything on Fat’s roster, crisp, precise, mega-fast guitar riffing like NOFX’s “Linoleum” and the metal-influenced punk styling it spawned in the process, a solid bass rampage like any band should have, sweet harmonies like Lag Wagon and, well, pretty much every punkpop band in recent years, and a singer who sounds like, um, nobody, I guess. MxPx would be the closest, but that would be misleading. Not as much I’m-young-and-cute-and-can-fake-a-snotty-sneer-as-well-as-the-next-guy. Especially if you live in Southern California where the next twenty guys on your block alone are in the garage practicing with their new punk bands, thus screwing up the national average for everyone else in the country. Whatever, I like ’em.”

And the beauty is, your friends can vehemently disagree with you, citing similar yet different bands per particular sound and style, and then you can all argue endlessly as to the authority by which you expound, the complex interconnectiveness of all things punk rock, and yet all concur that the band fuckin’ rocks. Better volley your opinions quickly, however, as this is just a four song EP.