Ten Foot Pole – Unleashed – Review

Ten Foot Pole

Unleashed (Epitaph)
by Scott Hefflon

When SoCal melodic hardcore band Scared Straight changed their name to Ten Foot Pole and toured Europe in 1994, they crossed the old name off their record, Swill, and hand-wrote the new name in black magic marker. This perfectly captures how many of us feel about punk rock in 1997.

After releasing long-time singer Scott to his other gigs, pitching for the LA Dodgers and off-season singing for fellow Epitaph-mates Pulley, guitarist Dennis learned to sing. He was always credited as the main songwriter, so you’d expect little to’ve changed in that regard. But with the combination of a new voice and a clearer sound courtesy of Ryan Greene (NOFX, Lagwagon, Strung Out, Propagandhi, yadda-yadda-yadda), Unleashed may as well be by a different band from the Ten Foot Pole that released Rev. Either that or a massively evolved Ten Foot Pole. While the songs contain the same manic energy and thoughtful lyrics, Dennis’ voice is, well, normal sounding. Scott had a rather distinctive voice, though not an obvious signature voice like, say, NOFX’s Fat Mike, Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, or the guy from Propagandhi. While the comparison may be asking too much of just-another-punk-band, it’s the difference between a major league band and a bunch of guys you’d go see if there’s nothing good on TV. Luckily, this occurs often and band’s have the misconception that they’re “seminal.” To be fair, Dennis’ voice does grow on you after a few songs. It’s the down-home honesty of listening to a friend tell you about what he thinks/feels, as opposed to listening to an amazing band spout amazing lyrics to amazing melodies. Vocally, some of the songs remind me of Parry Gripp of Nerf Herder, without the charmingly goofy lyrics. While Ten Foot Pole has “paid their dues” over the last 13 years, and I’m fully aware that I should analyze their lyrics with an Editor’s eye (or eyes), something about them smacks of the now-overused gimmick of “thoughtful and insightful punk lyrics.” Similar to reading a few dozen fold-and-staple punk fanzines all saying the same fucking thing about the same fucking bands and bowing to the same fucking sacred cows, I feel there’s little new here. And I’d rather find out I’m wrong than find out I’m right.

While singling out Ten Foot Pole, I’d have to stack this in the pile of “easy listening punk” I play when I want something nice and fast and melodic to play in the background that won’t distract me from doing something else. Unleashed has its place, but I doubt they set out to be the punk alternative to muzak.