Armchair Martian – Monsters Always Scream – Review

Armchair Martian

Monsters Always Scream (My)
by Scott Hefflon

For some reason, Armchair Martian never really impressed me. Until now. I always considered them an “also ran” in the overflowing genre of melodic punk. Perhaps it’s the production of Monsters Always Scream (the rawer side of knob-twiddling masters at The Blasting Room), perhaps it’s that I finally picked up on a thoughtful, insightful, and humorous lyricist (vocalist/guitarist Jon Snodgrass) people’ve been telling me I shoulda checked out long ago. Perhaps it’s that I just never really listened to ’em. And it took this seven-song EP (only 20 minutes, but an enjoyable 20 minutes) on a different label (Lagwagon’s Joey Cape’s My Records which I recall being in Santa Barbara, but is now evidently in San Francisco) to turn me on to what so many others seem to already know: Armchair Martian rocks! While they’re more rock (and that countrified thing kinda threw me for a loop) than much of the punkpop being churned out like so much shit from an industry chowing Ex-Lax, that merely means they express a mid-tempo side of themselves as well as peppy punk. And Snodgrass’ tough-yet-melodic vocals reflect all the crap he’s probably taken all his life because of his name. Similar to ALL’s Chad Price (who, coincidentally, contributes bass and back-up vox on this release) or Wretch Like Me’s Abe Brennan, the vocals are passionate and almost gruff (but not in a gravely or metal way). Armchair Martian are, to these ears, less complex than ALL, yet cross over to the rock arena better than most punk bands. When you hear that nearly identical, insipid alternacrap on the radio that wishes it was the Foo Fighters, hope that if the gods are listening (or, at least, a handful of radio programmers), perhaps Armchair Martian might someday kick their cloned pussy asses off the airwaves.
(PO Box 170280 San Francisco, CA 94117)