Co-Ed
Sometimes Always Maybe Never (Cool Guy)
by Scott Hefflon
While kind of an indecisive album title, there’s nothing wishy-washy about Co-ed. Female-fronted powerpop/punkpop with tight musicianship, infectious melodies, and meaty-yet-radio-friendly (enough) production. Obvious comparisons are Tilt and The Primitives, and while song two, “From Afar,” has male/female doubling exactly like the oft-imitated, never duplicated Primitives, both comparisons only go so far. There’s more of a Descendents-ish walking bass, and the vocal melodies, while fun to sing along to, seem strangely like arpeggios of the non-stop guitar crunching. While it’s almost an unnecessary gripe, it seems many of the vocals were based on hitting every note having anything to do with the chord at hand. While it makes for a lively, refreshing melody, at worst it makes the song sound rather deliberate. But on the other hand, when the vocals are simple and sweet, often doubled like the Dance Hall Crashers or layered with a low-key male voice like The Primitives, you’ve got pure magic tickling your ears. Another perk is the fact that vocalist Kathy Cagigas (who dueted on Everready’s latest, also on Cool Guy) doesn’t over-sing. While she belts out nicely when needed, there’s not the constant wild vibrato of a hotshot showcasing her shit. Kathy sings like vocalist in a band, not a spotlight-stealing diva with a back-up band somewhere in the shadows.
Song-wise, Sometimes Always Maybe Never opens with “My Escape,” a peppy, uplifting number with a long instrumental opening quite reminiscent of Descendents/ALL (not surprising, seeing as Co-ed’s produced by E who worked with ’em in earlier days). “When I’m on my run/nothing else matters/no one really cares,” Kathy sings, and because I’m not one to scour lyric sheets, I thought she was a pizza deliveryperson, had a paper route, or dealt dope. Oops. She’s talking about running, as in jogging, as in the hobby fitness-conscious people have. Running, to me, has always been an exercise used in conjunction with another, more pressing act – “running” from the cops, “running” from a bunch of drunk jocks, an irate father, or ex-boyfriend, or “running” in the context of various sports. Running has always seemed rather childish to me. Little kids run around simply for the joy of running, and it seems some grown-ups have kept that feeling alive, although they’ve replaced ToughSkins with sweats or spandex, and their expressions are less than carefree and joyous. But if it unclutters the mind, perhaps it is a healthier version of Neal Cassidy’s perpetual motion lifestyle.
Another gem on this 40-minute (plus 10 minutes dead air to reach the now-obligatory hidden track) is the parody of G’N’R’s “Patience” tacked at the end of “Progress.” Gotta love any exaggeration of Axl. And while it’s tough to match the single word titles with the often under two-minute songs, there are tunes to listen to again and again, or throw on mixed tapes for roadtrips.
