Nine Lives

Reignition (Mendit)
by Scott Hefflon

This innocuous-looking package almost got passed on, and that woulda been a real shame. With a dumb name, a bunch of fuzzy photos and childish drawings on an ugly orange background, who woulda thunk this’d have a couple tunes of such magic? And seeing as there are only six songs (totaling 20 minutes), having two great ones is a better batting average than most bands have. Anyone who remembers a band called Black Train Jack probably already knows about Nine Lives, the next life of the more important members. Musically falling somewhere between The Bouncing Souls and the Bloodhound Gang’s cover of “Kids in America,” vocalist Rob Vitale still has that crystal-clear voice and instantly-recognizable tone and enunciation that made BTJ such a distinct band. (Personal testament: When this magazine was printed monthly in RI, I used to drive from Boston to Providence with BTJ’s You’re Not Alone [Roadrunner] as constant companion. Later, I was listening to the record when I totaled the vehicle – not my fault, I swear! – and I mourned the loss of that tape, jammed forever in a gnarled mass of plastic and metal, more than my roommate’s truck. Then I got the CD and stopped driving so I could keep this one.) While later tracks on Reignition steer dangerously close to cock rock, or maybe just power balladry, Nine Lives is a band to watch closely.
(PO Box 1096 New York, NY 10003)