Sugarcult

Start Static (Ultimatum)
by Scott Hefflon

Great band name, bad record title, infectious band using every punk-pop/power pop cliché so well, ya can’t help but smile. Man, there is nothing here you haven’t heard elsewhere, but it’s all strung together so energetically, with so much “hey, we’re having fun, not trying to reinvent the wheel, so come on in: Keg’s in the kitchen, pool’s out back, and there are girls dancing on the coffee table in the living room” ya just get sucked in, ya know? The single, “Stuck in America” is a youth anthem if there ever was one, followed by the lovey-dovey “Saying Goodbye,” followed perhaps by the darker, angsty, almost-boy-bandish “Pretty Girl (The Way)” (as in “It’s the way he [does this]. It’s the way he [does that]”). The latter ain’t no Descendents’ “I’m the One” or “Hope” (aka “My Day Will Come”) or nothing, but let’s not expect miracles, huh? “Bouncing of the Walls” is, well, bouncy, like classic Green Day, Randy, or (going out on a limb here) the short-lived Klöver, a lovable embarrassment by Gang Green alum and a plumber who had a track in Assassins (Sylvester Stallone/Antonio Banderas/Julianne Moore), another flawed’n’dated bit of flotsam that stuck (for me) for no rational reason. Welcome to pop culture, where ya often like stuff you know full well is fluff, but ya just can’t resist!
(8723 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232)