Stereotyperider

Same Chords. Same Songs. Same Six Strings (Suburban Home)
by Lauren Bussard

Two years ago, I went to see New Found Glory play at the Palladium, but first I was forced to sit through Glassjaw’s opening set (why exactly they were even playing with pop-punk kings NFG continues to baffle me). Anyway, as Glassjaw screeched and screamed their way through their songs with no sense of rhythm or harmony, I closed my eyes and wished – in vain – that someone would swoop down from the ceiling and poke my eardrums out with an icepick.

I feel the same way when I listen to Stereotyperider‘s release. It might be ok if, during any of the 12 songs, the guitars were in tune, the drums were on beat, or the singer was on pitch… ok, nevermind, it’s all bad. I do like the first minute of “Must Be Normal” (although it does sort of resemble a bad Sublime song), but then it all goes to shit again. They define their own music by saying that it “rides the fence of melody and aggression.” Hmm. They might have been riding that fence at some point in their four-year history, but with this album they have definitely fallen off onto the aggression side – and with any luck they’re still there, searching for their lost melody.
(PO Box 40757 Denver, CO 80204)