Give

The Dog Days of Summer
by Scott Hefflon

Not much info on this band, but not really much needed. Boston hard rock, with members cobbled from such local heavyweights as Honkeyball, Lazlo Bane, and Claymore. I mean, it could be the guys that worked their merch table, their guitar tech, and their lighting guy, but they were attached to those bands somehow, dig? So what we have with Give is a new band still trying to find their sound and style and hone in on it. Each of the five songs on this debut have one moment apiece – one turn of phrase or melodic goose, one riff, one breakdown – that makes the song worth listening to. The rest of the song, well, it leads up to it or recedes from it. Funny, really, because the best songs are one, three, and five, the second repeating the title “When it Breaks” far too much and sounding like a local band you hope to show up late enough to miss most of, and the fourth, “Twenty-One,” attempting some intense spoken/sung style, and, like, not pulling it off.

The opening title track shows promise, despite surprisingly syrupy production from Andrew Schneider (Cave-In, Scissorfight, Lamont, and most heavy bands worth listening to in Boston), closer “Speeding Bullet” similarly hints at a good fist-pumper, had the guitars been tuned and that “jumpy” part not ruined the fluidity of gunslingers squaring off in the middle of the street, tumbleweeds dancing and dust stinging your eyes. And then my favorite, the punky “You Never Miss the Water Until the Well Runs Dry,” smack-dab in the middle. While it’s not like the song solves quantum physics equations – it’s only rock’n’roll, but we like it – it’s the kinda song you wait for the band to play live, then you and all your friends cheer and rush forward to sing-along. A crowd-pleaser, not too poppy, not whiney, not sludgy and moody, just a damn good rock song you’ll wanna play really loud.
(give.fightforrock.com)