High fives for lo-fi's! Don't leave me hangin', dudes. You should check out this demo by Caffiends from Orlando. It's Marcos and Andy from BTH on guitars with Andrew from Wartortle on drums and some dude named Tim from Napalm Radio on bass. According to Tim McGowan from Orlando, they pretty much all do the singing. It's pop punk goodness and it's a part of a balanced breakfast.
Tim McGowan turned me onto this demo, after he saw them play with Paul Baribeau last night. They were apparently awesome, and also covered a Beatnik Termites song. He linked me to their bandcamp and I downloaded this shit and gave it some listens. Now I'm reviewing it for the sake of mankind and for the greater good.
Yeah it's lo-fi, as I mentioned in the first line of this post. Deal with it. The instrumentals on the first song "CPR" sound like one of the quick, fun songs you'd see Descendents put out in like 1981. The vocals are gruff and punk and are right down my alley. Are you used to this guy's voice after hearing this 26 second song? If so, that's cool and all but the next song "Excluded By You" is not him singing anymore. They definitely have the vibe of utilizing the full band for vocal duties on this demo. I don't know whether this will continue for their future releases, but so far I definitely hope so. I really like the vocalist in this second track, and the song in general reminds me of Teenage Bottlerocket and Screeching Weasel. If you like ramonescore pop punk, you'll like this band. I know, once again, I'm an assuming bastard.
The third song on the demo is called "Fight Team, Fight" and it's more of the same. It's the same style as the second track, and it the same guy singing. It's pop punk fun and it's definitely a singalong, but it's nothing I'd write home to mom about. Honestly, I've never written home to mom before, so I don't really know. This song is followed by "Liquid Girl" which is once again a different vocalist and you'll notice a style change for this one. By style change, I mean it sounds like Descendents again.
"Smoke and Monsters" features a singer that I don't think I've heard in the other songs. He reminds me of a manlier sounding Spoonboy from Max Levine Ensemble. This song is definitely my favorite on the album. It doesn't sound too similar to any specific band, and is definitely the catchiest while having more lyrics than the other songs on this album. Actually, the final song on this release is in the same vain as this song. It's the same vocalist, and has its own coolness about it. It's called "Goodbye Consciousness" and has a bunch of weird "oooooo oooooo" backup vocals and plenty of standard pop punk sweetness.
Now I've said pop punk fun, pop punk goodness, and pop punk sweetness. Where do I go from here? I don't know. But what I do know is where YOU go from here. And that's to their bandcamp to get their album, or if you're in Orlando, go to one of their shows and have fun. According to Tim they're awesome live, and I don't think this demo lives up to that. But, it's just a demo. I'd rather see a band play than listen to their best release, let alone their demo. So get at it, and let me know what you think about it. I think it's pretty good, but it's nothing too special. Like we always say, though, keep an eye out for these pop punk kids.
-Idle
PS. You can check out newer recordings at this bandcamp. They have another 8 songs going on records next month.
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