That's Life - Bourbon Entrails

If I listen to bands that sound the same, it's because it's a good sound, not because I'm a boring person. I figure I must preface this review with that statement, because it is another installment of me reviewing a band that sounds similar to my favorite bands, and I've taken criticism for reviewing stuff that sounds the same or whatever...so whatever.

I don't know shit about That's Life. All I know is that their drummer Steve sent us an email with a link to this album on their bandcamp page, and was like, "feel free to share it on your blog if you like it!" Which, I would've shared it whether I liked it or not, because that's how things are. I just would be writing mean stuff about it if it sucked, but it doesn't suck, so instead you'll have to read me fawning over this depressed-pop-punk goodness.

This band sounds like if Blake was kicked out of Jawbreaker and replaced with someone who secretly wanted to be in a rougher celtic punk band, and someone who was really meant to be in the midwest pop-punk scene, or The Lawrence Arms. Oh, plus their guitar tone was made washier and gruffer, and their bass was made to sound more important and noticeable. So basically, I'm saying they sound pretty good. The vocal tradeoffs between the two singers is executed awesomely and the songs are infinitely catchy with lyrics that are infinitely quotable. It's really cool to use the same adverb twice in the same sentence; it really is.

The song "You, Me and a Handful" sounds like a stressed-out masterpiece of angst and melodic yelling. Songs like this one push the band into what's more of just a punk sound, rather than the pop-punk feel they generally possess. This band also has a nook in the bro-core genre with the likes of Latterman, due to their song "Friends Are Kickass". Then "Attack of the Wastoids" follows it to remind us that this is a catchy pop-punk band, which isn't afraid to adhere to the all-too-common-yet-not-overdone style of bands like The Steinways or the anti-woman-activists Screeching weasel, except with an extra dose of sloppiness and stronger punk vibe to it.

I really love the vocalist who holds the lead for the song "Grade 10", but since I don't know shit about the band, and my research yielded hardly any results (other than that they're from Arizona and they have a new album coming up by like summer), I have no idea who sings which parts. The last two songs sound too similar to eachother for me to really care enough to discuss them separately, or even differentiate all too much. But, the latter is longer and better and I guess that's enough individual attention for it to not develop issues derived from the neglect it received as a young song.

Luckily for punks like me, only one of these songs is over three minutes, and it's the first song on the EP, "Dear Mom." Also luckily for me, it's an awesome song, so it's not an issue that it's a long one. Really, I shouldn't have to talk to you about something that's free for too long before you decide it's worth trying it out on your own. you can just surf over to the bandcamp page and either stream it online or download it to your computer (you lucky fuckers with computers that aren't broken like mine is D:)

-Idle