Labels: Cro(w)s & Pawns
Review by: Andy Malcolm
What a fucking ace band name. You can tell a lot of thought went into it, many high powered meetings with label directors and radio station owners. And not just that 3 punk guys were just sitting round listening to old punk records whilst drinking beer and one of them suddenly decided: “Hey, I gotta great name for a band – the Sheryl Crow Mags”, and the other guys laughed (because it’s funny at first, and then gets less funny each time you hear it). And then one of the guys goes “Yeah, I like it, lets form that band”. I bet you that’s what happened. These dudes formed a band after they came up with the name.
Because the music is pretty damn mediocre. Of course, they are gonna sell some records simply because they have Chris Wollard (the dude from Hot Water Music) singing. Bill from Radon is also in the band by the way. But despite that pedigree, they have made two stiflingly average songs here. “#1 Hit” is rumbling hardcore punk that motors a long but never really picks up. It has a strange dischordance to it that reminds a bit of Torches to Rome, but unfortunately it fails to do anything out of the ordinary or induce much excitement. Which is a shame, as if they had gotten a little more chaotic and TTR-esque, then they would have rocked. B-side “Watch For Repetition” is more melodic and heads in a much more rock based direction, with a hefty Leatherface influence. The drawback here is that once again the track is doing nothing. It just plays, whilst you wait for it to explode into a big chorus or something. Hmmm.
This is just really, really average, and I think a lot of people probably will have super-high expectations for it. So it’s an all round disappointment really. So leave this one in the distro box and pick up something a little more unknown, and without any big name bands attached to it. You’ll thank me for it.