'A perfect day to keep your distance'

In the spirit of fair play, todays band were found completely at random and originally i thought oh hell no this isn't the kind of music i'm into at all. However because the point of this thing is not to review only bands that i like, i persevered with these guys and i kind regret it, to be honest. I'm glad my music taste is this broad, or this blog would have failed before its third day. So let's get this thing started. Introducing

ITAMAR

So another band on Myspace, these guys describe themselves as 'Rock/Pop/Indie' good start i suppose, nice and broad spectrum to work with here. Nothing to complaing about this description at all. It is what it is.
Now the question here is just what is it that that it is? well as confusing as that question may have been, the answer isn't that much more straightforward, i'm afraid. At this point forward i'm going to treat Myspace playlists as an album if there is not one to speak of. In that way we can view the bands music as a whole, and not by individual tracks. So we begin at the beginning, with a track thaat may or may not be almost the lovechild of some Blink 182/Jimmy Eat World type partnership. Of course I hesitate to wonder whether many people reading will actual continue after that bombshell of a comparison, but rest assured that similarities to either band pretty much end with that song. Solid recording here means that we can get straight down to the music and not get bogged down with horrible composition etc etc.
So the album (playlist) continues in a way that may seem consistent with indie rock pop. You know, heavy bass and percussion, a few top note melodies and power chords. Singing is a bit of an issue here and apart from quite a prominent lisp, this guy (like Goatboy) insists of singing out of his nose. This doesn't really affect the first couple of songs as a whole, but as a guy who was constantly told by music teachers not to do that, it kinda grates on me a bit.
The nice thing about this music is that the guy leaves a lot of room for pretty solid guitar solos; the end of 'Mr Right' for instance are pretty strong and it's always good to see a band that can play their instruments with talent and confidence.

So. Strong first two songs. Looking pretty promising for the rest of the playlist, no? Well, no, not exactly. We quickly reach a song called 'Die with beauty' which, after all those solos and power chords, comes in spanish guitars blazing, and pretty much destroys any previous opinions you had of this band. You can imagine these guys performing this song at some kind of mexican festival dressed in ponchos and sombreros. It's far more out of place in this playlist than any other song by any other band i can think of right now, because as soon as this ones over, we go back to the power chords and repetitive drum riffs. Now i do realise that this isn't an album, so i shouldn't be passing judgement on the placement of any songs here, but you can't help but wonder what it's doing there.

That is, of course, until you listen to the rest of the playlist. We start with 'Distance' which, and please excuse me for saying this, is absolutely awful. It comes at you in a similar way with the soft guitar and longing melancholy, but then the guy opens his mouth and what comes out is something trying very hard to be Enrique Inglasias, but with far more lisp. I'm not sure i can accurately describe his singing in these slow songs as anything other than strenuous, and slightly painful. His voice is clearly not suited for the ballard style of song, yet he plows on anyway and the resulting feeling is that of cringing at an awkward scene on a TV sitcom and watching through splayed fingers. It really is that bad. I mean, i was getting pretty into those songs at the beginning, but this is just something else entirely. And this continues for the rest of the playlist. I mean come one, i see 'Rock/Pop/Indie' and i get excited. I expect something with solid instrumentals, upbeat melodies, memorable choruses etc etc, but what i find instead is something close to 'Acoustic/Latino/LispRock' and suddenly i don't feel like downloading their album, or even continuing on with the playlist
In fact, part of me is glad there is no album to speak of, because i have a genuine fear of those first 2 'rock' being gang raped by a man with a spanish guitar and voice that tries far to hard to be...well...something entirely different from what it actually is; a nasely lisp.


See? i listen to these bands so you don't have to. Honestly, i wouldn't go near these guys. Although 'Mr Right - acoustic session' is definately good for a few lols.