The Artist Life

Let's Start A Riot EP

Written by: TL on 04/02/2009 14:44:47

What to write, what to write? Words that float around in my head as I'm sitting in front of my keyboard, listening to The Artist Life's debut EP "Let's Start A Riot", trying to figure out how to flesh out a description of a band as simple and straightforward as this one.

The Artist Life are punk rock alright, located somewhere in between Rancid, The Lawrence Arms and The Gaslight Anthem soundwise, and on this their first EP, they offer us five tracks, clocking in at 3:27 at max. Short, simple and to the point, and for those reasons, hard to critizise. The instrumentation is straight out of Rancid's playbook, with a few added hints of The Gaslight Anthem's trademark feeling of nostalgia to it, and as for vocals, singer Ian Blackwood is also about as typically punk as can be, sounding like he has obvious difficulties stretching his voice to hit the higher of his notes and seeming all the more raw and honest for it. There's also something naive and simplistic about the five songs on "Let's Start A Riot" that could remind you of old Green Day, maybe because the band is not ashamed to use a poppy trick here and there to get you humming - Point in case being the opener "The Last Time", the "Whooaaahh! She's got me shaking it! Whooaaahh! She's got me shaking it!"-line of which makes it easily the most instantly recognizable of the songs.

- And that's basically what there is to tell. If you like either pop-punk (in its original meaning, not the neon shit that's peddled in its place today) or punk-rock, and you don't mind simple and straightforward music with no other agenda than instigating good times, then there's no reason you won't like this. If not, this is hardly the record that's going to get you interested, so it remains a good pick-up for appreciators I suppose.

Download: The Last Time, Let's Start A Riot
For The Fans Of: Rancid, The Lawrence Arms, The Gaslight Anthem, Old Green Day, Street Dogs,
Listen: myspace.com/theartistlife

Release Date: 28.10.2008
Underground Operations

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