The Shakedowns

Good Morning Josh...We're Sorry

Written by: PP on 31/05/2011 21:24:18

Originating from Edmonton, Canada, The Shakedowns have a couple of members who have known each other since they were three months old. The story included in the press blurb claims that for as long as they can remember, they've dreamed of forming a band together, and the product of all that planning and effort is their debut album "Good Morning Josh...We're Sorry", their first attempt at making some sort of ripples in the music scenes around the world.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that these songs have been years in the making, which would be why the album sounds so different by the time you reach the thirteenth and final track "Waiting" than it does on the album opener "Drag You Down". To start out with, the vocalist uses a similarly tortured vocal delivery as Nirvana's Kurt Cobain with the added smoky passion of seminal punk rockers Leatherface. But where the latter went for more of a punk feeling, The Shakedowns instead rely on a far more introspective indie and a distinct, classic American rock ideal, meaning tons of groove, a rowdy atmosphere, and heft amounts of bluesy guitar playing as their weapons.

And boy, can you sense the effort that has gone into these songs. They sound complete and passionate, but perhaps more importantly, they sound very, very honest and genuine. They sound like the product of years of hard work should sound like, with little glitches and raw production only adding to the feeling that's both real and believable throughout. That it also has resulted into a bunch of fine songs, all the better.

Unfortunately, about halfway through the band transitions their punk-influenced sound towards classic American rock, where you'll start drawing faint references to bands like Journey, Foreigner and that sort of bands. Bands which rely far more on guitar feeling than the tortured, dark atmosphere of bands like Crime In Stereo. This approach simply does no good for The Shakedowns, and drags down their grade by a notch. Alas, for their next album, The Shakedowns face some tough questions about who they want to be: a punk-influenced rock band, a classic rock-inspired band, or perhaps something altogether different?

Download: Drag You Down, Pink Cell Phone
For the fans of: Nirvana, Leatherface, Crime In Stereo
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 10.03.2011
Oak Apple Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.