Rain City Rockers

Anime EP

Written by: HES on 31/03/2015 21:51:28

So Tom Thacker (the lead guitarist and backing singer of Sum 41) and the guys from Rain City Rockers released their first "full-length" album "Mayday" this fall and it is of questionable merit - mainly circling around female stereotypes of the late 90's. Take songs about "Saint Babe" who went to catholic school and now has a thing for nuns or the preppy "Ms. Lindsay" for instance. Unfortunately the reception of that less than mediocre release didn't scare these former members of such iconic pop pop-punk groups like Sum 41 and Goldfinger away from brewing up another kettle of absolute horror: The "Anime EP".

Now it's pretty rare that I give up on the first listen, but this time was close. The sheer annoyance level of having to review something that's so bad that you start to reconsider its validity under the moniker "music" is over 9000. I could have spent this time actually giving feedback to an up and coming band with at least the sincerity going for them. But no; I guess the purpose of this review will be more of a cautionary one, if you read the words Sum 41 or Goldfinger and thought "well, that doesn't sound like a half-bad combination". Ladies and gentlemen, it isn't half-bad, in fact it's all bad.

The "Anime EP" consist of lazy punk rock renditions of 90's anime kids show theme songs. Yes, you "catch" them all: Digimon, Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon now performed by your favourite has-beens. Now I don't know if these remnants of the past have been so surprised by 21st century release possibilities and just gone crazy because no record company was holding them back, or if this is an attempt at humour as we know it from back in the 90's. Nothing excuses the sheer lack of imagination that is put into this EP though. You'd at least wish that the band would try to add something new to the themes, but the band almost doesn't even hit the level of a wedding band playing "in the style of"-covers.

The only original song of the EP "If you don't like Pikachu", which lyrically swirls the same drain as the "Mayday"-release with another story of a caricatured female, this time a girl that doesn't appreciate the finer things in life: Pokémon. The chorus of this 2½ minute long song made out of pure fail childishly goes "If you don't like Pikachu, then I'm sorry baby, but I want you to. And if you try to say that conventions suck, then I'm sorry girl but you're out of luck". It's pretty depressing that these guys haven't gotten beyond the dialectic of the preppy girl and the nerdy guy of pretty much every teen flick of the 90's. All that has changed is the setting: Our new venue is the comic con community instead of high school and I can't shake the feeling, that it's mostly an attempt at being contemporary: "Hey Tom. What are the kids into these days?" "I think they're into comic cons!" "Alright let's write a song about that!". The result mainly just makes these guys look even older than they are and I can also feel myself aging in double tempo for every listen.

2

Download: If You Don’t Like Pikachu
For the fans of: Bowling for Soup, Sum 41, Pokémon
Listen: Facebook

Release date 24.02.2015
Self-released

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