Dead On A Friday - www.deadonafriday.com
Hope It Was Worth It (released 2007)
Stabs Co. Records
It took me a while to believe it, but by the third track "What Do You Have Now", I can hear the resemblances to Bad Religion and Pennywise. Dave's voice on the track does sound a bit like Greg Graffin, with the main body of the track coming out like an exceptionally fast-paced Pennywise song. That is up until the bass solo, but that only cements the band's west coast leanings. This album does that throughout though. "What Do You Have Now" is just the track that kicks it all off... The album is a collection the band's material over the past five years, through several setbacks and tragedies this album is now seeing the light of day. Sadly, it has taken a long time, as the band are rather good at what they do...writing catchy, upbeat west coast punk influenced songs. I don't know the exact progressioin of the songs, meaning I don't know which was early material and which was later... You can hear some differences in each track as being just different than the previous. For instance on "You're Killin Me", which sounds like early material, because it doesn't quite carry the same energy as "Bliss Hall", a fan favorite and one of the best tracks on the disc. I believe that "Bliss Hall" is a bit newer in the band's catalog of songs, it's very fast, loud, has a great sing along feel to it, and I would guess touches a lot of people, with it's sentimental lyrics. The band isn't all emotive and such, they deliver real world experiences throughout the album. Something that lends a certain credibility, afterall the band has been through a lot to get to this point and to offer us this collection of thirteen tracks. Perhpas the best part about the band and the records, is the volume. Hailing from Queens, New York, this three piece just explode off of the album on each and every track. You will not be disappoinited with the velocity or density of the sound, unparalelled for a trio! As stated before, Dead On A Friday is clearly for fans of west coast punk rock, showing similarities to Bad Religion (only for their sound, not their politics), Pennywise (for the speed at which they play, not the politics) and in the case of "Sonofabitchmustpay", I'm reminded of classic Unwritten Law... I'm not sure why, but that's the band that popped in my head when I first heard it. Dead On A Friday, finally having documented their punk rock n roll prowress, should be part of every east meets west coast punk music collection. -MG |
