the pathetic caverns - music by artist - The Everyday Heroes

eclectic reviews and opinions

Five tunes of good-natured and sincere-sounding, if predictable, power pop, served up trio style with a little synth decoration and a lot of overdubbed guitar. Influences worn big on the sleeves, but I hear a welcome amount of old-school in the mix: Cars and Ramones, and the songs don't go on too long, and they have bridges 'n' stuff instead of just verse chorus verse chorus chorus. That's good. There's a welcome amount of wry humor in the lyrics, too, even if "Glampires" is a fish barrel shoot. Singer/guitarist/writer Zach Szymusiak has a little bit of that affected nasal "punk rawk" thing going on, but at least he doesn't fake an accent. Bonus points for the topiary garden on the cover -- makes no sense, but does look cool -- and the line in "Po-Go" about a kid who "Stole my copy of Rock'n'Roll High School/Then borrows quarters for pool."

Since I'm going to nitpick the recording quality, I'll also give a bonus point for "Auidac Arrests'" swipe at aging rock'n'rollers running low on venom: "I don't wanna hear it/Those honey-coated lyrics/about love & loss & life/all dedicated to your wife." Uh-huh, I hope I die 'fore I get old. Cute. We'll check back in a couple decades, shall we?

Recording geek sez: the lead vocals are consistently a bit too far up front, the harmonies too far back, and the guitars could use a little more bite. Nuthin' a good engineer and/or producer couldn't fix.

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