West For Wishing,
Matchbook RomanceThe deal with Matchbook Romance goes a little something like this - the band, then known as The Getaway, get an MP3 hosted on a large US-based webzine, Epitaph head honcho Brett Gurewitz downloads, loves it and signs them. Stuff of fairytales? I prefer to think it shows the importance of the internet and MP3 technology but it shows that you never quite know who is listening to your music. Anyway, a swift name change later to Matchbook Romance and the next thing you know this NY mob are in the studio with BG at the production helm. Not a bad start to your career...
'West For Wishing' is a fine slice of polished pop-hardcore in a similar vein to the trillions of other bands currently sporting sideways caps and shouting their asses off. Infact an apt name change would have been Taking Thursday Finch, such are MR's influences. Still, while originality may not be the order of the day, good quality songs certainly are and 'West For Wishing' has them in abundance.
From the short sharp opening of '14 balloons' to the powerful 'Save Yourself', the band wear their hearts on their sleeves without venturing out of the cars of their emotional rollercoaster. The aforementioned opening song is absolutely stunning but far too short. It breaks away from the post-hardcore blueprint of their obvious influences and sounds, well, a bit different. It's crunchy, the drums build up, it explodes...I love the pathos. The chorus is fantastic too, but then the song just ends which is a great shame. Still, the obvious highlight is the fantastic 'The Greatest Fall (of all time)' which sounds so much like Buddy from Senses Fail that I had to check the sleevenotes to make sure that this wasn't a duet. But discard the obvious vocal similarities and you have a song which "rips shit up" as they say across the Pond.
'Hollywood and Vine' takes the best bits from Thursday and combines them with the catchier than SARS excerpts of TBS to come up with a track which is again wholly unoriginal but damn addictive. The quicker 'Farewell To Friends' is exactly the same, this time reminding me of the vocal melodies used by The Starting Line in 'Left Coast Envy'. Or maybe it's just me... Still, the dirtier 'Save Yourself' ends things in fine fashion to round off a record which sounds spot-on, even if you really have heard it all before.
The band head out on the Warped Tour this summer and may even head to the UK in August where you can possibly check them out at festivals and maybe an all-dayer or two. If any band needed someone to look up to and to show that webzines work then this is the proof of the pudding. So Matchbook Romance - not original in the slightest, but still very good.
Paul
