Whenever I think of Antifreeze I immediately think of The Ataris. Not only was their first record produced by Kris Roe, the band are now managed by the Ataris head honcho. They even covered ‘San Dimas’ which can be found floating around the world wide web. Desperate to ditch The Ataris Jr tag they’ve been handed, the band have attempted to go for a more rounded second record which incidentally is produced by Eric Thielen. Unfortunately the songs still have that whiff of the Santa Barbara quartet, making ‘The Search For Something More’ an apt, although not entirely truthful, name for the record. They’re certainly looking, but are yet to come across that ‘something’.
Based in Wisconsin, hardly a punk rock haven, Antifreeze do have a lot going for them. Tim Crowley and Jon Tyler do the dual vocal thing well and they certainly have a keen ear for a melody. But the fact of the matter is that there are so many borrowed riffs and cliched moments that in this guise Antifreeze cannot jump from the good ranks to the genre’s premier leagues. For example, ‘Pointless Emotion’ is such a blatant rip-off of The Ataris it wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘End Is Forever’.
But, and this is a big but, there are some fantastic moments – even if you’ve heard it all before. ‘Birthday Weekend’ has a great riff and a hook so big it could land a whale, while ‘Pointless Emotion’, as unoriginal as it is, shows massive leaps from the band’s first record. ‘Learning To Forget’ is a real slow-burner but it’s almost like Kris Roe wrote the song such is the vocal melody. I’m being harsh because these are good songs, but it’s like Antifreeze were locked in a room with the entire Ataris back catalogue and forced to write a musical thesis on their discoveries.
Lyrically things have improved no end too, gone are the obvious tales of a broken heart that littered ‘Four Letter Words’ and in their place lie subtler tracks which show the band trying to branch out and stamp their own authority on proceedings. It doesn’t always work, but thumbs up for trying. The badly named ‘Hurts to Hurt’ is more up tempo, while the album’s title track is probably the record’s best song – it screams of Antifreeze the band and not Antifreeze the Ataris-wannabes. ‘Goodbye, Good Luck‘ is another catchy ditty with a chorus to die for and the closing ‘Holding Back’ will have everyone singing and tapping along in no time.
If you like The Ataris you’ll definitely enjoy Antifreeze. ‘The Search For Something More’ is a good record that certainly moves on from ‘Four Letter Words’, but doesn’t move far enough away from their protege for my liking. Still I’d recommend purchasing this record if you enjoy emotionally-charged pop-punk. You could do a hell of a lot worse.
www.antifreezeonline.com
Paul