I think there’s something in the water. For months and months an endless stream of emo demos sailed through the Punktastic mailbox – only to hit the iceberg known as the stereo and sink without a trace. Now it seems the trend has changed and pop-punk is the order of the day again. Except every single band is doing the exact same thing – and very few are making an impression. Kent “pop-emo core†band Thirteen Hour Drive are the latest in a long line of youngsters chancing their arm at the game I love to call music – and sadly they’ve done a bit of a Titanic too.
With a bio that told me bugger all about them (I’m not interested in how you play with your dog guys) and no tracklisting, things don’t start off well. Poor production and whiney vocals make things even harder to enjoy and all is not really good. Track 1 is arguably the best on offer, with a solid guitar riff and drums, but the vocals don’t hold their own and the clichéd screams come right on cue – and predictability is not a good thing. The saving grace comes with the female vocals on the final track as the girl can quite clearly hold a note. It reminds me a little of a younger Tanaou, without the musical superiority Jay and co possess.
This is pretty basic stuff, but for a first demo isn’t a complete disaster. Getting their own identity would be a start, but it’s the simple things, like a tracklisting, which will quickly piss off reviewers. It’s a tough old world when you’re competing for column inches – and schoolboy errors will take you down the river without a paddle…
www.thirteenhourdrive.tk
Paul