Now this is a lovely little surprise. Based north of the border, this four piece claim to be influenced by the likes of Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral and At the Drive-in, yet vocally also throw in a distinctive warble that Brock from 36 Crazyfists has managed to perfect. It makes This Familiar Smile really stand out and sound a little different – and after getting buried amongst a sea of crap demos, ‘Days We Turn On Ourselves’ gleams like a lighthouse.
‘Cuts and Bruises’ is beautiful, but ‘Here’s Looking At You, Kid’ is even better. With some really lovely guitar parts which build into an awesome crescendo, the vocals are strong throughout and belittle the band’s youthful inexperience. Going on for more than five minutes, the passionate vocals and the weaving guitar parts create a belter of a song. To be fair all four songs are really good – ‘I Should Stop Talking…’ sounds like a Claudio-less Coheed, while closer ‘Sadness, is that a gun in your pocket?’ is arguably just as good. This band are very much a rough diamond, but with a bit of polish I think they’ll be ready to sparkle.
www.myspace.com/thisfamiliarsmile
Paul