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The Agenda!

Start The Panic (2002)
Kindercore

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Contributed by: Scott
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on October 11th 2002

Garage rock is the new emo [which in turn was the new ska, which was the new pop punk, which was the new... ah, you get the point]. It is a trend, and everyone and their mother is trying to capitalize on it. Sure, some of it is top notch, but on the opposite side of the spectrum, you have dozens of albums of bands seemingly thrown together in a heartbeat in order to rape this once-potent music of any originality.

So where does the Agenda! [yes, there's actually an exclamation point there] stand? Somewhere in between, teetering between greatness and mediocrity.

The Athens, GA quintet has all the prerequisites to make it big in this garage-rock hungry world:

Each member has a clever moniker [J.R. Suicide, Switchblade Steve, etc.]

Every song seems to be cranked up to 11, tempo-wise - more rock in less time equals lots of frat boys rocking out on repeat

They have a gimmick with the exclamation points [seriously, every damn sentence on this album ends with one of those things]

They all have matching armbands [hmm, where have I seen that before?]

This band will probably succeed in modest numbers, just because they're underground enough to do so. Scenesters sick of the Hives due to their astonishing mainstream popularity will latch onto this like a flea to a dog, claiming the band as the "real deal" in rock and roll.

After repeated listenings of this, I have to wonder if this band is a joke. The back of the CD says this:

"We Don't Believe In The Future! We Live For The Moment! Dance To The Sound Of Right Now!"

It's almost like they're admitting they're a flavor of the week. Further puzzlement arouses from the this quote on the liner notes:

"No Art Was Used In The Making Of This Album!"

It's hard not to agree. This, at it's core, is 11 songs of cut-rate garage rock that ends before a half hour passes, so you don't get worn out on it too soon. Download the MP3s and decide for yourselves - I'm still not sure if I'm passing on this yet or not.

MP3s
Shake! Shake! Scream!
Last Chance For Action!
No More Dancing!
Out With The Old! In With The New!

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evilmidget2 (February 17, 2003)

way to namedrop, jon bandmy momssnatch or whatever. fucker.

Anonymous (October 18, 2002)

I don't like explanation points, I'm partial to semicolons. ;; ;;; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; yea semicolon yea;;;;;;;;;yea;;;;;yea;;;;;;;;;;;;;

waste_elite (October 15, 2002)

is it just me, or do all of those exclamation points make you want to hate this band!

!!!

Anonymous (October 15, 2002)

meh, i like mat lewis' (agenda's drummer) other bands, the pocket rockets and the max levine ensemble better than this.

Anonymous (October 15, 2002)

i blame whoever invented the garage for all this shitty music.

Anonymous (October 14, 2002)

Garage Rock is done in a GARAGE!!!!- Mr. B

Tahoejeff (October 14, 2002)

Usually if something is teetering between greatness and mediocrity that means its somewhere in the middle...hence the medio part of the word mediocrity. These guys are mediocre. No way around it...nothing special to see here...keep moving

waste_elite (October 13, 2002)

this sounds pretty damn corny

SOYBOMB (October 11, 2002)

I'm still rocking out to "We Want Fun" so you never know

Peace,
-SOYBOMB-

JonBonBandersnatch (October 11, 2002)

let me rephrase...the makers are the masters of modern garage rock.

JonBonBandersnatch (October 11, 2002)

i agree with the review...not bad, not great, still undecided. i like the keyboards though (which always seems to remind me of ? and the mysterians). i still think the masters of garage rock are the makers (at least when they were a garage band)