A Small Victory

A Small Victory: The Pieces We KeepThe Pieces We Keep (2003)
Lobster Records

Reviewer Rating: 3

Contributed by: InaGreendaseBrian
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on December 2nd 2003I could either deem this "hoodie rock," therefore pushing the ever-caving in boundaries of the future cliché even further in, or I could just iterate that A Small Victory should fit in quite nicely on the Lobster label with its new contemporaries like Over It, Park, and Staring Back. I think I'll e.

I could either deem this "hoodie rock," therefore pushing the ever-caving in boundaries of the future cliché even further in, or I could just iterate that A Small Victory should fit in quite nicely on the Lobster label with its new contemporaries like Over It, Park, and Staring Back. I think I'll emphasize the latter.

Like many, ASV pairs the emo with the pop/punk/rock like a new pair of gloves, with a good one-size-fits-all mentality. However, this is the only concrete stereotype.

Strongly reserved vocals carry nary a trace of nasal induction nor whiny tones. The layered, varied riffs between the two guitarists keep it fun and interesting, and are fairly air guitar-worthy; no half-assed palm mutes here, people. The subtle tempo and mood changes throughout the tunes sneak up on you seemingly out of nowhere. The band, carefully, even carries the occasional inclining hint at the college emo rock explosion of the 1990s. All these functions portrayed within a solid six-pack of songs.

The Halloween colors (orange, black, and white) used for the layout scheme reflect the underlying seasonal theme of the lyrics appropriately. A cold-weather sense is consistent, like in "Their Lovers Fall," when vocalist Mark Walker (shoot me if I'm wrong) sings "through that frosted window I swear I felt this scarf tighten around my neck," or in "Hammer Strong;" "I would trade it all for the wind to sting our bloodshot eyes."

You can thank your lucky stars that the minimal use of screams ASV invokes are extremely sparse and scattered, and in the least, effective for the whopping total of twenty-somewhat seconds they're put to use.

The title track that opens the EP even has its own encore three minutes in, as a one second pause sits in the air like morning dew at 5 A.M., until the group breaks in with the hook line. It's a fine example of the catchy melodies ASV manages to exude without being painstakingly repetitive.

It's the little things like the quiet, faded background keyboard in "Their Lovers Fall," the abrupt acoustic use in "My Sweet Explosion," that are significant of what this band is exceptionally capable of fluidly conveying without throwing a mess of it in your face.

They kept the pieces for good reason.

MP3s "The Pieces We Keep"
"Hammer Strong"

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (April 9, 2005)

they are fucking great, minus recent news.....

Anonymous (March 24, 2004)

This cd is great. It gets better and better as I listen to it. At first, I was really disappointed b/c I was a big fan of their last EP, but it grew on me a ton. I don't know, maybe throw it back in your cd player in a few weeks and see if anything changes. Cool guitar lines, a singer who sings in a normal octave, songs that don't follow the blink-182 song structure--its "aural" sex.

Greenvandal (December 8, 2003)

my place was called Unique Barber shop. nothing was unique about it. not even the name.

Anonymous (December 6, 2003)

Or maybe...shut the fuck up.
twat

boba_fett (December 6, 2003)

he likes the mall and he gonna vote for someone named vic who is a tory.

Anonymous (December 6, 2003)

Let's break it down:
as mall vic tory
what does that mean, man? Help.

Anonymous (December 6, 2003)

great clips...that's a real place? scary.
-Janelle

Anonymous (December 6, 2003)

My friend commited suicide after getting a haircut at Great Clips.

-BSD

Greenvandal (December 6, 2003)

My mom said my new haircut made me look handsome if that counts for anything.

-!yup!

Anonymous (December 6, 2003)

"And yes, I do have raving mad knife skillzzzzzz."

It's true, just ask Larry King...
-Janelle

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

"Naw, Janelle and Vandal are cool. BSD sucks."

BSD does not suck. And yes, I do have raving mad knife skillzzzzzz.

-BSD

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

Somebody steal this bands gear please. If I don't see a plea on this website to,"please return our stuff" I'm gonna have a hissy fit.
twat

boba_fett (December 5, 2003)

""Lynch mob". Fool."

fuck i feel like a fool.

Greenvandal (December 5, 2003)

Wow. I forgot about that asshat. If he was hear, he would be the first victim of the mob.

Kevin11 was totally senses fail.

-!ibetnoonegetsthat!

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

God damn this band sucks.

Almost as much as the review.

inagreendase (December 5, 2003)

Speaking of hated people, where did Kevin11 ever go?

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

"Lynch mob". Fool.

-sickboi

boba_fett (December 5, 2003)

"uh... a "linch" mob? what the fuck."

linch mob fool. a posse. you know you get a bunch of angry people together and you linch someone. its the word for a mob thats out hunting to hang someone.

im down with this riot. let's get it going!

RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

I don't know Janelle, I get impersonated quite a bit. Pretty much everyone hates my negative ass. Darn.

-sickboi

Greenvandal (December 5, 2003)

Theres no friendship like sarcastically bitter friendship, thats what I always say!

Ok, we got a mob of 4 now. Lets kik some ass, burn some department stores, ad light chickens fire!

WOOOOOOO

PUNKNEWS.ORG RIOT!!!

-!ohandiguesswecouldkillthatguytoo!

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

I guess Vandal's being nastily sarcastic in reference to me (I like it...) but yeah, I'm with you.
-Janelle

Anonymous (December 5, 2003)

park owns

mar310 (December 4, 2003)

uh... a "linch" mob? what the fuck.

boba_fett (December 4, 2003)

im with you GreenVandal. let's get ourselves a linch mob going. who's with us?

Greenvandal (December 4, 2003)

Oh, and Janelle can um...i dunno, kik his remains. Unless sheis handy with a knife as well. Seeing as she is so street I would think knife fights wouldnt be a new thing :)

hehehe

-!yeahiknowthatwasntfunny!

Greenvandal (December 4, 2003)

Yeah, me and BSD can combine our knife fighting skills to take the fucker down.

-!razorburnsucks!-

boba_fett (December 4, 2003)

there used to be a guy named fathead here. he got impersonated all the time.

yeah it does suck to get impersonated, people get pissed at you and its not even you... it blows. we oughta find out who this guy is and end him.

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

yeah, but boba, come on we're the ones who get impersonated...i don't know; i don't recall this happening to others.
-Janelle
i know it's fun to hate...i love to hate i love to hate deck the halls with sharon tate...

boba_fett (December 4, 2003)

"HEY Vandal - you, me, and BSD have something in common now!!
ha
-Janelle
we must be the 3 everyone loves to hate."

no i think everyone just loves to hate everyone. thats what so great about this place, its 100% flammers! and that makes for some funny comments.

but not that its cool to hate. just funny.

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

Naw, Janelle and Vandal are cool. BSD sucks.

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

HEY Vandal - you, me, and BSD have something in common now!!
ha
-Janelle
we must be the 3 everyone loves to hate.

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

Worst band ever.

Greenvandal (December 4, 2003)

Holy fucking shit, i feel so honored! Someone is pretending to be me!

(see post below saying no to knife fights)

Wow...I guess this makes me a regular here now, doesnt it? Anyway its pretty easy to tell the fake !GV! from the real one. I have a registered name! heh he even talks like me...although I prefer the condradictory name "kids" over "ladies" but whatever. Im outty.

-GreenVandal!

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

you're dead.

Anonymous (December 4, 2003)

Ladies, come on.
We don't want to have any more knife fights around here.
Believe you me!
-Greenvandal.

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

"And to BSD, stop making it so evident what a completely fucking pathetic loser you are."

Shut up, you filthy little jailwhore. Anybody with a mock rap reference in their name sucks ten times worse than me.

-BSD

boba_fett (December 3, 2003)

im down with this band. not half bad.

Icapped2pac (December 3, 2003)

I got this free with my new Park CD because they fucked up my order the first time (sent 1 instead of the 2 Park Cd's I ordered). I think Inignot would sum it up like this:

This "Park" is infinitely excellent. This "A Small Victory", however, is very booooring.

I'm glad I didn't pay for it, and I won't bother taking it to a used CD store because they're too chock full of Chumbawumba and Coolio CD's to every buy anything from anybody. So I guess it'll just gather dust somewhere. It's not that it's bad or anything, I just think there are at least 20 other bands who do this tyle better, such as the other 3 Lobster bands you mentioned.

And to BSD, stop making it so evident what a completely fucking pathetic loser you are.

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

I'd like to bite the lead singer's nipples off, then knock his teeth out & fuck him in the face.

Sincerely,
Patrick Bateman

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

I don't get it though, the poster said the same thing about the Ramones. And it seemed like a gimmick because he changed the band names.

what the hell?

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

Not as good as the Faith No More song of the same name.

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

I live in the same area, and the to the guy below the guy below me... RIGHT ON!

I hate to say it, but he is exactly right. 100% dead on. Being around these guys or their subsequent manager "L" person makes you embarassed to be human.

Hearing their music is even worse.

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

To the comment right below -

Don't we have enough gimmicks spamming the review boards? superdude's suffices, don't try and start some stupid shit like that

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

dude these guys fucking blow. i have no idea why everyone liked them so much. i guess because they were a local band where i lived that actually was going somewhere..... maybe they were moving out of the shitter into the actual septic tank with all the other shit bands that all sound the same. these guys are scene fags and the guy who managed them in the getgo...yea you know who you are L, is a total cuntrag. the guy is a fucking idiot. hes like 27 who gets with 17 year old girls. that guys sounds like a real winner. anyways these guys blow ass and make even shitty bands such as rufio, count the stars, etc sound like nothing i've ever heard before. but seriously, for those of you who enjoy whatever the fuck this is, have fun listening to it while you jerk off and write in your live journal.

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

The top of that guitar looks exactly like my dog's gland! Hahaha!

Anonymous (December 3, 2003)

I can thank my luck stars?!

Yeah, I agree with some earlier comments, the style doesn't fit the genre.

If, say, you were reviewing a Joan-of-Arc record, you would be allowed to use that type of vocabulary.

But please, keep the pretention out. Faulkner wasn't pretentious, and look how far he got.

(not that writing a review has anything to do with the craft)