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Reviewing anything that Buddyhead releases is inherently dangerous. The website people love to hate talks so much shit on other bands that one must think that if they believe enough in a band to actually shell out the money to release a record of theirs, the band has to be all sorts of good. It's a lot of pressure on a group, but Your Enemies Friends shrugs off the Buddyhead stigma and delivers an incredibly solid debut LP.

Your Enemies Friends will probably get compared by many a lazy rock journalist to Pretty Girls Make Graves, due to the complex song structures, liberal use of keyboards, and a strong female vocalist. The group's sound only bares a passing resemblance to Pretty Girls Make Graves, if that. Your Enemies Friends instead concocts a mixture of dissonant post-rock, snotty new-wave, and wall-of-sound guitar rock reminiscent of contemporaries Vaux.

You Are Being Videotaped's best asset is it's overall recording sound. If this band is half as intense and venomous as producer Cameron Webb made them sound, listeners will be in for a treat come live show time. There's a lot of power in tracks like "The One Condition" and almost-too-poppy "Back Of A Taxi." Main vocalist Ronnie Washburn's voice contains a healthy amount of swagger and sass but - amazingly enough - can hold a decent tune at the same time! A definite rarity in today's oversaturated market of overhyped, undertalented style-before-substance groups.

The only gripe I can scrounge up about Your Enemies Friends is that they never seem to know when to quit. Many of the songs on the disc get rather repetitive, playing the chorus over and over until it's hammered into your head. It pushes the borders of obnoxiousness occasionally, but the band always seems to know right when to stop pushing the listener's buttons and move onto the next song - it's almost like they planned it.

For a group this young, You Are Being Videotaped contains a lot of elements that work well together, and also leave the door wide open for more experimentation [see the quiet dirge of album closer "Easy Assault" or the electronic/dub mesh of "Census" for proof]. With this disc, Your Enemies Friends should be able to step out from under the Buddyhead shadow and be recognized for the talented musicians they are.

MP3
Back Of A Taxi



People who liked this also liked:
The Weakerthans - Left and LeavingTed Leo and the Pharmacists - The Tyranny Of DistanceAgainst Me! - New WaveJawbreaker - Dear YouAlkaline Trio - GoddamnitAgainst Me! - Searching For A Former ClarityBlink 182 - Blink 182Minus the Bear - Planet of IceBear Vs Shark - TerrorhawkBrand New - Deja Entendu



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    Posted by yellowtrash on 2004-09-13 00:09:23
    My Score:

    I still think this album is boring and the songs mesh too much into each other.

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 28, 2004 at 11:59 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Actually, to the fucker who said this is gramatically incorrect, it is "your enemies' friends" they just leave off the apostrophe. but it is correct

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 28, 2004 at 10:44 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    i definitely enjoy this.and it's even better live.

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 29, 2004 at 3:48 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    The vocals, jeebus, they're so fucking crap, ruins the rest of the CD, which is actually pretty decent. "Please make me feel like I'm aliiiiiiiive", or whatever he says, jesus, could it BE more stereotypical emo-nonsense? I can't believe Buddyhead cared to release this.

    Posted by elvisdechico on 2004-04-08 17:52:19
    My Score:

    i'm not done listening yet, but so far, this record is pretty tits...

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 2:19 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i think this record is great. i agree that some of the songs get a little grating or something at times, but overall i think it's a great next step. the vocals for the most part are excellent and i keep finding new things to like about it everytime i listen.

    i think the artork is amazing.

    also, i don't really understand the comment about the pgmg comparison. i mean, there's basically only one song on this record with female vocals and prior to the new romance, pgmg never really used keyboards. funny because keyboards were added after they toured endlessly with your enemies friends.

    buddyhead or not, i like it.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 9:39 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Live they were ok. Good musically, but the keyboardist was just about a mannequin as far as I could tell, and the singer was trying WAY too hard.

    As a resident of the district of columbia, if I have to listen to one more out of town band talk about either (a) Dischord records or (b) George Bush and his Republican gov't (this shit didn't happen during Clinton even though it's two sides to the same coin)... I'm gonna throttle someone.

    These guys (or hopefully just the one guy was being a jackass) chose route B.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 6:06 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    the album cover is cool, i don't know what you guys are talking about.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 1:34 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    still a solid debut. the first half is attacking and the second more spatial. good times, great oldies.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 14, 2004 at 1:48 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    that person is right... this bands name doesn't make grammatical sense....t-shirt recall!

    Posted by i-type-poorly on 2004-03-14 11:18:16
    My Score:

    boring album cover

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 14, 2004 at 10:51 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    "Their name isn't even grammatically correct. I'll take my time to listen when they take the time to learn the laws of the language."

    sounds like someones on the rag

    Posted by squirrelbait on 2004-03-14 09:53:54
    My Score:

    "15 hipsters who are from Idaho but live in Hollywood are stoked."

    Wow, you're sooo original. You're the first one ever to post a comment like this about a Buddyhead related post. Go listen to your newest Drive Thru purchase.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 14, 2004 at 1:05 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    good, but not great.

    Posted by TheOneTrueBill on 2004-03-13 22:54:09
    My Score:

    I liked them despite my hardest efforts not to. I like this song as well.

    Posted by Jesse on 2004-03-13 16:20:12
    My Score:

    Actually, you don't have to double space after sentances. The only reason that this was practiced was for typewriters, every letter took up the same amount of space. With fonts like this, single space is actually the correct way. Looks like you lose. And you're telling who to learn how to type?

    Posted by Tommy on 2004-03-13 04:01:49
    My Score:

    Great live band.

    Camera friendly too!

    www.humid.ca/dep/yef01.jpg

    www.humid.ca/dep/yef02.jpg

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 2:11 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    "You didn't put bother to double space between your sentences, so I'll take my time to tell you to shut the fuck up and to learn the "laws of language"

    suck a dick

    Haha... "put bother"? Let's pick a word and stick with it.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 2:08 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Wow... double spaces? Didn't know we were going seventh grade on it there, teach.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 1:38 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    You didn't put bother to double space between your sentences, so I'll take my time to tell you to shut the fuck up and to learn the "laws of language"

    suck a dick

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 13, 2004 at 12:50 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Their name isn't even grammatically correct. I'll take my time to listen when they take the time to learn the laws of the language.

    Posted by notaclevername on 2004-03-12 23:39:09
    My Score:

    i liked them live and i like this mp3--SORT OF like an actually good version of Celebrity,...SORT OF

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 1:57 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    agreed

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 1:32 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    this band is great live, energetic, and they know how to have a good time !!

    Posted by Aubin on 2004-03-12 12:34:37
    My Score:

    I like this one quite a bit... it does bear a striking resemblance to the confluence of events that might occur if the Icarus Line and Pretty Girls Make Graves were to merge in some scientifically fascinating but wholly organic way.

    Yes, according to Scott, I'm officially lazy for comparing them to PGMG. Of course, he just did the same thing, but in a roundabout way... sneaky bastard.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:07 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i don't really like this band that much, and when i saw them live with the locust and dillinger they kinda sucked, i like pretty girls make graves though

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:05 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i like the cover art

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:00 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    umm I meant band*

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:00 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Last comment was funny haha. But this bad is good, I can't deny that shit!

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 10:42 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    15 hipsters who are from Idaho but live in Hollywood are stoked.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 10:13 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    best album of the year so far.

    -jacobe

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 9:49 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Maybe we should download it, if only to avoid having to look at that awful cover art.

    Posted by shindo on 2004-03-12 09:32:23
    My Score:

    Back Of A Taxi is an awesome song. I can't wait to pick this up.

    -adam

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 7:45 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    i feel it only necessary to download this album instead of paying buddyhead for it

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 5:07 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    This band is really awesome live. I just picked up this album and I can't stop listening to it. Buddyhead, who knew?!