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Ten Foot Pole

Insider (1998)
Epitaph Records

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

Published on September 24th 2004

Ten Foot Pole really established themselves as being one of the better pop-punk bands around with Unleashed, an album which remains an essential purchase to this day, largely due to Dennis Jagard's highly recognisable and, in my opinion, awesome vocal style and the fact that they are a very solid live band too. Insider was the follow up and also their most succesful release during their time with Epitaph, and it surpassed Unleashed in terms of songwriting and melody.

"The Getaway" is a song anyone will have trouble forgetting after they've heard it, and it really is TFP at their very best, with excellent drumming and nice changes in tempo throughout its 3 and a half minutes. This sets the standard for the remainder of Insider, and all the songs are consistently good, especially "Another Half Apology" and "Nothing To Lose" - the former is more subtle while the latter is played at breakneck pace, however anybody with even a passing interest in pop-punk will enjoy and appreciate these tracks as being terrific examples of the genre when it's done right. The only really slow song is "Late At Night" but even then you have to take notice of how well-crafted it is.

Ten Foot Pole, while being pretty well-known, are nowhere near as popular as they really ought to be, which is a crying shame because during their 15-odd years together they've delivered some superb material, however for me they really hit their peak with "Insider". The fact that they've had numerous line-up changes and record company switches is irrelevant, because TFP will always create short but sweet songs regardless of circumstances, be they serious ("Still Knee Deep") or goofy ("Officer I Swear She's 19") and for that they earn my respect.

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Anonymous (September 30, 2004)

I'll take "rev" over this one any day.

-notfeelingcreative

mikeinflames (September 30, 2004)

i used to be a tfp fan
then they put out bad mother trucker and whateverthier last album was
both of those albums are oure shit
and they are not good live
they are hands down one of the worst bands i have ever seen

Anonymous (September 28, 2004)

shitty so-cal pop punk. i'm glad these bands are dying off, this is terrible.

Anonymous (September 28, 2004)

I enjoy tea bagging men!

Anonymous (September 28, 2004)

I absolutely hate this album. After struggling to listen through it once, I promptly threw it in the garbage. I though about bringing it to a second hand store but I was to embarrassed to admit that I actually bought this shit.

This band had one good album but after that pitcher was kicked out they were horrible.

Anonymous (September 27, 2004)

This is honestly the WORST album I have ever bought. I bought it a long time ago when I was still into this kinda stuff because of the song getaway i heard on a comp. The rest of the record made me cringe. Every album I have bought after this one has been better.

Anonymous (September 27, 2004)

This album is right up there with Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues as my favorite album of all time.

Late at Night is not a slow song. That's the best song on the cd it has a catchy as fuck but you dont get tired of it chorus.

What sets this cd apart from all the rest of TFP's material is the way the guitars are recorded. It has that Strung Out style metal sound to it but by no means is it anything close to metal.

Best TFP albums in order:
Insider
Subliminable Messages
Rev
Bad Mother Trucker
Unleashed
Swill(although if they had better production this cd could be pretty good)

Also I think one of the best TFP songs is Walkin' from their split with the Satanic Surfers. Wok Inn by Pulley is pretty much the same song but the TFP version is much better.

Chason (September 25, 2004)

score is for the singer's reference to hi-standard.

Anonymous (September 25, 2004)

yo bemused, that guy has more wit than you ever will, he's spot on as well

Anonymous (September 25, 2004)

This review is worse than what ebert said about my weenie being sucked.

Vincent Gallo

TheOnetrueBill (September 25, 2004)

I bought this because I wasn't sure if it had Radinsky or not. I sold it back about three weeks later because the other guy's voice is that annoying.

Anonymous (September 25, 2004)

one of my fav albums...
def my fav by these guys

i wish they'd come play around these parts again they were good...

manifesto (September 24, 2004)

Oops! Twas supposed to be 6/10...

manifesto (September 24, 2004)

Well I'd say Swill and Rev were more than a thousand times better than the latest releases by TFP. Scott was the shit!

bemused (September 24, 2004)

What wit! Douche

-chris-

Anonymous (September 24, 2004)

The Getaway is such a cool song. It's on Punk o rama 4 isnt it? That's the best punk-o-rama for sure...it has h2o, beatsteaks, pulley and rancid and loads of others whereas the new ones have a load of shit garage rock bands and rappers...mainstream-o-rama more like ...or maybe trytomakemoremoney-o-rama ...or: goodpunkbandsdontputoutcdsonepitaph-o-rama

Anonymous (September 24, 2004)

The chorus of The Getaway never ceases to remind me of the chorus of the theme to Laverne and Shirley.

Anonymous (September 24, 2004)

"are nowhere near as popular as they really ought to be"
might be because they've released a couple of mediocre albums. Saying that I do have Insider and it is well good but they will never be as good as Pulley.

sciulli (September 24, 2004)

There's only like 2 good songs on here.