Full White Drag

We’ve all been there. Bottom of the 9th, two outs, full count, bases loaded, and you’re down by a run in the last game of the World Series. The rest of the team and all your fans need you to be the hero. A strikeout, a pop out, a ground out: None of these are viable options for you at this point; you need the hit that will bring home the championship for you and those who have rooted for you all along; you can’t be the reason the other team celebrates tonight. So the pitch comes in, you swing for the fences...and crack! The window to your kitchen is broken and you’re running like hell from your parents before they beat the living hell out of you. Everything fell at that swing, and you dropped the proverbial ball. Well, for post-punk upstarts Full White Drag, everything will fall on one night as well, or at least that’s what their album title is telling you.

Full White Drag do indeed venture categorically into post-punk, but in the driving, dissonant, methodical sense more than a lot of the dancy energetic music billed as post-punk these days. This EP gives you the feel of actual post-punk with anguished vocals, angular song structures, and driving rhythms that compensate for the lack of speed to be found. While on that subject, speed variation is one of the bones that I have to pick with the music on the EP. I have no doubts or reservations about this being a talented group of guys, but there are some instances here where changes in speeds and rhythm could do well for the overall flow. The EP doesn’t quite reach 20 minutes, so it’s not as big of an issue as it would be on a full-length, but it’s definitely something a listener will quickly pick up on upon hearing this.

Also quickly picked up is that the guitarists seem to follow a certain formula to each song. The chord progressions aren’t the same, but the fuzz and distortion of it all doesn’t allow for much distinction, turning the sounds more into a muddy haze than a clear picture. Some changes in the overall effects of the guitar work would do well for the sounds being indistinguishable at points, and could only make the recordings sound more fluid.

Fluidity aside, singer Dave Mueller could be a sticking point for a lot of people upon hearing this EP. It’s not that he’s a bad vocalist, but at times he just seems too monotone or emotionless to really convey what the other members of the band are attempting to. I think it’s a great vocalist that could potentially push this band over the top, and into the territory they need to be in, but Mueller just falls into mediocrity. He’s not bringing the caliber of the songs or the EP itself down, but at the same time he’s not giving it that extra umph that it very well may need.

Full White Drag remind me of something very close to Scott: the Chicago Cubs. Potential and expectations are there, but things just manage to go awry every time. Be it Mark Prior's elbow acting up for the 47th time, or lack of direction on “Art Beaudrie,” something just manages to come up. In both cases, there’s a wealth of potential, and some trouble realizing it. For the sake of Scott’s sanity, and my own curiosity of how this band would sound with some minor tweaks, I hope both can soon make the necessary improvements.