I Set My Friends on Fire

I Set My Friends on Fire: You Can't Spell Slaughter Without LaughterYou Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter (2008)
Epitaph Records

Reviewer Rating: 1

User Rating:

Contributed by: Mrdogg45Mrdogg45
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on October 7th 2008

As usual, all the musical problems of the world can be blamed on Soulja Boy.

A while ago, two kids recorded an "electro grindcore" (read: nü-screamo with a drum machine) cover of Soulja Boy's hit "Crank That" and put it on their MySpace. Because of the spectacle of the whole thing and the foolishness of the MySpace generation, the song eventually reached up to 50,000 plays a day, drew the attention of Epitaph and landed the pair, who call themselves I Set My Friends on Fire, a record deal.

Months later, You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter is high in the running for worst album of the year. I don't want to suggest that all grindcore and screamo records are terrible (like any other genre, there exists the good, the average and the bad), but spinning this album is like stubbing your toe for 30 minutes. It'll hurt just enough, but it's more annoying than anything else.

The music aims for brutality and melody, but misses the mark entirely on both counts. The programmed drums give the songs no bottom and the shrill screams of lead singer Matt Mihana sound more like genre parody than actual singing. This is what Atreyu would sound like if one were to remove all of their musicianship, songwriting sensibility and vocal range (and really, that's not saying much).

Slaughter, of course, features their version of "Crank That" as well as an original grindcore rap song called "HXC 2-Step." All I can say is that any album on which "Crank That" is not the worst rap song is bound for failure.

The only -- and I mean the only -- redeeming quality about I Set My Friends on Fire is that they don't seem to be taking themselves very seriously, and one or two of their lame wordplays did make me smile. "WTFWJD" gets funnier the more I think about it, too. But it'll take more than jokes to save this debacle.

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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.

MasterShakeOwns (May 14, 2009)

These guys are horrible. Epitaph continues to fuck themselves in the ass, with their only redeeming quality being Converge.

aggiiiiee (April 18, 2009)

all of you are fucking ignorant and stupid.
ismfof is a great band. so fuck all of you if you dont have anything good to say. i just saw them live and theyre beyond amazing so just stfu since you couldnt sing anywhere close to as good as them.

SilentStorms (October 12, 2008)

I'd never heard of these guys or the Crank That song. Figured I'd give it a listen, and tried the ASL song first. Eh, it wasn't as bad as everyone says. But the Crank That song, dear god that was fucking horrendous. Oh god it's still playing ... turn it offffff! Score is for that song.

Trauma16 (October 9, 2008)

Pure curiosity led me to listen to the soulja boy cover. Terrible, just terrible.
Also the fact that epitaph signed a band based on myspace plays makes me even more sad.

sweetsugarpezz (October 9, 2008)

never has snot's "mr. brett" rung so true.

yea, i said it, i listen to snot.

dual-a-corn (October 9, 2008)

This disgraces Stk Mnt even though it's not them. The resemblance alone is just sickening.

RYANGP (October 8, 2008)

Score is for Narwhal whales. This band/album is terrible.

mystereohasmono (October 8, 2008)

Check out the fruitcakes that dig this shit:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewp rofile&friendid=85096665

That's rough business.

damnitsderek (October 8, 2008)

I'm going to listen to this, just to see how bad it truly if it is.

punkengineer (October 8, 2008)

I listened to this on purevolume just for kicks and it seriously made me afraid of kids in high school these days. No one over the age of 15 would ever listen to this crap. Mr. Brett has clearly turned into a pedophile luring in 15 year old myspace whores to his label with this shit. Unbelievable.

kraze (October 8, 2008)

This is surely just a ripoff though, it's not really done by the combatwoundedveteran guy, right?

robalobadob (October 8, 2008)

I wasn't even able to sit through Crank That cover. It hurt me.

I was, however, able to listen to the Scooby Doo version of it repeatedly. But maybe that's just because I love me some Scooby Doo.

JayTee (October 8, 2008)

Slaughter is the best medicine, yeah yeah, we all saw Dark Knight.

freesandwich (October 8, 2008)

punk is dead

franco (October 8, 2008)

The real question is why did the guy that does No Idea's covers do this album cover?

RoyalWithCheese (October 8, 2008)

I can't wait to see that benjamin button movie.

red_eye_inc (October 8, 2008)

th1s band sux

inspection12e (October 8, 2008)

"I thought that this was a review for I Would Set Myself on Fire for You. Score is for being let down"

I was in the same boat back when Epitaph signed them. I had thought they broke up but was happy to see they signed to epitaph even thought it seemed odd. Went to their myspace and was letdown. This is absolutely awful.

geoh (October 8, 2008)

I listen to a pretty broad range of punk/hardcore/related shit. I like my old school morris era black flag, I like FFTL. But anyone with any appreciation for music, or for that matter, simply had a brain stem, can see that these are two guys cashing in on a meaningless speck on the radar of pop culture, and Epitaph is cashing in on the mindless, lemming-like qualities of scene kids who think hardcore is about teh m3 4Lz and cute hair.

The original article about this came up on punknews sometime last spring. That was the day I lost what little respect I had remaining for Epitaph. Thursday's signing bolstered a small interest, but overall Epitaph signs alot of meaningless scene metal bands, and ISMFOF were the nail in the coffin of Epitaphs all but staggering credibility as a punk label.

Fuck, they got their band name from an Aiden song.

Mr. Brett, you, sir, are and idiot :(

TraumaSponge (October 8, 2008)

Yeah, it looks like the cover of This Is Not An Erect, All-Red Neon Body

skankaholikk (October 8, 2008)

Does ANYONE else get a Steat Mtn./Combat Wounded Veteran vibe from this art?

I swear.

Holy_Balls (October 8, 2008)

This band doesn't take account that kids are impressionable these days. They might actually set their friends on fire. If I was a parent, I wouldn't let my kid buy this. I would tell them to stay away from this band, and stay away from fire. Fire is dangerous. Plus if you plan on setting your friends on fire, are they even your friend to begin with? Kid's are mean these days. Where did respect go? Gosh golly.

: (

dante3000 (October 7, 2008)

Ryan147=the new Blinkrules?
-Dante

mikexdude (October 7, 2008)

Don't mess with JonDaley, he'll fuck you up.

SloaneDaley (October 7, 2008)

music is subjective, yes to a degree, but I'm sorry to say there is a line where things becomes trash or else there would be no fields of criticism in art, music, literature etc. In all those fields there are certain....principles of design? yes principles of design on how painting comes together or how a song is written. People can follow or extrapolate those principles to various degrees of success or disregard them completely as long as there is a point to be made. This my friends is trash.

rayn147 (October 7, 2008)

What the fuck? I fail to see the how this is a joke account. I planned to make an account for sometime. I finally did to rate this an album. I definitly plan to use it. Anyway, They really have no place being on this site Punk(Not Grindcore, electronica, w/e the fuck this band is)news. This and Star Fucking Hipsters' 'Until Were Dead' are the best albums of the year, in my opinon. But I can understand the overall negative reaction on this site.

mikexdude (October 7, 2008)

Best joke account, under me.

rayn147 (October 7, 2008)

I appear to be the one of the only people who have commented on this band and actually like it. I fear that soon, they will sell out to a major label and tone down their music. I can only imange all of their shows being dominated by 12 year old girls screaming out " I LOVE YOU MATT/NABAL!!!!". I have liked this band since the first release of the crank dat cover. I have closely followed the band, all their demo songs, everything. However, they appear that soon, they will be all about the image. Its such a shame. But I still love the album, I have been listening to it since it was leaked. And for all the people who say stupid things such as "th1s band sux", music is subjective. You may not like it, but you are not the definitive authority on what is "good" or "bad" music. This music isn't for everyone though.

TraumaSponge (October 7, 2008)

The cover reminds me of that one Combatwoundedveteran album.

RRK (October 7, 2008)

I thought that this was a review for I Would Set Myself on Fire for You. Score is for being let down.

Rudy87 (October 7, 2008)

this sucks more than the new Goldfinger album, and thats pretty hard

chickswithdicks (October 7, 2008)

Posted by 24HourPriapism on 2008-10-07 19:00:39

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7654267.stm

the best part about that is one of them is named 'Fukuchan'.

IamMclovin (October 7, 2008)

Fuck these dudes, fuck this label and fuck anybody who likes this fuckin horseshit. Fuck.

thehandswillabide (October 7, 2008)

does releasing this record cancel out "the shape of punk to come" ??

Cos (October 7, 2008)

Their fan videos crack me up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a9CEIeWmX4
http://www.you tube.com/watch?v=cYgGyWjep9w

ThomPunkAheaddotcom (October 7, 2008)

This is something words can't really describe. The fact that a lot of teenagers will probably buy this and love it, claiming it as 'music', is painful to accept.

davepwnt (October 7, 2008)

Your negativity alone made me download the album. As for if it is good or not, I do not know, for it's so downloading.

Good review, hopefully the album bombs, like it should.

Dante3000 (October 7, 2008)

I tend to let Epitaph slide on whatever they do but this band infuriates me. They're not a "band". They didn't play together before this, they didn't tour, they have no other material.

This is the most sadly obvious example of a label hoping to cash in on an internet hyped band. The original Soulja Boy song is like what a year old? Their remake is maybe 9 months old? And in that time they were signed, wrote, recorded and released an album? Yeah if you could cram that all into 15 minutes (as to capitalize on your fleeting image) Mr. Brett would appreciate that.
-Dante

Ellsi (October 7, 2008)

why can' i give a score of 0

mattramone (October 7, 2008)

You really should be able to give negative scores.

Crap like this is why I hate the kids. It's all novelty and makeup to them.

suburbanxcore (October 7, 2008)

What the hell was Epitaph doing? Selling all my Pennywise and Bad Religion CDs.

mikexdude (October 7, 2008)

Album of the year!

24HourPriapism (October 7, 2008)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7654267.stm