Slowride

Slowride: As I Survive The Suicide BomberAs I Survive The Suicide Bomber (2002)
Deep Elm Records

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

Contributed by: maverickScott
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on March 14th 2002I know what you're thinking: it's a Foghat cover band! I was fooled, too. But after my initial depression and subsequent listenings of this album, I realized that this band is the second coming of Jawbreaker. Oops, sorry. I didn't mean for you to knock your Mountain Dew onto your keyboard in s.

I know what you're thinking: it's a Foghat cover band! I was fooled, too. But after my initial depression and subsequent listenings of this album, I realized that this band is the second coming of Jawbreaker.

Oops, sorry. I didn't mean for you to knock your Mountain Dew onto your keyboard in shock when you read that. I'll wait while you clean it up.

All good? Okay. So there's this band, Slowride, right? They're a pop-punk trio from Dallas, TX. But there's oh-so-much more than meets the eye. This is a CD that deserves your full listening attention, otherwise you'll miss it. Imagine Jawbreaker, circa mid-90s, got a Radiohead-like burst of creativity and recorded 2 albums' worth of material. One, obviously, was "Dear You." So what happened to the other material? This would be it. Slowride summons the punk rock mantra of Blake Schwarzenbach, taking the smoke-3-packs-a-day style vocals made popular by him and throwing in some of the most elaborate 3-chord punk rock you've heard in a long time.

"I'm Everything Without You," "Rockets And Jets," "Montana," "Winter" - what do they have in common? All are power chord extravaganzas. This is the kind of angsty pop-punk you relish because you get a total body workout as you jump from playing air guitar to air drums during these songs. The band isn't immune to slower tempos, though, as most well shown in tracks like "Four Eyes," "Self Improvement: Lesson One," and "Money." In "Money" in particular, the band starts off with a pretty slow tempo to begin with then switch into the patented Jawbreaker half-time feel for the interlude before it gets kicked back up a notch to rock the rest of the song out. This is one of my favorite tracks on the CD, by far. There's even an inexplicably enjoyable hidden track involving a lot of beatboxing. While Jawbreaker never had that on one of their albums, it still works.

I know it sounds like I'm unabashedly praising them, but the band isn't perfect. The only thing is, there aren't any major fouls committed on this album that are worth mentioning. Slowride has put out a really solid punk album that deserves some recognition. If you're looking for a band to fill your Jawbreaker void, give these guys a chance.

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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 (December 18, 2002)

Yes, we know that Slowride is good. They should be on Vagrant in no time.

Ronin (March 24, 2002)

Slowride is a totally amazing band. Their drummer also plays in the band Darlington. Darlington kicks ass. So everyone who likes this band, (or not), should check them out.

Anonymous (March 21, 2002)

Question: Why is this being compared to Jawbreaker?

Answer: Because everything these days supposedly sounds like them or Fugazi.

Judging by what I've heard, comparing this to Jawbreaker is an insult to Blake and his amazing songwriting, not to mention the rest of the band. This stuff borders on generic and will by no means fill anyone's "Jawbreaker void" unless they've never heard a single chord off of "Dear You" or any of the other Jawbreaker albums for that matter. Give me a break, please.

matteatworld (March 21, 2002)

thats just people pretending to be fathead you fucknut... get a life...

Anonymous (March 20, 2002)

FATHEAD isnt gone, havent you seen like 3 posts down from this? he keeps on making random 'appearances' throughout the reviews section and in every single post he currently makes now he is simply a bitch. hes always like, 'what the fuck is this? sum 41 on punknews.org? go to pseudo-punk.org you posers', etc. etc. he just needs to grow up out of his asheville, nc house and get the fuck over that blink 182 and sum 41 and others are great bands and he doesn't need to bash them every chance he gets, we know he doesn't like them why must he make it a point to tell us every second? i know im prolly being hipicritical by posting on 20 posts at the same time, but hey, i needed to get my point across to HIM. -skinnyhead

matteatworld (March 20, 2002)

fathead is gone... so i think you should fuck off skinnyhead.. that was a pointless/needless/immature comment..

Anonymous (March 20, 2002)

I just wanted to say something, and what better than to say it on the 10 newest reviews? FATHEAD is the biggest double standard I have ever seen. I would like to take this opportunity to say 'fuck you fathead' and that I will write numerous anti-fathead songs for the rest of my life. You are a disgrace to any kind of community or whatever 'punk scene' you THINK< a> you live in. Fuck off dick-sucker. You will know me in the coming years and you will grow to hate me. You have no musical knowledge whatsoever at all. Go listen to your 'Jets to Brazil' bullshit. Haha, and you call yourself 'punk'. And don't even say I'm pseudo-punk for saying that because you know what?! I'M NOT ANYTHING 'PUNK', I listen to Sum 41 and Blink 182 all day and my band mimics their very exsistence. Fuck off, nobody wants you around. -skinnyhead.

MusicIsMyLife (March 18, 2002)

I thought Fathead had been laid to rest.

Anonymous (March 18, 2002)

most casual reviewers (those of us who don't get shit for free) review what we like. I have given perfect scores to releases like 4 A.M Friday by Avail, not because it's a landmark, world shaking album, but cause it just fucking rocks. granted the perfect scores are overdone, but no ones getting paid here.they're only stars. this score is for my drunken night at an Agent Orange show last week. lets just say gin and wine should never, ever be mixed together.- fathead

Anonymous (March 15, 2002)

I congratulate the reviewer on not giving this album a perfect score, apparently lots of people on this site seem to think a whole lot of albums are as good as something like I Against I, Damgaged, London Calling, or Singles Going Steady. People need to stop giving every album reviewed five stars.

Anonymous (March 14, 2002)

yeah and dont fucking review something that is old and then give it fucking 5 stars and talk about how much you want to suck their dicks cause they sound like the gay ass bands that everyone rips off of.

oh wait, then there wouldnt be any reviews on this fucking site.

maverick (March 14, 2002)

Dude -
This has been explained a million times on this site, but I'll do it once more since apparently you don't know:
Only Aubin can add user-submitted reviews. Adam and I [and any other editor, for that matter] can add our own reviews personally, or we can add reviews that someone else wrote and then sent to us [i.e. Sheena's live reviews are all posted by me because I get her into the shows]. If you really are dying to see your reviews up, email them to me at scott@adkg.com with all the pertinent info, and I'll post them for you.

Anonymous (March 14, 2002)

i hate whendovescry. he's stupid.

whendovescry (March 14, 2002)

Must you mock me by putting up more reviews?