The Sandwiches

The Sandwiches: Hitting Refresh to Drop Witty CommentsHitting Refresh to Drop Witty Comments (2009)
Death to False Hope

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

User Rating:

Contributed by: dlangl4dlangl4
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on August 28th 2009Hitting Refresh to Drop Witty Comments, the first proper release by new punk group the Sandwiches, is not an album for which the band should feel ashamed. It really isn't. Some people might say the six-song EP is a natural and immature by-product of a bunch of 20-something losers who have nothing be.

Hitting Refresh to Drop Witty Comments, the first proper release by new punk group the Sandwiches, is not an album for which the band should feel ashamed. It really isn't. Some people might say the six-song EP is a natural and immature by-product of a bunch of 20-something losers who have nothing better to do than to read Punknews.org all day while simultaneously dreaming about making a band about reading Punknews.org all day. Such critics might even view the resulting band and album as a pointless and superfluous extension of such nonsense.

But Hitting Refresh to Drop Witty Comments is much more than that. It's more than just a pseudo-parody or tribute album to Punknews.org. It really is. It's a genuine release by a genuine group of musicians (that have never met in real life, mind you) that are trying to genuinely impact the punk scene by creating genuinely enjoyable music.

To do this, the band decided to do something creative. Most bands don't have a theme. That's not true for the Sandwiches, whose theme could be described as a result and reflection of the community and sound that is by now widely known as the moniker orgcore.

The Sandwiches' method of doing this is a sort of musical theater, one both influenced and influencing of the genre mentioned above. In this play, characters from the org community (such as MattRamone and Holy_Balls) make expected appearances. Also, traditional (but admittedly worn out) Punknews memes comprise the lyrics to an entire song. And most apparent is the actual sound of the music, which is probably exactly as you guessed it would be...medium-tempo, Hot Water Music-esque compositions with bratty, childish vocals and sneering guitar chords and melodies. In other words, it's orgcore-tastic.

Yeah, it's all here. The release is a complete package. I don't know how else to write it… The Sandwiches appear to be a real band making real music. And fuck me if it isn't enjoyable to top it all off.

Standout tracks "And Out Come the (Timber)Wolves" and "Who Is Phone?" show the band's ability to find a pleasant sound that falls between mid-tempo-guitar-and-vocal-harmonies and laid-back choruses featuring "whoa"-laden gang chants. Again, this is standard orgcore you're looking at. The result is enjoyable and anthem-filled tracks that typically run kind of long. The six songs clock in just under 18 minutes. A few tracks could have been 30 seconds (or so) shorter with no loss of quality to the album. Regardless, the release as a whole is tight and sounds professional. And if tight and professional sound like the product of an excellent band to you, that's because it probably is.

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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.

JimmyChoo1 (March 25, 2011)

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davebrave4 (February 8, 2011)

Where's the download link? They don't expect me to pay for this, do they?

ramblinboyofpleasure (March 5, 2010)

Sounds like a waste of 25 minutes.

Ilovesuckingdick69 (September 10, 2009)

tell someone 2 get their ey fixed. and

Tom_Delonge (September 3, 2009)

This album is a circular narrative in many ways. Where it kind of sums up the org in a time capsule.

Hey_Asshole (September 1, 2009)

looks like someone took hand drawing lessons from Rob Liefeld

MyStereoHasMono (September 1, 2009)

scruffy = cry baby
womp womp womp

radtothemax (September 1, 2009)

Less Sandwhiches, more Wierd Al.

hamonrye (August 31, 2009)

is scott heisel aware of this band?

SydBarrett420 (August 31, 2009)

Score is for SydBarrett420 references in the comments.

sumwon (August 31, 2009)

I think the site does a pretty good job of dismissing this band. The news posts seem to have neutral-at-best language.

And the fact that my shitty reviews have been posted strongly suggests that this was actually one of the ten best reviews available to be posted this week. So I have no problem with it being posted.

The music is mediocre and the joke is lame, but it's still better than half the small-time shit I check out that is reviewed here.

Plus I'd rather the band's theme be something silly like this than it being 'a bunch of bearded dudes in jean cut-offs drinking PBR and pretending to dig Louis Armstrong/Wham' -- that's just as shameless a gimmick.

Kurasuke (August 31, 2009)

It's pretty... average-y.

colin (August 30, 2009)

i don't see the deal behind the uproar about a review. plenty of shit gets reviewed here. if bands want to be reviewed, it takes all of $1 to send a CD to a staff reviewer or even less to send a mediafire link. there doesn't seem to be a shortage of lesser known bands getting reviewed, i doubt there's a stockpile somewhere.

that being said, this band is still lame.

brett-nola (August 30, 2009)

These guys won't be legit until they have a Horsebites tshirt and someone from Doomtree makes a reference to them.

Fuzzy (August 30, 2009)

They've had four news posts.

givemeamuseumandillfillit (August 30, 2009)

Fuzzy: I'm pretty sure people are talking about the fact that they've had a bunch of newsposts, not the actual review. I love the fact that you still accept cd's from anyone and you definently have a point about this not being a review from someone on the staff because then it would definently be judged more on its own merits.

Fuzzy (August 30, 2009)

Remember when people wrote reviews and sent them in to the site? And they got published?

I don't see this album reviewed by a staff member.

wearestillalive (August 30, 2009)

Hopefully this will add some perspective regarding the 'this shouldnt have been reviewed' comments: brokencyde and i set my friends on fire have reviews on this site.

It is not really hard to get review coverage here. just, i dunno, email your record to someone who submits reviews regularly and ask them to listen to it.

mikexdude (August 30, 2009)

Hahaha truth. I mean, you can read MattRamone's comments if you want the latest "Sandwich news."

givemeamuseumandillfillit (August 30, 2009)

Yeah, as I said I was more talking about news posts than reviews, I'm all for every single band who can send in a record, even if it's a cdr - being reviewed.

mikexdude (August 30, 2009)

I'm not really trying to justify the band, but Punknews ' decision. I fail to believe that punknews is strict with band coverage. Like I said, we've been sent some really shitty bands to review (hello, youth dekay). This isn't taking the place of a band who wanted space -- if anything, the reviews that are of records that are now 10 or so years old is doing that.

Your E-mail sucks.

givemeamuseumandillfillit (August 30, 2009)

"...Giving them this much coverage as an ego-stroke for this website is a complete insult to the thousands* of bands that would give their left nut to get this much attention on one of the most important punk sites on the internet."

Ding-A-Fucking-Ling. Right on the money.

I've discussed this on threads about this band earlier and that was exactly my standpoint. A certain someone on here kept arguing with me and saying that "it doesn't take away oppurtunity from any other bands so not posting it would just not make anyone happy".

It would've been awesome if that was true, but there's loads of touring and hardworking bands who live their band day-by-day who constantly try their hardest to get some coverage on here and it just doesn't happen. Now, I'm not opposed to that, big and popular news sites like this one should definently have a filter, otherwise it just turns into AP.net with 50 oneliner stories per day about new t-shirts and what a member of a band "said to someone after the show". But featuring this band(as news, not reviews, I'm all for the review) more than once just comes off as.. I don't want to say a "slap in the face" and go all SydBarrett420 on you, but it just doesn't rhyme with how the site otherwise operates.

Also, Mike, you need to put it in perspective. I mean, I remember when they "formed" and that was very recently so I don't think they've been trying as hard as loads of other bands have been.

wonton (August 30, 2009)

I like this alot.

It's free music made by two talented musicians.
And i think its pretty good.

Indian food is THE SHIT!

mikexdude (August 30, 2009)

Hey scruffy, I definitely would agree with you if there weren't other factors. One being that I know how many times Scotty and Wauz have tried to get their band covered -- it actually wasn't as easy as you'd think. I also know how some Staff guys feels about this band, and they don't like it -- it's hardly an ego stroke if most Punknews doesn't like memes and how shitty the comment section has become. The other factor is that Wauz is in a band (Red Tape Parade) that has already been covered on this website for a couple years. Also, it isn't generally that hard to be covered on Punknews. I've reviewed some pretty amateur shit.

scruffy (August 30, 2009)

It's not that the music is bad. It isn't.

It's not that these guys shouldn't have done this, or that the idea is stupid. Neither is true.

It's that this band is a semi-serious way to kill time for a bunch of friends on a message board, and giving them this much coverage as an ego-stroke for this website is a complete insult to the thousands* of bands that would give their left nut to get this much attention on one of the most important punk sites on the internet. My irritation is not directed at the band, but at Punknews. Hell, if you want to reward these guys, give their full-time bands more attention. This isn't Something Awful. We don't need to reward masturbatory self-referencing.

*And before any of you start bitching that this comment is in reference to my band, it isn't. We've had coverage on here, and we're somewhat in remission at this point as we search for a drummer. It's directly from my hatred of the fact that, even in the punk scene, gimmicky shit gets you worlds farther than sincerity.

syebot (August 30, 2009)

This seems more like a defence of the band rather than an actual review...

crackpotdemagogue (August 30, 2009)

This is all a little too meta. I feel like I'm in some sort of post-modernist nightmare.

Seconded.

PoliticsOfStarving (August 30, 2009)

I wasn't expecting much from a band formed of punknews members, because, you know, we're lazy, sit around making comments and being idiots most of the time, etc.

But the music kicks ass and the vocals are very cool.

muckymuck (August 30, 2009)

STANDARDIZED

AIN'T

SHIT

Cos (August 30, 2009)

So what are the usernames of the guilty parties?

Is this related in anyway to Teh Revolt?

Blackjaw_ (August 30, 2009)

I think it's sad that the only reason this is getting shit on is the punknews references.

rob_rob (August 30, 2009)

I think its sad that the only reason this is getting reviewed is the punknews references.

mikexdude (August 29, 2009)

Only the song titles are about punknes... and one song. There's substance to all but one of these songs. I can understand dislike of the fact it seems like a big inside joke, but some of these really harsh comments are from sheer ignorance of the music.

colin (August 29, 2009)

"This is so lame and stupid it makes me want to kill everyone who comes to punknews.

This.

kind of. on some levels yes, on others, it's sort of neat to see music made in the way photoshop tennis used to work. but inside jokes / memes are a bit overplayed.

seth_uber_alles (August 29, 2009)

this is fucking stupid and shouldn't exist.

telegraphrocks (August 29, 2009)

"This is so lame and stupid it makes me want to kill everyone who comes to punknews.

This.

damo (August 29, 2009)

don't get half the jokes. org song titles don't make org songs.

can't remember the song name but one of their songs which is no longer on myspace was excellent

onegirlarmy (August 29, 2009)

I don't get it?

mikexdude (August 29, 2009)

This sounds nothing like orgcore to me. Definitely melodic skate punk kinda' thing. Anyways, some of the 90s emo bridges are awesome. Harmonies rule too.

NefariousFIG (August 29, 2009)

This is all a little too meta. I feel like I'm in some sort of post-modernist nightmare.

Archangel (August 29, 2009)

"it's been an slow and old process, but this site has officially jumped the shark."

The only comment on this review that is going to matter. Christ al-fucking-mighty.

burntorangepeel (August 29, 2009)

"The medium is the message."

Blackjaw_ (August 29, 2009)

Since when can pop punk be fun and not totally serious?! This is blasphemy.

xshoutoutx (August 29, 2009)

needs more beard and mayonnaise!

scientistrock (August 29, 2009)

Thanks Matt, Wauz and Scotty for making the internet eat itself in new and infinitely more surprising ways. This is like the Keyboard Cat wolf t-shirt.

Bryne (August 28, 2009)

It’s a genuine release by a genuine group of musicians (that have never met in real life, mind you) that are trying to genuinely impact the punk scene by creating genuinely enjoyable music.

Needs moar genuine.

bolucce (August 28, 2009)

it's been an slow and old process, but this site has officially jumped the shark.

xIxKilledxJesusx (August 28, 2009)

just when my respect cant go down any more, it does.

Hey_Asshole (August 28, 2009)

hooray for memes!

wait...no.

phil_lewago (August 28, 2009)

i heard these guys were into docking and shrimping

ExtraCheesePizza (August 28, 2009)

I heard these guys are getting a digital release through Epitaph. Brett did add them on myspace...

SloaneDaley (August 28, 2009)

I hear the proceeds of this album are used to fund NAMBLA associated acts of terrorism.

red_eye_inc (August 28, 2009)

Stupid

Tudor (August 28, 2009)

This is so lame and stupid it makes me want to kill everyone who comes to punknews.

Or maybe it just makes me hungry.

mattramone (August 28, 2009)

I'm just grumpy you were the only one to get any action that weekend.

If you don't count me and Matt Pabstelhano rubbing bare chests together.

Which I don't.

ffwoodycooks (August 28, 2009)

I stayed at Matt's house once. It smelled like dry semen and goatee

mattramone (August 28, 2009)

I stayed at Scotty's house once. It smelled like cigarettes and Plan B.

Jelone (August 28, 2009)

Phmeh.

Spooky (August 28, 2009)

I don't get half of the jokes here either. I've was a lurker here for a while before making an account but still..

the_other_scott (August 28, 2009)

this is pretty decent musically, but i've been reading/commenting on this site since 2001 and i don't get half of the jokes.

it makes me feel like i'm either old and jaded or completely out of the loop.