Fracture

Way back when I was still in jr high, I was surfing the web one day, looking for bands I had never heard of to check out. I came across this band called Atom and His Package. I downloaded a few mp3s, and wasn't quite sure what to think. The music was funny and catchy, but it wasn't punk (yeah yeah, I was in jr high.) I ordered a copy of the album A Society of People Named Elihu. Six to eight weeks later that album was all that could be found in my discman. 20 songs of pure geek happiness. The last track wasn't Atom and His Package, it was Atom's old band, Fracture. The song was called No Way DNA. It was pretty damn good. At that time, there was no Fracture cd for me to gobble up.

The years went by, I got out of jr high, and stopped being a stupid kid who ONLY listened to punk. I was at a show last week looking through a distro's stock of cds, and I ran across the Fracture discography. Fracture... Fracture.... Where had I heard of them before? Atom's old band! I quickly picked it up. On the way home from the show I popped it in to the cd player and fell in love.

The album is 20 tracks of sloppy geek punk goodness. Those familiar with Atom will recognized a few songs he redid over the years. Fracture's songs have a way of putting a smile on my face at the most unexpected moments. To me this album is a reminder that music doesn't have to be good in order to be enjoyable. The lyrics are incredibly funny and intelligent. They resemble Atom and His Package lyrics (go figure.) It would be pretty accurate, although wrong of me, to call Fracture Atom and His Package if Atom and His Package were a high school punk band. While this album only got released because of Atom's success, Fracture can easily stand on their own any day of the week. In some instances, they are much better than Atom and His Package. As much as I like Atom, his records never made me jump up and down around the room like an idiot. This record does. During their existence, no one really paid that much attention to this band. But let me remind you, it is never too late to fall in love.