FILE UNDER: Crummy ‘80s retro.
CORPORATE LINE: Mates of State is the organ and drums, vocal-laden duo of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel. The band essentially began in 1997. After a few months in the midwest, they high-tailed it out to a new home in San Francisco. California greeted them with sunshine, pop sounds, and a great music community.
THE GOOD:
Are you kidding me?
THE AVERAGE:
“Think Long” – So close yet so far away from being worth a second listen. Mates of State bring along something that sounds like a nice melody accompanied by an amateurish mess.
“Like U Crazy” – If only the singing was better perhaps the melody would have shined more. The singing isn’t out of tune and not in a cool way like the Flaming Lips.
THE BAD:
“For The Actor” – The synthetic sounds overtake the vocals—which if you listen well enough you’ll realize that are meaningless anyway.
“So Many Ways” – Two people singing two different things only works for Christmas songs and on Broadway. Even more annoying is that the music swallows the vocals whole.
“Punchlines” – Take back the keyboard—you got ripped off. This is truly impossible to listen to with the distortion, cheap keyboard, and so on.
“Running Out” – Singer Kori Gardner repeats “Tired of singing” and all I can say is that I’m tired of her singing too—unfortunately I had to listen to it for ten songs to finish this review. Thanks for nothing.
FRANKLY: What can be said about Mates of State? Rae Gun didn’t want to review it so it flopped in my lap. Now I understand why Rae Gun rejected it. Bring It Back is something I’d expect a band in my hometown to create. And that is no compliment. One plus—CDs make great Frisbees.
+ Charlie Craine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.