I heard an interesting comment the other day. Someone said, “I think we just have too much of everything right now.” I agreed. We’ve got fifteen flavors of Diet Coke, health spas for pets, decorated checkbook covers, you get the idea. Along the same lines, I’m sure there was a time when visiting online casinos, check cashing places, and buying insurance were all swell, sought-after ideas. Even MySpace had appeal before our fleeting attention spans glazed over and incurable boredom set in. Remember melodic punk rock? There were those bands like BIG DRILL CAR and 7 SECONDS and a bunch of others with the speeding drums and endless hooks, catchy as all getout. Then something happened over the last few years that made faith in the genre sort of fade. Maybe it was all that Southern Cal Epitaph stuff like OFFSPRING that the radio beat to death. Maybe it was too much GREEN DAY and BLINK 182 that corrupted the casual fan from singalong choruses at 120 bpm.

This current state of affairs makes the debut by punk Swedes THE INDECISION ALARM even more impressive. This is the type of band that recalls masters of the genre, particularly artists like ARTICLES OF FAITH and LEATHERFACE. The simple, glowing guitar hooks and granular production of “Above Us All”, "Treadmill", and "Keeping Our Hands Tied" only take a spin or two before pulling you into their HOT WATER MUSIC-inspired musical tractor beam. It’s incredible how accurately this band has re-created that mid 80s / early 90s melodic hardcore vibe without sounding contrived. Defiant, clever lyrics like "Idle hands will always measure us," and "False hopes and empty promises fill us up with lies and obstacles so we consume instead of uniting," shroud every track. The bass playing is meaty and pronounced, and Geir Pedersen's vocals have that flat sort of radiance that Hart and Mould brandished to steal our hearts back in the day. Plus, the songs are unique enough to stand on their own, which means I don’t have to go tearing through mass quantities of discs to find an old VIC BONDI title and finish this musical fix. Kudos to Tic Tac Totally for bringing out the closet melodic punk fan in me.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.tiaband.com

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Time for the Big Guns, Baby

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