There appears to be quite a few people in Slushie’s home town of Mount Airy, North Carolina who’ve made the band’s sh**-list. In fact these guilty individuals are jostling for pole position on said list along with the town itself, and America in general. Having put a flea in the ear of everything within a 2000 mile radius on their debut ‘Cause For Concern’, I conclude that only an extended sojourn outside of the US will provide sufficient cannon fodder for their next album’s vitriol.
With Slushie we get to meet another literate –they have a song called ‘Capricious’ – indie/punk band offering America’s youth a cathartic release for their angst and cynicism. Comprising of brothers Tillman (lead vocals and guitar) and Evan Cockerham (bass and vocals) and T.J Holt (drums), their sound is crisp, powerful and highly derivative. But that’s not really the point. Slushie have got issues that need addressing, people and places that require chastising and they’re using highly charged NOFX punk to soundtrack their collective, ahem, vituperation (well, I had to find something to compete with ‘capricious’).
It never ceases to amaze me how the richest and most spoilt country in the world manages to generate, assimilate and defecate so much loathing, self and otherwise, and then mass-market it to so many people. I could refer to virtually every song on the album for an example of Slushie’s bulging bag of bilious discontent, but a few of the lyrics to opening track ‘Burning Bridges’ will suffice: ‘In this place we could chase empty dreams until we’re dying / But now what’s the point in trying? In a world that’s always crying / For the people who are lying, tell me what’s the point in living / If we can never be forgiven?’
|
In essence Slushie ask lots of questions based upon two fundamental queries: ‘Why is my life so horrible?’ and ‘Why are you so horrible?’ Wry humour and a laissez-faire attitude to life do not feature in Slushie’s rather insular world. Furthermore, Tillman’s lyrics are too one-dimensional and repetitive in their exposition and subject matter; he needs to go round the block a few times to give his words and vocals some much needed bite and balls.
So far, everything is decidedly obvious.
However, despite my misgivings, I’m thinking that somewhere inside Slushie there resides a band that could be rather good. Positive evidence of their potential peppers the album: the track ‘Dead Flowers’ (not a cover of The Stones’ classic) challenges my prejudices by offering musical deviations from the bog standard punk riffs; ‘American Empire’ has a tasty REM style guitar intro and ‘A Place In The Sun’ is a decent stab at rock/grunge. Of the staple punk diet, ‘All The Good It Does’ is probably as good as anything else you’re likely to hear this year from this congested genre.
My question to them is ‘Can Slushie rise above all the sh**?’ Can they challenge themselves to achieve something bigger and better? If they are prepared to widen their horizons, they could come good.
|
