“atombombpocletknife”
Atom Bomb Pocket Knife
Atom Bomb Pocket Knife
Southern
Stylistically speaking, Thumbnail, Atom Bomb Pocket Knife’s predecessor, was of the D.C. chao-math-rock school. Think Hoover with a touch more math. Which brings me quickly to my point, which is Atom Bomb Pocket Knife. Featuring ex-members of Thumbnail (or an ex-member, I didn’t get the lowdown) my expectations were for more of Thumbnail’s brand of oh so cool crazy. Crazy, yes. Like Thumbnail, not quite. This CD is just plain rock with just that little touch of math to make it sound more like No Knife than Van Halen. I’d almost call it post-hardcore, except that there is nothing hardcore about it. This CD just rocks. Hard. The vocals are smooth and very prettily sung. The music has melody punctuated by outbursts of noise. Not the usual formula for your average hardcore-gone-indie band. Something about the lyrics even reminds me a little of Girls Against Boys, mainly rhyme schemes like this…“when you get mesmerized, there’s never enough to sympathize…” from the first song. Is Atom Bomb Pocket Knife the great white hope of independent music? Probably not, leave that to Sebadoh the Lion of Arc or whoever is hip in indie this week. Listen to this CD when you are ready to take off the horn rims, put on a pocket protector with a built in slide rule, and rock. Do the math, it’s more fun.
Southern Records, PO Box 577375, Chicago, IL, www.southern.com
