The Ataris
Look Forward to Failure
Fat Wreck Chords
Looking at the cover of this CD, I immediately thought I’d hate it. Four kids who look like they hang out across from a mini-mart with skateboards, drink Yoo-Hoo, and practice being sarcastic. They’ve got big shirts with pop-culture references on them, baggy pants, baseball caps, bleached hair… and some of them even have spiked hair! On the inside, there are (count them) four stage-shots of them jumping in the air with their guitars and making funny faces. And there’s even the standard picture of them walking down a city sidewalk (Remember that song from a long time ago that says, “When I come a-rou-hound?”)… Make it stop!!! I’m so sick of seeing pictures of bands and hating them for it, only to hear them for ten seconds and ending up liking them. The last time this happened, I ended up liking Shania Twain and Natalie Imbruglia. The music here is actually done very well, and I like it a lot. The recording is punchy, they play tightly, are melodic, and in general, rock pretty hard. Then again, who doesn’t these days? The lyrics are based on high-school topics, and that’s OK by me, since they seem to be in high-school, which makes them a little less pretentious. It’s good stuff, but it’s pretty homogenized, like milk or something. Or more like McDonald’s Cheeseburgers, I think. Cram them down your throat and forget how good they tasted thirty seconds later. Not very nutritious, but satisfies your cravings. Then you end up with colon cancer or whatever. It’s sort of like… “Hey, that Rebecca Romijn is really pretty, but so is every other super-model, and so is every other girl on any magazine this month… “ Consume, consume, consume, while you still can, I guess. How long has the McDonald’s Cheeseburger been around without changing the recipe? I thought punk is supposed to be anti-corporate… but what could be more corporate than this music?
No wonder… it’s on Fat Wreck Chords, PO Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119. Write for a free catalog of a bunch of bands that sound like Green Day that sound like Bad Religion that sound like the Ramones. Fat Wreck Chords, P.O. Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119-3690
