Fifth Hour Hero
Scattered Sentences
No Idea
When I think of Canada, I remember living 60 minutes from its border (in Michigan), and driving up with my friend Matt so that we could buy cheese fries at the Canadian Taco Bell in Windsor. (Yes, they had cheese fries at Taco Bell in Canada during the mid ’90s.) Other than that, Canada has offered me little, other than Grade. Well, luckily for all of us Americans, the people at No Idea discovered the spectacularly rockin’ and melodic Fifth Hour Hero, a band hailing from Quebec (the area that wanted to separate itself from the rest of Canada!).
Simply put, Scattered Sentences rocks, and it’s got more hooks than your grandpa’s tackle box. They sound like the progeny of a Hot Water Music and Discount orgy, with all of the negative genes getting left behind in conception. Pretty much every song on this release features very Hot Watery guitars, circa Flight and a Crash. The predominant vocalist is a lady, and she reminds me a lot of the girl from Discount, as does the form and progression of the songs.
The choruses here, most noticeably on “Dancing on Your Knees,” are the kind that demand the listener to sing along, while pumping either a triumphant fist or metal “rock on” hand proudly in the air. I guess the weirdest thing about Fifth Hour Hero is that they sound like they’re from Florida, in that the similarities to HWM, Clairmel and the like are so pronounced – nevertheless, their music does not warrant cries of “rip-offs”; these guys are good, and I think that fans still mourning the breakup of Discount might be able to get on with their lives after hearing Scattered Sentences.
No Idea Records: http://www.noidearecords.com/
