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At this years Fest, The Snips put on a passionate, energetic, and enjoyable show. It was their first Fest and you could really feel their excitement as they did a fantastic job making the small side stage at The Venue feel like the main stage. This can be attributed to two things: 1. Great stage presence, and 2) Great songs to play.
While they’ve been a band for over 10 years, singer Rickey Pridmore admits the sound on their recently released “Blackouts” EP is The Snips real sound. This is wonderful news! The Blackouts EP breaks all barriers of what punk has been considered as of late. Where you’ll usually hear palm muted power chords, The Snips replace them with thick bass lines and minimalist guitar licks. Instead of heavy distortion to create texture, The Snips rely on full band instrumentation to build sound.
Starting out with anthem-like Tired Tires, The Blackout E.P instantly entices listeners with a comfortable guitar build up. The Snips understand that to be accepted as different, you’ve got to feel normal. They make use of old school styles showing listeners that at their roots, they are punk, yet they’ve decided to also incorporate a rock and roll esque attitude. Tired Tires has the fist pump power of rock, while also having the pissin’ heaviness of punk. It’s a two and three quarter minute musical spectacle that commands attention and interest.
Black Leather Vest and Finke Is Einhorn are both prime examples of using texture to create tone. During the verses of Finkle you can hear the subtle, single coiled Stratocaster in the background jumping on top of the bass drum. Expanding both the sound and feel of the song, the jagged tones from the Strat nicely push the song to a more heavy rock sound, whereas Black Leather Vest employs doubled guitars and heavy drum use for the rock and roll thrust.
White Ghost and Days Deflate have a more relaxed and emotional tone, which oddly enough over powers the other songs on Blackouts. Days Deflate uses the tense verse/blow up chorus style to accurately convey the heartfelt lyrics Pridmore penned. White Ghost on the other hand is more straight forward; a fast, forward moving tune which never looks back…
The Blackouts EP deserves all the praise in the world. There’s a unique sound on it which opens up a new viewpoint on punk rock. While The Snips are still up and coming, Blackouts shows a band with potential and everything going for them.
by Staff Writer
Buffalo-based progressive punk act Lemuria have released the first single off their upcoming 7″ of the same name. The song “Chautauqua County” can be found on their MySpace page. The 7″ is set to drop November 23rd on Bridge Nine Records.