Step Aside - "Good News"
Step Aside - "Good News" – More on the commercial side of the spectrum than I’m used to and I have to admit that the Step Aside embodies everything I hate about the music industry. Their songs are snot-nosed brat, heart-on-sleeve commercial power pop quick hitters. They give me the feel of Blink 182 or New Found Glory, right before they made their mainstream debuts. All it takes to demonstrate that is to hear the great, affecting "American Middle Class” a politically tug-the-heartstrings hooky roar, that makes sure to not alienate any political sector of their listening audience, rather take the neutral approach of declaring “Some of us on the left and some of us are on the right and some of us to give a shit about the F-i-i-i-ght. Ultimately sounds like they’re trying really hard to be snotty middle class scenesters that appeal to the mischievous teens, but not to the point of alienating those same kid’s parents enough to not buy their album. As much as this band’s approach and sound annoy the fuck out of me, they have their catchy moments. A few of the songs that didn’t cause me to dry heave into my hand are; “Wake Up” which has a little bit of a SoCal homogenized skatepunk feel with catchy chorus’s and hooks (similar to a band like Homegrown). The song “Shoot The Sky” has a bouncy greenday-ish feel and the only other song I could listen to more than twice is “Formal Introduction”, which comes off a little more edgy than any of the other songs on this album. So my final analysis is that though I can’t get into them I think that some of the younger readers or fringe pop punk/power punk fans might enjoy Step Aside.
