MMFRR#9 -- Ralph Hinkley Syndrome

Often, in lieu of actual people wanting to be my Myspace friends, I get piles of friend requests from bands and musicians attempting to get me to check 'em out/attend their shows/join their street teams. Naturally a great bulk of these bands are awful and I want nothing to do with them. But yet the requests keep coming. As a mild form of revenge I have decided to review these bands. Welcome to another therapeutic entry of what I like to call Myspace Music Friends Request Review.

I know I'm always touting the glories of grunge, but sometimes it's just not 1992 anymore. And something that sounded good then sounds a bit silly and dated when reproduced in these modern times. Fortunately enough every musician alive during the late 80s/early 90s grunge era has matured stylistically to create new, unique, and exciting works of... oh, wait, no?

Something about a missed memo.
Something about Ralph Hinkley Syndrome.

After perusing their myspace page and reading their blogs and even watching that silly little video I got (and continue to get) the impression that these guys are super swell and probably cool to hang out with. Unfortunately only douchetards make the best artists and musicians. I bet if they punted some babies and quit smiling so dang much they'd notice a significant increase in musical quality. As it stands, though, I'm burdened with the guilt of giving a couple upright citizens a so-so Myspace Music Friends Request Review review.

Ralph Hinkley, as a matter of common knowledge, is the main character's name on The Greatest American Hero, which aired on ABC from 1981 to 1983. "Believe it or not I'm walking on air," etc. I don't know what kind of syndrome he may have had or induced, but I find the idea of a band referencing The Greatest American Hero either completely awesome or wholly stupid. I can't decide which. A rose by any other name, I suppose.

It's interesting how, despite the lameness of a lot of myspace bands, they usually have one decent song. It's as if they put all their effort and talent into one four-minute piece of music, then hastily put together some other pieces of mush to fill up space. RHS's decent non-mushy song is a nice one called "Travel". It's simple, got a good beat, and stays low-key enough not to drift off into suckiness. I wish understated music wasn't so ignored by those who are able to perform it well enough, but I guess sometimes it's a lot more fun to rock out.

Anyway, RHS is suffering a bit from time warp problems (maybe that's a symptom of the Syndrome), and consequently we're all stuck with some dated grungy stuff. Again, "Travel" is a keeper, but other than that I'm definitely NOT walking on air (believe it or not).

I give Ralph Hinkley Syndrome 3 alien red superhero outfits out of 10.