MMFRR#13 -- The Lakeside Is For Killers

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, 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 have often wondered what the lakeside is for. I would have guessed fishing or a nice picnic. Nope. The Lakeside is for Killers.

(Careful, heavy flannel will always tip a picture over)

This entry, lucky number 13, is a special one. Drummer Nich specifically asked me to review his band for this particular purpose. I was all, "Are you sure, 'cause what if you suck?" And he was all, "Bring it!" And I was all, "Fine, I will." And he was all... actually, this conversation never happened, but he still wanted me to check out the band, be they awesome, awful, or otherwise. Anything for promotion's sake, I guess. There really is no such thing as bad publicity.

I've often been leery of local bands no matter where I've lived, and it's a terrible bias to have. A band doesn't have to be from a major metropolitan area in order to be good, but I've had to sit through too many not-at-all-good small-town local openers to assume otherwise. Of course now I must remind myself that the "town" in which I currently live has a metro area of half-a-million people and these reservations I have don't make any sense anyway.

I'm still hesitant to publicly review a local band though because if the members don't like what I have to say THEY KNOW WHERE I LIVE. There are five members in TLIFK, only one of me, and I sure don't know any kung-fu.

Am I leading up to another dismal review of another dismal Myspace band? Let's take a look at the evidence.

- Bogged down Myspace? Check, somewhat. It still slows down my computer, but I've seen much, much worse.
- South Park illustrations of band members? Check. For some reason I freakin' hate that.
- No "real" website? Check. And no, Purevolume.com doesn't count. Invest in your own dang domain! (As I write this on Blogger.com).

Otherwise there's not much else to complain about, and these items are nitpicky anyway.

But what about the music?
They've got all the explosive stops and starts of metalcore, but the vocal delivery of southern rock. We could amalgamate the terms and call it drrtycore™. I like the call-and-responses, I like the guitar work, I like the change in rhythms, and I like the screamy bits. I like that the backup vocalists are capable of good screams even though this isn't really a screamy band, per se. I like the songwriting. This is good stuff. These songs are also very well recorded considering they're just demos.

Also, bonus points for naming a song after a "Double Indemnity" quote. You're just a little taller.

I wish there were more than two songs because I certainly want to hear more. I mean, I have heard more (a live performance at the freezing cold Embassy in London), but I would like to hear more studio-quality recordings. Post more songs, fools. Get on that.

And thank you for disproving the notion that all local bands, at least in this municipality, suck.

I give The Lakeside Is For Killers
8 Walter Neffs out of 10.

"You're Not Smarter, Walter, You're Just A Little Taller" (.mp3)