What is it with US punk bands and puns. In fact what is it with US punk
bands and humour full stop? I’m not saying I want po-faced emo
introspection but for god’s sake stop lightening up just so much.
OK. You’ve never heard of Flashlight Brown. Sorry. Maybe you have.
If it’s the later then you are most likely a ‘duuuude who like seriously
likes a good time’ and live in a US mid-west backwater, or are Canadian
(that’s where FLB hail from). More than likely it is the former negative
possibility, and if so my recommendation is don’t go moving to mid-west
towns because you may encounter FLB and their ilk – Canada’s safe enough
probably.
Canuck nerd-core (I made that up) bunch FLB have some standing on the ‘US kegs and party’ circuit I discovered. They’ve skirted around the outside of the poppy-metal, preppy-punk scene for a few years releasing indie EPs. ‘My Degeneration’ is a big league major label debut. Now stop me if I’m wrong but didn’t the world and his dog give up on this stuff when Green Day
actually (ahem) matured about three years ago? Oh hang on…Less Than Jake you say are in the charts.
I see the plan now – every few years bring some diluted US punky bunch to
near the surface of the mainstream …the kids’ll love their ‘old school
scene’ rep and as this kind of music has a 18 month relevance they’ll never
have known the last lot – Blink 18Who. You get a few tours, an iffy chart
placing, some UK music press and a C-list rotation for the wacky video. In
the last few months we’ve had Bowling For Soup, Less Than Jake and Something Corporate, now add FLB to the list.
Flashlight Brown are fine. Their tunes whistle by without troubling for
musicality or intelligence, which is no bad thing. Just not a very original
thing. Bouncy and shouty is the best adjectives I can muster. Like I said
it’s been done 18 months before and will be done 18 months from now. Do
yourself a favour and listen to BUSTED, or even better the Stiff Little
Fingers.