My So-Called Band

• Artist: My So-Called Band
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1997
• Genre: Rock

Review

Here's a droll North Carolina trio who Claire Danes should check out (she does have a "so-called life," I saw her at a Radiohead concert). The front sleeve redoes the first Clash LP cover in green, with the three members adopting the same pose. And singer/bassist Chris Peigler admits a childhood obsession with Joe Strummer (as well as Neil Young) in the amusing "Courtney Lost." But the music is actually low-flame rock/punk, with guitarist Luke Warm playing over the heads of his paltry rhythm section of passable Peigler and extremely poor drummer Patrick Korson. Peigler's voice is also too thin, but he compensates with a self-critical knife about his embarrassments, disappointments, and insecurities via clever, Costello-like wordplay. Better, unlike too many contemporaries, Peigler has something to say -- about society's bad fads ("No Kate Moss"), bad families ("Home for the Holidays"), bad fixations (the also waggish "Will You Still Drug Me Tomorrow?"), bad self-esteem ("Approval"), bad jobs ("She's My Favorite Shoplifter"), and bad romances ("The Next Time She Gets Flowers") -- which makes the amateurish playing more palatable. ~ Jack Rabid, Rovi

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