Review Summary: I am the reason you're always complaining.
Back in the early 2000’s Victory Record Sampler CDs were my jam. It’s how I discovered my love for the GREATS Silverstein & Hawthorne Heights and countless other bands who have faded into oblivion – The Audition, The Hurt Process and of course June to name a couple of my favorites. It was the easiest way for me to find new bands and I had so much fun doing so, it was like going to video stores when I was a kid and scaling the isles for what VCR cover looked the best to rent.
June was a short-lived Pop punk, Emo band that were picked up by Victory Records during a period where it seemed like there was a new band each week trying to ride the waves of the likes Taking Back Sunday and The All-American Rejects. The duel vocal attack that TBS loved and the Pop sensibilities of TAAR were copied by a copious number of bands and whilst most of them missed the mark, June were one of the few who came across as genuine and sincere in their approach.
The driving force behind June is the Dual Vocal attack of Tim and AJ. Tim being the lead vocalist with his voice monotone and right smack bang in that typical Emo Midwestern style. Whilst not great, his voice works nicely for exactly what they were doing. AJ comes in as a counterpoint to Tim and has that higher pitched more ‘nasally’ pop punk vocal style that compliments Tim quite well. AJ’s moments are some of my favorites here and their vocal interplay especially on ‘Scandals and Scoundrels’ is lovely. Lyrically you get exactly what you expect, lost love, lost friendships and teenage romance all sewn together with clichés and one liner’s. ‘My Side Of The Story’ being the big acoustic ballad on the album having some nice, be them cliché lines and has an exceptionally catchy chorus.
The bass stands out in the mix and really moves the tracks along, which is strange as the Bass is usually lost in the mix or just trudging along to root notes with this style of band. But not here, AJ has some great runs and licks, ‘My Side Of The Story’ verses have some sweet playing and ‘I Write B Movies’ has a smooth driving bassline. Power chords, simple riffing (OK Corral having some nice guitarwork) and distorted guitars are used to give the illusion that June are heavier than they really are, the intro to ‘Patrick’ could be quite heavy in the hands of a band that were genuinely interested in being ‘heavy’ but that would be disingenuous of June to do so.
June will obviously never have the lasting effect that the bands they were clearly inspired by have. Really if anyone mentions June and music it usually comes back to June Carter Cash, which is a shame because June really did have heart in all the right places and their songs were catchy fun harmless tunes.
