Review Summary: More quality rough-edged pop-punk from Florida, featuring Ryan from Discount, and a whole lotta Jawbreaker-isms.
If I were going to make a Best Songs of 2008 list (and I WILL get round to it soon...), Monikers' "80 Proof" would undoubtedly be in there somewhere. It's a bouncy little number, incredibly catchy, and with lines like
"I'm sleeping in today, don't wake me, every single day somebody wakes me up before I'm ready, just let me sleep, go away," it appeals to my general everyday mood as a student. So, giving my liking for this song, why didn't the album it's taken from, the band's debut full-length
Wake Up, make my top 30 albums? Well, simply because the rest of the album doesn't quite match up to the opener.
That said,
Wake Up is by no means a bad album. At first listen, Monikers would seem to be another gruff-throated pop-punk band with the customary
Jawbreaker influence (a rather pronounced one in fact, listen to the vocal melody in "Mine" and tell me you don't immediately think of "Indictment"), all wrapped up in some rather disturbing artwork involving an owl-bear and what I THINK are eagle-tigers... However, much like the recent album by
Banner Pilot (a band these guys have shared a split 7" with), almost every song has at least one real catchy hook thrown in for good measure, and angst and righteous indignation coming out the proverbial wazoo. Another thing this album has in common with
Resignation Day is the recorded-in-a-biscuit-tin production, but if anything this just adds character and a nice live feel to the proceedings.
As far as instrumentation goes, Monikers deal in mostly mid-tempo four-chord punk rock, with the aforementioned
Jawbreaker influence coming in the form of vocalist/guitarist Ryan's 10-packs-a-day raspy tones, sounding for all the world like Blake Schwarzenbach might have if he'd given the throat surgery a miss, as well as the odd foray into slightly more unconventional (for the genre) guitar work (for example, the lead parts in "Papers" and the higher ringing parts in several songs - you might not notice them unless you're listening out for them, but they're there). The only real deviation from this sound is comes in the form of closer "Black," a simple acoustic number with some light percussion and distant sounding vocals. It might be just that it's so glaringly different to the rest of the album that it stands out, but either way, it's a definite highlight of the record.
Ultimately
Wake Up is a fine album, not amazing, but still rather enjoyable. To be honest, it reminds me of
The Lawrence Arms first album, again partly due to the raspy vocal style and noticable Jawbreaker influence, but mostly due to the fact that it's a solid pop-punk record which starts off brilliantly, trails off a little (without ever quite dropping below "good"), and ends with a curveball. Moreover, in the 9 years since
A Guided Tour of Chicago, The Larries have vastly improved and evolved their sound, and with it attained much success. And while Monikers' debut is slightly more straightforward than the aforementioned Chicagoans', their obvious knack for catchy melodies, and distinctive (if not entirely unique) style could well see them reach similar heights. Until then,
Wake Up is as good a start as any, and points to a bright future for the band.
3.3/5
