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Flying free.
Punchline - Just Say YesTim Karan on 1/15/09 @ 3:17 PM
Punchline punctuate their newfound freedom with Just Say Yes, the band's first album in their post-Fueled By Ramen era and first self-released effort since 2002's The Rewind EP. Just Say Yes is an ambitious adventure that strives to stray from straight pop-punk classification, dabbling in piano-stomping power-pop ("Somewhere In The Dark"), Fountains Of Wayne-style playfulness ("How Does This Happen?"), 21st century Weezer dynamics ("Developing You, Camera," "My White Collared Shirt") and even a near-Postal Service-esque moment of keyboard fuzz and finger snaps (about half of the title track).
Granted, Just Say Yes isn't perfect. Opener "Ghostie" is energetic, punchy and bursting with bouncy and charged riffs, but that quality isn't always replicated. The cohesiveness is certainly there, but at certain times it sounds like the band are merely going through the motions ("Get Off My Train!"), overdoing the quirk on the lead vocal ("The Hit") or writing uncomfortably soft prom soundtracks (closing number "Castaway"). Many times, the hooks are a bit dull and the structure is static.
But while portions of Just Say Yes are skippable, Punchline have mostly produced a decent affair. The album succeeds solely on Punchline's experimentation as cautious chemists who won't always click but are rarely catastrophic. (MODERN SHORT STORIES) Brian Shultz
ROCKS LIKE:
Piebald's Accidental Gentlemen
Relient K's Mmhmm
Ozma's Spending Time On The Borderline
IN-STORE SESSION WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST STEVE SOBOSLAI
What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome releasing the record yourself as opposed to on Fueled By Ramen?
The biggest obstacle was taking the giant step of saying, "Okay, we're going to do this ourselves, and we're going to make it better than it ever was." Bands get used to depending on people to do their work for them. One day we decided to do everything ourselves, and if people wanted to lend a hand, then great; if not, we'll be fine on our own. We did this record on our own terms, took our time with it and now it's coming out and we are psyched for it. It is the best record we ever made, and I know every band says that, but I'd admit if it wasn't. [Laughs.]
You say that "one day" you decided to do it on your own. What was the motivation?
[I] had an epiphany one night. I slept, like, three hours, woke up the next morning feeling great and spent all day talking to my band and figuring out the plan. The motivation came from me realizing that we needed to take control of our own destiny and not sit around waiting for things to happen.
Did you feel like less of a priority at FBR because of their more successful bands? What do you think? [Laughs.] We never wanted to ride coattails. We wanted to be everyone's friends and not be another person knocking on Fall Out Boy's door. [We] said that if they wanted to help us out because we are friends, that's cool. But none of them have called to say hello. [I] guess they're too busy answering the door for the other people.
The album feels more experimental and ambitious than the band's past few. Did you feel constricted in the past, or was there just a willingness to try new things?
A little bit of both. [37 Everywhere producers Shep Goodman & Kenny Gioia] wanted to make us pop-punk to the extreme, which was cool at the time, but even then we wanted to branch out a bit; there [just] wasn't time since we were on someone else's dime and schedule. There were over 60 songs written for this album. I hope people like it, because there's plenty more where that came from. I'm sick of bands putting out one record every two years, including my band-this will not happen anymore. It needs to be more about songwriting than taking pretty pictures and doing hip tours. [BS]
Official Website: http://www.modernshortstories.net
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they deserve at least 4 stars, it's a great album, one of the best of 2008