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Relient K, Hawk Nelson, Ace Troubleshooter fans listen up: Olivia the Band provides you some new juice if you can't get enough power punk. Olivia the Band is right smack in the middle of this genre.

Across the pop/punk spectrum, you have Relient K with their wry sense of humor, Ace Troubleshooter with direct scripture as lyrics off on the other end. Musically, Hawk Nelson serves up a little twist on the breed with more adventurous melody lines and 2 and 3 part vocal harmonies in nearly every little break and chorus, with ska/punk bands adding in snappy horns on the other end. 

Olivia the Band's self titled freshman release could serve as an archetype for power/pop/punk, right down the middle with these others acting as branches off the main trunk.

It's a very well produced disc, complete with the requisite no-vibrato male vocals, heavy and fast guitars and drums, pounding bass and a few tracks slowing it down while putting up some theologically sound lyrical content as well.

The problem with this disc is that it doesn't break any new sonic territory. Musically, because of the formulaic sound, one could easily mistake Olivia the band's sound with any of the other bands already mentioned or the seemingly endless bounty of bands in this genre.

In their promotional material, quite a bit is made about the fact that the band members make Oahu, Hawaii their home; that they spend the better part of their free time surfing and hanging out on the beach. Listening to the disc, one would never discern this, unfortunately. Some slack-key guitars on steroids mixed in or punk ukulele would have been a refreshing nod to the land of Olivia the band, 'brah'. The only hint that we get that Oahu is where the boys 'make house' is in “Saturday”, with a mention of the North Shore and shave ice providers, Matsumoto's http://www.matsumotoshaveice.com/ .

Topics covered on the rest of the disc deal with topics as varied as habitual sin in “Kill the Grey”, the uplifting account of the second coming of Christ in “Heaven”, the numbing of our brains with images of violence in movies in “Novocain”, and recognition of selfish behavior in “Kid Innocence”. Kudos to Olivia the Band for recognizing the importance of these topics in their songs. There seems to be a tendency in this genre to treat life as just something we do until the next version of Tony Hawk's Underground comes out. One hopes that the listeners of Olivia the band's material might help them to look at life through a different lens. The serious nature of Olivia the band's outlook is also reflected in their band's name, of all places. It might seem strange that a band of 4 surfer dudes call themselves 'Olivia', but when one reads that the name is in homage to guitarist Justin Abilla's little sister, who passed away, it underscores the fact that these guys consider themselves to be part of something more important than just living to have fun.

While credit should be given to Olivia the band for the well produced sound, the deeper than usual lyrics, and for avoiding sonic gimmickry; the band needs to carve out some kind of new aural territory on the next disc to separate themselves from the ocean of power punk bands that already exist.

Scott Lake 2/19/05