Don't Get Bored
Artist: Smiley Kids
Label: Sarabellum Recordings
Length: 16 tracks / 41:40 minutes
Seems Sarabellum Recordings is moving well away from their modern rock label origins, with swing band the W's and ska/punk delight Five Iron Frenzy as their flagship bands now. The next step would be a punk band, and Smiley Kids fits the bill (being friends of Five Iron didn't hurt). There was no doubt it would be quality punk, but the worst cover art known to man almost threw me off when the disc reached my hands. Don't be fooled, though--Smiley Kids have the goods.
Don't Get Bored is a perfect title, with the band cranking out a hyperactive mix of old school and new school, with a tiny bit of horn-less ska and hardcore/thrash thrown in for kicks. I haven't heard this much variety on a punk album in awhile, and yet they somehow retain a consistent sound. The vocals are mostly rough and loose, jumping from clean "whoa-oh-oh"s to aggressive shouts to scratchy surf-punk rhymes.
Lyrics leap back and forth between fun-loving junior high type stuff and more serious straight-up calls to dedication and allegiance to Christ. Of the former, there's two, count 'em, two tributes to skateboarding, in "Alameda Hill" and "Bomb the Hill" ("everybody scream real loud, the secret word is SKATE!"). The Christian anthems like "Fill the Gaps (Foundation)," "Army of Light," and "Useless," are definitely the strongest and tightest songs on the album, making up for what they lack in lyrical creativity with power and soaring spirit in the choruses. "Imitation Cross" also pounds nicely as a hardcore tune slamming man-made religion.
Old punk fans like me might wish all the songs were of the tighter new school variety, having been through the old days and appreciating better songs and musicianship now, but Smiley Kids is made for all those spastic punk kids in danger of the ultimate evil: boredom. That's who will really dig this album. Skate for Jesus! ;-)
Josh Spencer 8/15/99
