Ladies and
gentlemen, it’s that time again. Welcome to another Tickets There MySpace Review. The Blog that searches through Irish
bands, picks one and random and lets you know if their worth checking out or
just another over hyped, under talented pile of wasters. Today’s choice is Dublin locals, The Hassle Merchants. They describe
themselves as Energetic alternative puck and apparently won Connected
Magazine's Band of the Year award in 2007. So, with the bullshit PR out of the
way, lets get down to brace taxes.
As almost usual
with these reviews, I haven’t seen them live (that I know off, don’t remember
them anyway) and haven’t heard their album (if they have one).
OK, first song on
their MySpace is Friendly Neighbourhood
Scumbag. I won’t lie, I like this song title. I also like the intro. Nice
acoustic downer in little bursts with a good bass’ed up kick drum, pounding
away slowly. Oh, things go a little way wire about a minute into the song and
things start to sound a little scattered. The verse is pretty good but the
bridge is a little too familiar for my tastes and the chorus starts well but
then goes into a nah, nah, nah kind of bollocks and won’t just let loose. An
amateur lead guitar and bad production really shit on things more and more
towards the end. Little boring and not what I was hoping for. Still a good
title though.
Boy Go Home’s up next. Very empty sounding but that’s just the
affects. Vocals sound a bit better, kind of a Drop Kick Murphy’s number but not as good. Ah, there's the bridge
again, boring. Chorus sounds like a thousand other bad punk songs so that kind
of gives the game away. I can see what they're trying to do but it aint
working.
The worst thing
about modern punk bands is that they still try and recreate that anger, angst,
rebellion and anarchist spirit kids in the mid seventies harnessed and made work,
without trying to develop it. How can a music that’s over thirty years old revolutionize
anything? You didn’t see the Sid Vicious
sweating about reproducing Frank Sinatra
did ya? Sun of A Nun is next. Again,
not a bad intro. Even when things kick in it’s not too bad. Very simple and
nothing worth shouting about but definitely a marked improvement after the
other two songs. They actually manage to make the whole thing sound planned out
on this one. The title is probably meant to be their 'Shocking Number' but
Tickets There see's no such infamy. Even the guitar solo manages to sound a
little more polished and rehearsed this time. Yep, Tickets There is finally
enjoying the Hassle Merchants. Let's
hope it carries on because I have another five reviews to write today and I don’t
want to lose my caffeine buzz.
Echoes in Empty Hall's is next and another good intro, best yet actually.
Agh God, until that fucking stupid low toned riff comes in. Bands, stop using
that, it’s fucking sickening. (Anyways, In the mean time) things are going pretty
well. The Libertines keep popping
into my mind for some reason, even though this crowd don’t really sound much like
them, I'm just getting this kind of FAKE buzz from their sound. Like their good
songs are only good by accident. You can hear the Clash pouring through on this track and that only makes things
worse because now I want to listen to them instead. Agh, I'm a little bored.
Get Your Finger Out brings us to our second last track and it’s pretty
bad. The main Riff is so used before, I'm pretty sure they collected the
insurance payout. They've gone from having two relatively well constructed
songs to the standards of the first two and made it a little more childish.
It's short but still manages to drag on longer than Lord of the Rings. Waiter,
next song please. The final track is called Acoustic
Dublin’s
Screaming Murder Live (I’m sure the words Acoustic and Live were added due
to this being an acoustic song preformed live. Ya see, Math and Physics mixed
with logic does get you places). Now this is alright. Pretty much about people
in Dublin
getting shot and not much happening about it. I'm not 100% sure, but their
blaming it on some pretentious cunts. Not sure if they're talking about the Whelan’s
or Odessa Club crowd on a Saturday night but I hope so. All shit aside, it’s
not a bad song. Worth checking out if you’re bored and one of the three half
decent tracks here.
Overall…not too
bad. As you probably noticed my enthusiasm is waning a little but they
definitely aren’t the worst lot out there but also haven’t matured enough yet
to deserve the words attention. Maybe in a couple of years.