August 27, 2007
It Ain't Hype If It's True
I'm a busy bee these days so rather than write a new piece talking about the new Leftovers album On The Move, I'm just going to reprint something I wrote about them for Monona Merch:
Hailing from Portland, Maine, the Leftovers are the best of the new wave of pop-punk bands. This trio blew me away with their great, if uneven, 2006 release, Party Tonight but their newest album (on Rally Records), On The Move is in a whole 'nother league. What sets these cats apart from the crowd is their unique combination of popping-at-the-seams energy, an effortless melding of heart-wrenching melodies and balls-out rock, and some of the most flat-out amazing songs I've ever heard. The result is something like the Flamin' Groovies as played by the Ramones, only a hundred times better than you can imagine. Behind frontman Kurt Baker's awe-inspiring shock-fro is a one-track mind teeming with nothing but cosmic hooks of the sort that just ruin other bands for you; this dude can write a song, brothers and sisters! I received a co-producer credit for On The Move but I'm not making a dime from the sales so you can trust me when I tell you that this album is the best damn slab of Rock to come barreling down the pike in too many moons to count.
