© 2014
Rating: 
So, of course, I’m going to mention that this band is named Solid Gold Balls. Right off the bat it garners attention. After you get past the initial thoughts of “is this going to be schlock?”, “um, ok, humor band?”, or “seriously?” and you start to listen to the tracks, you are rewarded with something perhaps better than expected.
The songs are straight forward rock and roll with musical influences ranging from Sonic Youth, Presidents of the United States of America, and maybe Beck. Lyrically the tracks are fun and generally speaking very kid/family friendly. (at least on the surface). Rhyming pony with Rice-a-Roni, for example gives you an inkling of an idea about how the other songs might go. On an amusing note, Google Play Music has every last of the 14 tracks on Dream Is Real listed as explicit. … I feel this is akin to the PMRC advisory labels of yore.
Heck, I think if this release were cleaned up a little bit, especially in regards to track 11: Favorite Things, it would be a potential candidate for Mike Park’s family/kids label Fun Fun Records.
Content, or interpretation thereof notwithstanding, Dream Is Real brings you 14 solid tracks of catchy fun poppy punk rock delivered with a solid band and song craft behind them. The only major drawback for me is that perhaps the songs are too saccharine. If you listen to hard things can come off as trite. So I suggest sitting back, relaxing a bit, and not taking things so damn seriously.
–Jerry Actually
