I need to start by getting a couple things off of my chest, and if you like them you can keep them, if not you can throw them back at me. Number 1, The Sidekicks are not a punk band. I’m not trying to be negative, or add fuel to the fire of the genre acceptance fight, but there isn’t a single punk lick on the 4 tracks which appear on Grace. I think sometimes when music appeals to listeners who prefer punk music we have to call it punk or else we feel like (for lack of a better phrase) “not repping the brand.”
Number 2, I didn’t like the single at first, which probably has a lot to do with gripe number 1. I took repeated listens, and I actually had to make comparisons to other music that I like in order to help me along. This is something I don’t usually like to do, but on the first two tracks “Grace” and “The Wallflowers” (the first of which also appears on their full length Awkward Breeds) lead man Steve Ciolek vocals bring back fond memories of rocking out to Weezer without River Cuomo’s self loathing lyrics. The next two tracks “The 9th Piece (Alternate version)”, and “Stay” (the first once again appears on their recent full length) have the same type of feeling as Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners (one of my favourite non-punk albums).
It has been a long time since I have been able to say I liked a different band or album without being able to attach the punk label to them mostly because I feel like it is cheating on my musical love, but sometimes to enjoy good music I have to accept the fact that I can be friends with other genres without betraying the other. With Grace, The Sidekicks have introduced me to a new friend.
Back in the early 80s when the first tide of Punk gave way to a New Wave, a couple new styles started to coalesce. On one side there was the move back to basics, picking up chicks style rock and roll that paved the way to all so much hair metal. On the other end there was the more cerebral college shoe gazing rock that found its way to the masses as indie or alternative.
This is my first crack at a book review and the book and I have chosen the book I have because from what I have read the book hasn’t been very well received by fans of the series it belongs to. The book that I am alluding to is The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, the first in a series of novels that explore the origins of characters in the series. I am a recent convert to the graphic novel genre and an even newer fan of The Walking Dead and before buying the book I hadn’t read up to where The Governor is introduced (I did read Book 3 before I read the novel). So I wanted to look up who he was and I read a little bit about the book and I read some reviews prior to reading to book. 
To build on the momentum of last night, I decided to sit down and do something that I have meant to for some time now. That is to review Banner Pilot’s Heart Beats Pacific. This has been a long time coming for me, first, when I bought the album it was delayed getting to me so I didn’t get to hear it right away and also I have just been lazy.
All right, here is some raw as all get out, punk to the muthafuckin’ gills rock-n-roll. “Demos” by Good Things gives up four brief tracks of basement-grade ballast; chunky guitar, chunky bass, chunky drums, chunky everything. It’s raw, but its got balls.
I have had a few things on my docket in recent weeks that I said I would review, but I just haven’t done it, and I kept telling myself I have to come up with something, but couldn’t. I just wasn’t inspired enough, I just couldn’t listen and put anything together. Fast forward to today, I had taken the day off work to take my little boy in for vaccinations, and he wasn’t having the best day afterward so we were just sitting around and I came across The Punk News’ exclusive stream of The Menzingers On The Impossible Past and we shared my headphones as we listened.