Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends Review

In my younger days living in New York, I would spend every Sunday afternoon seeing countless hardcore and punk bands at the all-ages "Matinee" show at CBGB's in New York City. Cause For Alarm, Snapcase, Shelter, Earth Crisis were regulars and everyone I knew had at least three Victory releases in their record collection at any given time.

Time may have moved on but the Chicago hardcore label has gone from strength to strength: they are now on the road to moving credible heavy music away from the middle class white suburbs of America to a global audience.

Taking Back Sunday are one of these new breed of Victory bands. Formed in 1999, they attracted attention with a 5 song demo that quickly impressed the emo contingent on the east coast. Hailing from Amityville, New York, they bring a welcome mix of original styles to an overcrowded playing field. The band flirt with an interesting mix of southern Californian post-punk, nu-metal and old school hardcore but "Tell All Your Friends" refuses to be pinned down to just one.

A constant through the album is their ability to write fantastically catchy songs that are poppy and fun as they are upbeat and emotionally aggressive. Tracks like the opener "You're So Last Summer", "Timberwolves at New Jersey" and the excellent "You Know How I Do" could easily veer down the path of conventionality but instead hold true to their punk roots. It's a lot more All Or Descendents than it is Blink 182 or Sum-41 (what's with the numbers you punk people?) but still retains enough of its own identity to keep the band above the rest.

The band have already amassed an impressive tour schedule - playing with bands like The Alkaline Trio, At The Drive In and Rival Schools and with songs this good, they look ready to explode and lead the charge for the new school of excellent new music coming out of the US.

For those of you into the post-punk sound, you need this in your CD collection. One to watch in 2002 for sure.