Maxeen
“Self-Titled”
(Side One Dummy)
I just got back from this corporate mixer in Long Beach. I’d love to talk shit about it but someone from my work will probably read it and be all offended and then I’ll get fired and then I won’t be able to afford health care and I’ll die. That would make you so happy wouldn’t it? If I died. I hate you. Maxeen can afford health care because they’re in a popular band that plays with Bad Religion and The New Amsterdams and stuff, despite the fact that their debut album is gratingly annoying and as far different from their live shows as you could imagine.
Gone are the punk riffs and attitude Maxeen so prominently displays on stage, replaced instead by poppy vocals and trite lyrics. Why? Why, why, why? Tom Bailey’s voice is diluted to the point of a shrill screech, devoid of any attitude or anything resembling what you heard on Stage Two at the Warped Tour. Musically, Maxeen has borrowed a page from Tora! Tora! Torrance!’s treble clef filled book and made what is almost dance-punk, full of up-tempo rhythms and skitterish beats that try their best to grab your attention but will probably leave you looking for the skip button on your Discman.
