Teddy Boys- Social Club
The Teddy Boys are a local band out of Cleveland that serve up a nice mixture of pop music with rock n' roll. They were highly recommended and applauded by my good friend and musician Chris Bishop. Now it's
not often that I get asked to review local bands, but I wished it
happened more often! I made sure I gave the album a few solid listens
all the way through before reviewing and doing any type of ass kissing
or name calling.
My first impression is always the physical presentation of the album itself. Lots of people have different takes on physical merchandise. Some bands go all out and press their albums on vinyl AND CD's, some just go for CD's with extensive artwork, and I've even seen some bands exclude it entirely and just upload it to a bandcamp account. The album was done in what I think to be a very smart way! The artwork itself is fucking incredible. I don't know how did it, but I owe that dude a taco. It was a no bullshit type of deal. Let's face it, sadly most people rip the thing to their computer and lose the cases anyways.
The track "It's Alright" was an A+ because it seemed to sound the most natural all around. The two vocalist mesh in a very melodic and simplistic way that definitely had me relisten to it over and over. It sounds like a Pixies track! The leads are extremely catchy but brief, leaving you wanting more. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only track on the album to really hold my attention. I have to admit, after several attempts I can say that I am not a Teddy Boys fan.
This isn't exactly my style to begin with, but I can definitely see it being a great candidate for a large mainstream audience. I just found the album myself to be extremely weak both dynamically and musically. It sounds like what could be a loud live band was smashed down into an almost awkward sounding album. The guitar tones are spot on and Steph fucking NAILS every line she sings, but even production aside the rest of the music just simply doesn't do it for me. To me, the singer seems to be trying too hard to stand out rather than simply sing to the music around him, the drums sound hidden and weak from start to finish, and just overall the songs themselves just seem a bit too elementary.
Enough negativity! The band is full of dedicated, loving bad asses that are doing what they love! I sincerely do suggest you check out their album because I have been told by numerous people that I have terrible taste in music.
-Novak