Reviews for [RL88]
Snow What "So Far So Good"

• Ge It On Vinyl
  I take my music very seriously. I’m anal as hell about it. I’m picky as fuck too. I have to have the right music on for the right mood. I quickly write off bands I don’t take seriously. I mock others who like music that is bad. In fact, my wife has let me know on one more than one occasion that this is one of the few things she really hates about me. The truth is, I don’t even know I’m doing it until I’m in too deep. This doesn’t mean I don’t like fun feel good music though. I just don’t like the same kind of fun feel good music that other people like. I like my feel good music to be downright goofy or juvenile with a dash of delinquent. The Ramones are feel good music, The Donnas, Ween, Pavement, Cococoma, or Ben Kweller also all fit the bill. After listening to Snow What’s So Far so Good, I have to add them to my list of feel good music. The album plays with that goofy indie feel of a band like Pavement with the garage punk vibe of oddball teenager Ben Kweller that lets you know that this artist doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Of the fifteen songs, only three crack the three minute mark, and the other twelve come in somewhere around the one or two minute mark. If I was just to look at the track listing and length of the songs, I would guess a straight ahead punk album, something like DRI, but I would be somewhat off base. So Far so Good isn’t a hardcore punk album in the slightest, but it plays with a grungy punk pop vibe throughout. In fact, the album opener, “Our Little Secret,” plays like a punky Weezer B-side. In general, the songs don’t venture too far from this model. This doesn’t hinder the album though. Tracks like “Across the 2nd Dimension,” “Outright Aircraft,” and “Wouldn’t You” all have an early Beck meets Jimmy Eat World sensibility. When I think of a guy like Beck, I think of a guy who is an amazing musician and a genius lyricist. Snow What aren’t amazing musicians. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t going to pull out any out of the box Beck musicianship or crazy Ween guitar solos. This doesn’t mean Snow What is a bad band. They are far from it. They are competent musicians who like a little bit of fun rock. The band does try to serious it up at times with tracks like, “Heart Beats Out of Line” which has an alternative rock dirge feel of Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” or The Verve’s “Freshman.” The songs “Outright Aircraft,” and “Mower Queen” have a Pavement deep cut texture to them. If you were a teenager in the 90’s, these tracks will take you back. Overall, So Far so Good is a good album. It took me two or three listens to get me into it, but once I was in, I was in. In fact, I’d like to start looking around for their first album, So White. I don’t always do this with albums I pick up for a review, but this one really sucked me in. So Far so Good is available from http://www.partynogg.bigcartel.com/. It’s unquestionably a homemade product with the gritty feel of the cover and the hand stamped label. The LP also comes with an insert with typed out lyrics. Often times, it’s the home made, soon to be hard to find LPs that become the most valuable in your collection. So rush out and pick this one up before you’re out of luck.
  
  
  
  
• Collective Zine
  OK, so this is the best indie rock record of 2014. Why is that? As it’s a bit of a shambles. Snow What fall apart in front of your very own eyes and ears. They’re making a noise, playing some riffs, yelling a bit. Never really clear where they are going. But hold on a moment. It’s fucking perfect! Just wait til you hit “Metal Warrior” which right now feels like it’s the best song I’ve ever heard. It isn't really, but for those three short minutes... Remember that first Beezewax LP, when they were still finding their feet and figuring out that a fuzzy melody was the greatest thing? That’s what you’ve got on that one. I could listen to “Metal Warrior” non stop for a thousand jahre. What a fucking song. The rest of the album is almost as good. There’s a few missteps but overall this is a record full of song after song of the kind of indie rock I want to be listening to. Love that there are still bands out there that somehow deliver the precise combination I require. Gimme indie rock.