Cheap Sidekicks and Cursive Girls

Shaky from the coffee...wired from the sound...ready to take on the World...only because I won't be sleeping for hours if this feeling doesn't go away.

Record reviews (I hope):

Random scale of randomness...
1 wide awake hour of creativity.  This is probably not worth the time.
2 wide awake hours of creativity.  Ehhh...I'm just not convinced this is the real thing.
3 wide awake hours of creativity.  This is the norm.  Something worth the effort.
4 wide awake hours of creativity.  This is better than the rest, but something else is probably the best.
5 wide awake hours of creativity.  Great, greater, the bestest!

Cursive "I Am Gemini" 2 wide awake hours of creativity.  Indie Dream Theater for sure.

I admit it.  Years ago I had a musical affair with Cursive.  I came across 2003's "The Ugly Organ" and loved it, loved it, and loved it again!  But as it sometimes happens Cursive and I fell out of love.  Ok so it was me.  Still...we could have had a long and harmonious relationship.  So what broke us up?  One thing is that my tastes in music simplified a bit.  I started liking really good, really catchy, and really simple rock songs.  Cursive can write really good songs, but catchy and simple are not usually used to describe their brand of rock.  This record is no different.  Complex, lyrically dark, and just plain long rock songs are all over this new release.  Don't get me wrong...this is indie prog rock at its best...I'm just all prog rocked out!  Highlights: "Drunken Birds" and "The Cat and Mouse".

Cheap Girls "Giant Orange" 5 wide awake hours of creativity.  Better than the bestest!

The needle hits the record..."Gone All Summer" blares out through the cans on my head.  Straight ahead, big, dumb (but not stoopid), rock and roll!  Love it!  Turn it up!  Gotta go see this band live!  Okay so that's just one song in.  Maybe I should wait a little bit before I make them my favorite band of the moment.  Update: I'm up to song #4 and I'm already making plans to listen to this whole thing again.  Great mix of music.  Big arena in the club rock goes into cool dirty acoustic ballad goes back into big rock and roll.  Cheap Girls just shot a "Giant Orange" of rock and roll right into my heart...I'm dead.  Highlights: "Gone All Summer" and "Mercy-Go-Round" are among my favorites right now.

The Sidekicks "Awkward Breeds" 4 wide awake hours of creativity.  Another very pleasant surprise!

I picked this record to review since Spinner.com said that they are similar to Cheap Girls and you know how much I love Cheap Girls!  (The band you nasty kids!)  Yes they are rock and roll but they have a very different sound than Cheap Girls.  Cleaner guitar sounds, higher vocals, and more harmonies are just some of the differences.  The first song didn't hit me like the last band but I can see how I might really get into this band.  The only thing that I'm not so sure about at first listen is the vocals.  They kind of remind me of Cursive's vocalist mixed with the punk wannabe bands of the early 2000s.  But that's fine because the album rocks.  This is another band that I really want to see live and finding 2 great bands in one night feels like I found gold in this here cold Internet river.  Highlights: "Incandescent Days" and "The Whale and Jonah".