Wednesday, March 22, 2006

CD of the Day, 3/22/06: Joe Lies-Joe Lies


At first blush, NYC's Joe Lies may appear like just another emo/pop punk band. In fact, that's how they bill themselves on their myspace page. But what sets Joe Lies apart from so many of their brethren is their gift for melody, making their music really more "power pop" than "emo".

The opening salvo of "Garden", "Shine" and "Everybody" will convince any power popper of this. Sounding more like a rocking Fountains of Wayne rather than, say, Jimmy Eat World, they have the spunk and sass of the former in their lyrics and delivery. "Shine" in particular shines, from the opening and underlying guitar riff (most likely unintentionally) borrowed from the Drive-By Truckers' "Marry Me", to the pure pop of the chorus. They even slow it down effectively on the midtempo piano-based "Mad Love".

Check some mp3s out for yourself:

Garden
Shine
Mad Love

(Note: these files are a bit goofy, if you save them to disk, they need to be renamed with an mp3 extension). You also have the option to stream these songs from this page.

At the myspace page linked to above, they're featuring four songs from what I presume to their new album (although there are no details about it on their website or myspace page) You Hate Me, Don't You?, including an amusing number titled "Kelsey Grammer's Daughter".

No comments: