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Higher Giant

Al's Moustache (7 inch)

Written by: PP on 07/12/2009 22:53:26

I guess Higher Giant are a bit of a punk supergroup, considering their members' respective CVs include bands like Kid Dynamite, Lifetime, Paint It Black, Grey Area and Token Entry. The first three are of course the most known ones, but it's the Token Entry vocalist Ernie Parada who makes a particularly big impression on "Al's Moustache" seven inch thanks to his unique, care-free singing style. He sounds like the long lost love child between The Bouncing Souls vocalist Greg Attonito and Belvedere/This Is A Standoff dude Steve Rawles, injecting the songs with bright, high pitch vocal harmonies left and right. You could also argue that he uses a similarly engaging style as The Stereo vocalist on their classic "Three Hundred" album, constantly taking over the listener's attention as soon as it's about to drift off.

The rest of the band is situated halfway between melodic punk and uptempo pop punk, again justifying The Bouncing Souls and maybe even a Face To Face reference. The hook-laden guitars ensure that speed is kept up throughout the disc, but really "Al's Moustache" is a very vocal and bass-driven album. Surprisingly enough, the only new kid on the block, bassist Alex Volonino (The Arson), comes pretty close to stealing the show with some sublime bass lines ranging from the vibrant low rumbles to the high-frequency melody drivers (see especially "The Bad Investment".

Pretty much the only downside of "Al's Moustache" is that at 4 tracks and just over 11 minutes, it's way too short. Tracks like "Just Go" and "See You Later, Chopstick" leave me wanting more of Parada's awesome vocals and Volonino's sweet bass licks, and missing the cheerful, mood-lifting soundscape in general. Give me a full album's worth of songs like these, and I'll oil the hype machine in the mean time.

Download: See You Later Chopstick
For the fans of: The Bouncing Souls, Face To Face, This Is A Standoff, The Stereo
Listen: Myspace

Release date 11.08.2009
Black Numbers