Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday January 30, 2003
Useless ID
No Vacation from the World
Rock music today seems to be produced in a factory, where a giant cookie cutter puts out band after band that sound exactly the same.
The only difference in the bands is whether the cookie cutter is sharp or dull. When dull, you get a sound not unlike nails on a chalkboard. When sharp, you get Useless ID.
There is nothing unique or spectacular about No Vacation. It is just a solid effort that meets any expectations fully. They have the requisite driving guitars and none-too-serious lyrics that you would expect from a rock band. They even go the extra step to include "Stuck without a Ride," a ballad of sorts that only the better rock bands include.
This isn't a negative thing. The consistency they show will make them a very popular band. Eventually, they will make a video, and MTV will feature it in heavy rotation. All the so-called "rock fans" will praise the album as "unique," just like every other rock album they have heard in the last three or four years.
Useless has the chance to become a very profitable group. If it keeps going with exactly what it is doing, it could be the next Green Day or Weezer. But, if the band changes its style to something truly unique, it may find more success in the long run, and maybe, just maybe, be the forerunner of a whole new cookie cutter factory.
-Paul Iiams
Zwan
Mary Star Of The Sea
Billy Corgan is dead. At least, the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan is dead. The Ghost of Gish now inhabits the rafters of Zwan.
Mary Star Of The Sea is the product of great musicians, but Zwan has yet to find the key ingredient that would make it a great band. This is not a collection of pseudo-Pumpkins songs, as the lead single "Honestly" suggests. Rather, it is a fresh start in a completely new direction.
Gone are the Pumpkins' intense melodies and weight. With Zwan, Corgan has dropped the cross-carrying persona of rock's most misunderstood messiah (although he may disagree on "Jesus, I/Mary Star Of The Sea") and now is free to kick down the doors of light-hearted exploration. This is Zwan.
Mary plays like a sun-drenched road trip. What becomes clear is that Corgan is not as concerned with angst as · wait for it · having a good time. After years perfecting rainy day anthems, it sounds like Corgan finally took that stick out of wherever it was.
What else could explain consecutive titles "Endless Summer," "Baby Let's Rock!," and "Yeah!"? Was there ever a Pumpkins' song that ended with an exclamation point? Me thinks not.
Abandoned audiences be damned; once Zwan finds and develops their missing link, this will be a band whose records will be worth waiting for.
÷ Kevin Smith
