Here in College Park, a certain breed of bands tends to pop up. A breed best characterized as, how should I put this, “jammy.” Judgement reserved. But breaking that barrier is Back To Save The Universe. Like Barenaked Ladies with jazzier drumming. In fact, despite frontman Andrew Grossman’s cutesy lyrics and Mike Seiler’s melodic keys, the band’s most interesting member is drummer Kirk Kubicek. At times sporadic and definitely diverse, Kubicek has fascinating skill. But that’s for another time.
The band released their second recording, From the Front Lines of the Good Fight, last week. The EP recycled three songs (“Julia,” Say Goodbye” and “C’mon Man”) from 2007’s Back To Save The Universe EP, but it’s still toted as a new release. The songs have a common theme of boy-girl-love-song, which is great but will get tiring in the near future. But interestingly, the band manages a mixture of simple pop song writing with cool jazzy highlights. I’m guessing a lot came from the drums. Did I mention I love the drums? I love them so much.
On FTFLOTGF, this genre mixing is seen apart and strung together. “Julia” is the band’s pop single, and they all know it. Following it up with the mostly-instrumental jazz piece “Life of the Party” is striking, and a great move. The band sometimes gets a little too ambitious on the artistic side and throws in unnecessary outros that don’t make a lot of sense with the rest of the song (I’m looking at you, “Julia”). They should take note from the well-cut “Daisy” (which by the way is SO 1938 and awesome).
What the EP lacks is just what you’d expect from a young band. It lacks focus. But it’s clear the band is still moving, and their goal is obvious. With time, they can make the perfect pop/jazz album you want them to make. [You can download From The Front Lines of the Good Fight for free over at their website]
Back To Save The Universe – “Julia” [MP3]
Back To Save The Universe – “Life of the Party” [MP3]
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