Quantcast

Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers

Music
cover art

Bubblegum Lemonade

Ten Years Younger

(Matinee Recordings; US: 19 Feb 2008; UK: 17 Mar 2008)

Strawberry Whiplash

Who's In Your Dreams EP

(Matinee Recordings; US: 29 Jan 2008; UK: 17 Mar 2008)

Who the hell does Laz think he is? Well, unfortunately none of us really know. He’s just… Laz. He fronts two very similar-sounding bands whose names remind us all of ice cream flavors that never were: Strawberry Whiplash and Bubblegum Lemonade. This young Glasgow lad does the music for both groups but only actually sings with Bubblegum, and that band’s Ten Years Younger EP is willing to throw all its got into the pop-rock stratosphere: the title track is wedged somewhere between the Smiths’ early recordings and the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, taking the best of both worlds. “Unsafe at Any Speed” is a fuzz-drenched cocktail of surf music with a Dandy Warhol lemon put in for flavor. As you can imagine, these songs are about as lasting as a fudgesicle on a summers day, but sometimes that’s exactly what you’re in the mood for. All that disappoints is a relatively lifeless cover of the song “That Thing You Do!”, penned by Fountains of Wayne frontman Adam Schlesinger for the Tom Hanks movie of the same name, here given a bland monotone treatment that removes all pep and energy from the original.

Ten Years Younger

Rating:

Who's In Your Dreams EP

Rating:

Evan Sawdey began contributing to PopMatters in late 2005 after contributing for years to his college newspaper The Knox Student. Evan became the Associate Interviews Editor for PopMatters in the summer of 2008, and then the full Interviews Editor a year after that. Since joining, Evan's work has been quoted/featured in a wide array of publications including SLUG Magazine, The Metro (U.K.), the Gulf Times, Soundvenue Magazine (Denmark), and multiple national newspapers. Evan has been a guest on WNYC's Soundcheck (an NPR affiliate), was the Executive Producer for the Good With Words: A Tribute to Benjamin Durdle album (available for free at GoodWithWordsAlbum.com), and wrote the liner notes for the 2011 re-release of Andre Cymone's hit 1985 album A.C. (Big Break Records) and the 2012 re-releases of the JoBoxers' 1983 debut album Like Gangbusters, 'Til Tuesday's 1985 debut Voices Carry, and Plastic Bertrand's 1978 album AN 1 (all Hot Shot Records). He is a current member of The Recording Academy and resides in Chicago, Illinois. You can follow him @SawdEye should you be so inclined.


Related Articles
15 May 2012
Falling in and out of love sounds perfectly lovely with Strawberry Whiplash.
29 Mar 2011
With Sophomore Release, you get nearly pitch-perfect recreations of gold sounds from popular music’s past that are unleashed in quick two to three minute bursts.
30 Oct 2008
Following a pair of exuberent power-pop EPs at the start of the year, Glasgow's monosylabic pop wonder Laz finally runs out of inspiration.
Comments
Now on PopMatters
Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers (Announcements) [Tue, 3:00 pm]
Bone and Bell Release Second EP (Mixed Media) [Tue, 10:00 am]
Cannes 2012: Day 9 - 'Student' + 'In the Fog' (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 9:00 am]
The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader) [Tue, 8:00 am]
Devil May Cry: HD Collection (Reviews) [Tue, 6:45 am]
The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. Top Ten Lost Midwest Punk Singles (Sound Affects)
  6. Like 'Doom', In Heels (Moving Pixels)
  7. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  8. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  9. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  10. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  11. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  12. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  13. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  14. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  15. The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader)
  16. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  17. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  18. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  19. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  20. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  21. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  22. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  23. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  24. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  25. Saint Etienne: Words and Music (Reviews)
  26. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  27. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  28. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  29. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  30. Feeling '80s Spirit: Post-Hardcore Punk for the Plastic Generation (Columns)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.