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29 January 2004
Read Yellow, Read Yellow (Fenway Recordings)
Brimming with energy, so much in fact that they barely know what to do with it all, and noisy amplifiers that cover up the still-developing songwriting, Read Yellow have done an excellent job of getting themselves fairly well known with just this four-song EP. They had a big 2003 and they're starting off 2004 by touring England with Pretty Girls Make Graves in February. If they continue at this rate you can count on seeing a lot more of them by the end of this year. Their debut EP as Read Yellow (they have a previous three-song EP under the Sharks) is short (four songs in under 14 minutes), aggressive, and to the point though it ultimately doesn't justify all the excitement. The lead track, "Read Yellow", beats a lot of what you'll hear while watching MTV2 between 1:00 and 3:00am and that's a good start. The remaining tracks throw out Hives-ish garage rock ("I get high, baby, whenever I'm around you"), some back and forth boy-girl vocals, and lots and lots of yelling (singer Jesse Vuona does it well, too), but for all its bluster it doesn't really offer much to make it stand out over the loads of bands doing the same thing. A lot will be determined with the release of their full-length, being recorded with producer Paul Kolderie (Morphine, Uncle Tupelo, Belly, Radiohead). For now, they're mostly for the kids, which is fine and which isn't to imply that they're not for real (their live show is said to be amazing). It's just that for the time being, and for this set of songs specifically, there's not really too much there to keep things all that interesting once the buzz wears off.
— Jon Langmead
.: posted by Editor 9:26 AM
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