Songs to ______ to (no, that's not a clever edit...that's the title) is an EP that stumbled into existence. What was supposed to be a demo session turned into a nicely recorded and engineered album with the help of people who have worked with artists like AFI, Rancid, The Donnas, Green Day, Blink 182, etc, etc, etc.

Within 10 seconds of hearing the first track, Simple Life, I scrambled to get my co-worker who loves The Smiths and Morrissey. "Ok, you have 10 seconds to tell me who this guy sounds like." It didn't take 10 seconds. He quickly smiled and said succinctly "Morrissey." Much to my surprise he didn't want to listen to the album; but after my repeated assurance that this wasn't some pop-punk band trying to sound like The Smiths he gave it a spin. Finally the Morrissey aficionado gave his approval.

I was half expecting to hear a cover off of Meat Is Murder, but once again I was surprised as I listened to this CD. The first song sounds like Face to Face meets The Smiths; and that's what I expected. That's not Death to Wednesday (thank God). The songs are well-composed, Nathan Lawler does a great job of balancing his non-traditional (but very talented) voice with the rest of the band, and everything sounds great. Every song has its own life and unique vision that even Morrissey would love.

Mike Frost
www.buzzgrinder.com