Rating:   18 Ratings     12345  

Poster Children No More Songs about Sleep and Fire Hidden Agenda

      Sadly this is my first exposure to Poster Children, an embarrassing fact of life considering this is their 9th (or more accurately their 8 1/2th) album from this Illinois punk rockin’ band that’s been around for 16 years. Rick plays guitar and sings. Rose plays bass and sings. Jim plays guitar and Matt plays drums. This amazing quintuplet group delivers hyper-kinetic new wave pop with angular rock intricacies highlighted by vibrant guitar interplay between guitarists. Incredibly they’ve been touring for a decade and a half, so naturally they’ve acquired legions of fans from all over the country. This powerful parasol release was recorded in Champaign, Illinois in the band’s Bit Riot! studios.

      The opening track “Jane” sets the tone for what is to follow in numerous other tracks. Its tempo is urgent, spinning and maniacally intense. It pertains to a former Parasol intern who is also Rose's Kung Fu sister. Funny and quirky and a great place to start. The next track, an absolutely charming and lighthearted tune “Western Springs” describes a mid-western small town “where the streets are safe and the air is clean, where the sky is blue and the grass is green, gotta get back home to western springs.” “Sugarfriend” is a humorous tune, protesting against fair weathered friends, with lyrics “I know all about your problems, well I got problems of my own, but you don’t want to hear about it, you don’t have the time, how things get bad for me, you get scarce, when things get worse, you disappear.” “Flag” is a politically driven track with opinionated lyrics chanting “get off the fence, get off your ass, it’s time to make a stand before there’s nothing left”. “The Floor” could quite possibly be my favorite track; it’s hypnotic, and endearing and appropriate to many states of my being, with a message “you may fall off the floor, you can’t get down any lower, with all this trouble that I’ve got, no where else to go but up”. “Now it’s gone” is a bit looser and relaxed in tone and tempo and harmonizes rifts of the memories yesteryear. “Midnite Son,” the ending track, leaves nothing to be desired. It’s references to sleep and the ending of a day is the perfect parting. The overall vibrant and powerful guitar interplay between guitarists Rick and Jim, highlighted with dual signing of Rick and Rose, anchored by Roses bass playing along with the sturdy beat of Matts drums adds up to one phenomenal music experience.

      So here I am now, an unfamiliar, almost naïve young woman frantically embarking on a new, unknown stage of life. A newbie to the City of Angels and the Poster Children, both of which contain energy that, is intense, out of control, and manic in content. Far from the desolate horizon I recently visited the vast unknown of what is possible to come is incomprehensible to foresee, and delightfully so is the future of this electrifying band. One thing is certain, whenever I listen to No More Songs about Sleep and Fire I’ll be instantly warped to another time and place, and isn’t that what makes music so vital to life’s wonderful journeys?

-Christine Beals 03/14/04