The Standard - s/t
(Barbaric)
The Standard seems like a funny name to give to your band if you can't
even figure out which band you want it to be. This group has two singers,
two directions, and really sounds like at least two seperate bands,
neither of which are incredibly good, both of which could probably be
better if the two factions split and teamed up with others who shared
a more similar musical "vision."
I'll call one of the sides of the band Standard #1 because it's my
favorite of the two. This band has a singer with a pleasant baritone voice,
and they mostly play music that leans toward quiet, and reflective;
replete with acoustic instruments and repetitive, lulling arrangements.
It's nothing that we haven't heard before, but it has a mild, pleasing
quality to it.
Standard #2 is sort of a Dischord sound conglomeration. Musically they
fall somewhere between Bluetip and Jawbox, with a singer that seems to
really like Craig Wedren, but sounds more like maybe Geddy Lee or maybe
Jello Biafra. The thing that makes AND breaks this band is the singer,
whose voice is actually super cool for a minute, but gets hard to listen
to really quickly.
The collection as a whole is not just disjointed but hit and miss. Both
Standards have a good song or two, but neither are any more consistent
than, say, Insound's shipping department. So you get a band that's all
over the place, quality that's all over the place, just so you can have
three or four okay songs. Probably not worth the price, in my opinion.
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