Reviews

Innovatively enough, Karate High Schools’ album title is also their self proclaimed genre of music.  What this means, is that a bunch of video game nerds who also like to play music came up with the brilliant (and I use the term loosely) idea of combining those annoying synthesized melodies that take you’re subjected to listening to while trying to score a stuffed bunny in the crane machine which no one ever wins.  Karate High School ends up being quite good at playing the ever inventive style of post hardcore punk that no one else from California has ever claimed as their own. I’m being sarcastic, by the way.
 “Good News and Bad News” with its catchy chorus and “Oh Oh Oh’s” is packaged to sell to millions of teenagers who danced around their bedrooms to the Mario Brothers theme song.  “Twice Upon A Time,” “88 Million Light Years Away” and “Sweet The Leg,” all combine rocking out, screaming and pressing keys on the moog. There’s nothing more really to say about most of the other songs because they’re more or less a product of each other.  This record doesn’t reach out to me; it doesn’t strike me as something to pass the time for a bunch of dudes that thought it would be a good idea to hop onto the explosive California rock scene.
 
All it takes to be a rock star these days is 24,000 myspace friends, buddy icons and no other direction to go in with your life. No offense to these guys, I’m sure they worked very hard on this record and I’m sure all the fans of Emery, Lorene Drive, Senses Fail and Scary Kids Scaring Kids will eat it up, but I want more. Where’s the heart? Where’s the passion? I’m not convinced.