SHENANIGANZ - review added 17th July 2009
Album Review: Open Your Eyes Or Cover Your Head (2009)
For fans of: Modern Rock... and punk tinged teenage noise
German band Shenaniganz is Georg (Share 'O' Ryan) on guitars and vocals, Daniel (Dickey I.R.) on guitars and vocals, Tobay (I.C. Wiener) on bass and finally Dom (Zack McRatten) on drums. They may have extremely silly nicknames, but you have to respect anyone with the 'balls' to be called I.C. Wiener...
Cutting a very long story very short, the guys got together in 2004 at school. They won something called the German School Jam and were soon playing festivals like the Rock am Ring in Germany, Frequency in Austria and The International Junior Art Festival in South Korea.
'Open Your Eyes Or Cover Your Head' is the follow up to their debut album, Four Finger Fist Fight. The sound is punky and bouncy like a newborn lamb with a mohican and some suspicious tattoos. The vocalising sounds young but urgent. Overall they are caught in the void between Busted, Rooster, Blink 182 and Green Day... although they do have a few other influences we shall explore in due course.
Opening track 'Roses Are Red' starts off well enough with an energetic riff and frantic drumming. The vocals are pretty contagious too... up until the point the chorus comes along. I know English isn't these guys' first language but, come on. Violets has a 'V', not a 'W' at the start. Roses are red, wiolets are blue does not a good song make! I end up listening to so many songs with these silly pronunciation errors. Is it really that hard to get it right?! Anyway, apart from that small misdemeanour it's a great quick hit of a song I could really grow to like.
'Merry-Go-Round' is a loud blast of punk pop with a hot summer vibe. The Hammond organ milling around in the background is a welcomed addition and the song as a whole is Oasis-baitingly brilliant. 'We Are The Underground' is the best slice of Rage Against The Machine since... well, Rage Against The Machine. It sounds uncannily like them in places, although the harmonica segments perhaps aren't a wholly accurate reproduction.
'Girl In The First Row' is a wonderfully upbeat track, although the riff in the background is worryingly familiar. See if you can work out who it sounds like...? I'm torn between the Beatles' 'Day Tripper' and Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz'. 'Change' borrows some serious 60's/70's moves too. The vocalizing is as bang up to date as Swine Flu and Martian colonization (depending on when you read this), but the tinkling guitars in the background are properly old-skool.
'Bavaria' is quite frankly bonkers yet as mesmerising as a purple elephant wearing stilettos. The combination of frenetic carnival brass, lightning drum beats, offbeat singing and Muse-style progressive ingredients should be musical suicide but works brilliantly. And surely they got little 'Petey' from American Pie in there?! 'Lights' is a vaguely proggy 70's retro track with broken beats and an unexpected chorus. It isn't a world beating song but it has a certain charm.
'Open Your Eyes Or Cover Your Head' has numerous good moments and is bagfuls of fun. If you like teen-rock-pop this is one of the better recent examples of the genre and features a lot of top musicianship. There are a few issues with sameness throughout the record and those pronunciation issues at the start are no-need, but overall this is a fine release that probably won't appeal to everyone... but those who like it will love it.
Check out... 'Bavaria'. Absolute Genius with a capital A...G..
Track List:
1. Roses Are Red
2. The Cost Of Rock
3. Merry-Go-Round
4. We Are The Underground
5. Because I Am
6. Girl In The First Row
7. Brand New Chucks
8. Change
9. Bavaria
10. Don't Tell The Fire
11. Lights
12. Way To Go
13. You Don't Know Me
14. Nowadays
Label: Silverwolf Productions
Artist's website(s): Shenaniganz , MySpace
