American Taxi – Runaway Songs

Expectations suck ass. Lately a lot of the cds that I’ve been waiting for with high anticipation haven’t been able to live up to the hopes I have placed on the CD. Instead, it has been the albums that came out of nowhere and held no strings attached to it that have been exciting me. The Tom Fun Orchestra just did it and now American Taxi are doing it because even though I had no idea what to expect from the album before I heard it, now that I have I can’t stop listening to it.

With two members of Lucky Boys Confusion and one from Logan Square, it’s clear from the start that American Taxi aren’t novices in the industry. With a crisp sound, the band plays a mixture of pop-rock but without any of the negative aspects that you that term normally encompasses, particularly since they give a heavy nod towards their pop-punk influence. The most prominent aspect of the band’s sound is Adam Krier’s vocals. Worn but not excessively so, Krier’s vocals would be a nice replacement for any radio rock song like Strata or Dropping Daylight although he is able to do much more than either other bands are capable of doing (and American Taxi sound nothing like either bands). His vocals aren’t restricted to one momentum and sound but actually features a unique quality to them, promoted heavily through the passion in the delivery. So despite the radio-rock like tinge to his vocals, a more accurate comparison would be a cross between old Chris Carrabba and old Kris Roe with a miniscule dash of Dave Hause.

The six song EP navigates through varied emotions as it ebbs and flows with an intensity that alters within every song. These variations help each song survive on it’s own merits all the while creating a solidified unit that works cohesive together. Tanner Boyle Vs. The 7th Grade personifies that emotional variation within itself. Starting with a mellow acoustic introduction, the song is slowly introduced and with each verse adds an extra layer of intensity and emotion until it capsules in the chorus with exploding vocals and raising drum beats. It then suddenly drops a bit but remains strong and is built up again before exploding in the chorus another time. Even though the album itself doesn’t feature that many slow moments, the emotion and intensity does vary itself often enough to keep the album fresh.

Runaway Songs starts off with The Mistake (Burning Hot Girls) that sets the stage for the album with a crisp drum beat and vocals delivered at a fast, almost rap-like pace. Dead Street shows off both the thick bass backbone of the band and some talented guitar riffs and is easily one the biggest highlights of the album. With lyrics like She’s has a parked cab begging to leave this, With a bar tab bigger than Jesus and enough gang vocals to get everyone singing along within the first listen, Dead Street becomes an instant classic.

Shake Rattle And Stall follows an almost Fat Wreck type of pop-punk and is by far the most straight forward pop-punk tune of the album. On Paper Covers Rock, American Taxi lean in on their Atarisinfluence, both sonically (think End Is Forever era) and the fact that the song is a scathing attack on radio just like Roe loves to write about so very frequently. Maps and Medicines closes the album off with the biggest change in writing style. Starting with a whisper and a drum beat, the song starts off slowly and is built around Chris Smith’s drumming patterns and only deviates from that course during the chorus in which the entire trio jumps into the song with force.

American Taxi are not re-inventing the wheel here, but it works. It’s unique enough to only be their style while pulling in on another influences that it seems nice and familiar. It came out of nowhere but it definitely wont’ get lost in my collection now that I’ve heard it. Plus, it’s six bucks.