The Sidekicks – So Long Soggy Dog

The Sidekicks are going to blow up. I can see it now. They won’t make it into the mainstream and be splattered all over the radio – but that’s a good thing – instead they’ll be everyone’s favorite underground punk rock band. The explosion is really quite inevitable. Their debut, So Long Soggy Dog, is on a growing and highly respected independent label, Red Scare Industries. They are Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms) current favorite band, he actually wrote their bio, so I’m sure he’ll be dropping their name every chance he gets. Oh, and the fact that So Long Soggy Dog is actually a damn good CD could help a bit too.

While not extremely innovative at its foundation, The Sidekicks‘ debut doesn’t need to be because it is, as Kelly so beautiful put it, fist-pumpingly, finger-pointingly kick ass. So Long Soggy Dog is eleven tracks of energetic, nasally, pop-punk in the vein of the classic Fat Wreck sound but with snottier edge to it. It sounds like the Re-inventing Axl Rose era Against Me! with a dash of Hot Water Musicintensity and grumbling vocals mixed in. A few of the songs have a more slowed down country vibe to them like Lucero but for the most part they just rip into every song with fist-pumping energy. Gang vocals are screamed out, power chords galore and driving drum beats, The Sidekicks deliver song after song of pop-punk goodness and once word picks up about them they will explode.

That’s not to say the record is life changing or perfect as there are a few areas that they could improve on. First is the sound quality as the record sounds somewhat muffled at times and you get the sense that the album would be better with a rawer edge and more distinct mixing. As it is, the sound sometimes sounds somewhat flat in a wall of sound void of a certain crispness that is hiding in the mix waiting to break out. Even though the album takes a slight knock because of it, it really elevates the excitement to hear the songs live.

The other obvious nit pick is the lack of diversity within the album; and at first glance that can hinder the enjoyment of the record but play it a few more times and the record starts to sink in. The gruff vocals stand out in Wife Swap > Sled Riding. The slower, softer “Chips Bring A Party Down” really cements the early AM! feel and the country twang sounds like The Lawrence Arms’ Warped Summer Extravaganza. They end it all with an acoustic ditty padded out with a soothing cello melody with Steve Smith, Coal Miner JR. On Tomboioi everything comes together for an explosive track that highlights not only the musical skill possessed by the quartet but also brings the lyrics into the limelight for the very first time which gets you flipping through the booklet to look at the rest of the words that were previously screamed at you.

It soon becomes clear that the lyrics are equally as impressive as the explosive sound and they become yet another point for why they will soon be “the next big thing”. “If I stand tall up on this platform and I scream out all my lungs, if I can reach anyone in anyplace, will that mean my work is done? If I can find something worth dying for or feel like dying from what I’ve become, will I finally find contentment? Will this mean anything at all?” is just a sample of the lyrics that adorn this record. Lyrics that constantly see them reaching out for something more, questioning the things around them, looking for some meaning and learning from failures.

So no, you may not know who The Sidekicks are right now, but you should and soon enough you will. So Long Soggy Dog is currently sitting at a mark of 3.5 but its very close to being a flat out 4; check it out so you can say you knew them before they were big.