Review: Guardrail – Yikes

Guardrail - Yikes

The Chicago-based band Guardrail has self-described themselves as “Diet Punk” since they are heavily influenced by punk bands, yet their sound doesn’t stray too far into that genre. Lucky for them, genre lines continue to get blurred in today’s scene and it matters very little what category a band gets placed in as long as they continue to write good music. The band is comprised of Kevin Andrew (vocals), Ken Ugel (guitar), Alyssa Laessig (bass, vocals), and Doug Brand (drums) who each bring their own strengths directly back into their sound. Guardrail reminds me of the melodic, guitar-driven rock of bands such as Autopilot Off, The Bouncing Souls, and Fenix TX. Comparisons aside, they have delivered a well-crafted new EP called Yikes that directly examines the pitfalls of growing up.

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Panic! at the Disco’s Flourishes Weren’t Just Dramatic. They Were Theater.

Panic! at the Disco

Maya Phillips, writing at The New York Times, looks back on Panic! at the Disco’s debut:

Fifteen years ago, a mysterious top-hatted figure and a parade of circus performers interrupted a wedding in a music video with an unconventional soundtrack: an energetic pop-punk song with a bouncy, carnivalesque cello opening.

This is how Panic! at the Disco announced itself in the “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” video, the first from its 2005 debut album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.” Though the band has undergone many reinventions in the years since, it’s closely associated with its original aesthetic: a distinctive theatrical sensibility that drew on the sound of early 2000s pop-punk while also referencing vintage performance styles — burlesque, vaudeville, old Broadway musicals — to illustrate themes of duplicity, addiction and broken relationships.