Ten Story Relapse is the kind of "asshole alternative" I enjoy. I say "asshole" because the lyrical puns and double entendres make you stop and think
about what you're singing along to. (And you will find yourself humming these tunes long after hearing the music.) You'll also find yourself reading
the printed lyrics in the album cover and thanking your lucky stars you found something "new." Ten Story Relapse inspires pondering with subtle mentions
of God and the importance of life in lyrics like "Swallow blessings nightly dear / Don't wash them down with wine" (from "How to Get Away From Your Old
Life" on their MySpace profile).
The title of their album, Antidisestablishmentarianism, one of the longest words in the English language, is a metaphor for the long road of pursuing
your dreams with originality through all the imperfections and evolutions of life – a sort of breaking down and building up. And that includes asking
questions about existence. I first heard the loaded and valid question "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" on TSR's MySpace page. Owning the album allowed me to
read the lyrics along with the song and figure out just what Ten Story Relapse had to say. I put the CD in my computer for review. I had forgotten the
songs I heard on MySpace, but by the time I hear the lyric, "Is my life just a game? / But I love it just the same and I don't wanna know how it's gonna end…" play through the speakers during "Hell To Pay", the second track on "Antidisestablishmentarianism," I dazed off, imagining punk kids skanking through the crowds at early Warped Tour-type shows -- back when summer tours still mattered, before I started listening to bands on MySpace because I couldn't stand all the commercial interruption from radio stations.
Some songs just get stuck in your head and you find yourself singing them at inappropriate times, like "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" -- but the song makes a
great point. And although it's a point made by bands like Anti-Flag on their split CD with the Bouncing Souls in 2002, Ten Story Relapses' rendering is
a more melodic example of what I'm tempted to call pop-punk. The lyrics feel like they're humming along with the guitar riffs and drum beats, adding
another dimension. The point of the song -- Who Would Jesus Bomb -- is almost hidden in the music, as great bands sometimes do. I love irony like that.
"Mentirosa", now here's a song that captures our zeitgeist... A true combination of musical, lyrical and verbal styles. The mass shift in consciousness
will evolve in the coming years since America's great "melting pot" has grown to include every country with Internet access -- more Americans are
speaking Spanish; hell, more illegal immigrants are speaking English! To that end, "Mentirosa" means "liar" in Spanish, and I love it when I feel part
of the "joke," when a band plays with a linguistic twist. Like when Tool released "Die Eire Von Satan" (a song in German with lyrics from a recipe for
Mexican Wedding Cookies set to music that sounds like it's from Nazi-era Germany). It just goes to show, you should know what someone is talking about
before even considering judging them!?
The Last track, "4:00 'til the Afterlife," has a David Bowie sound to it. And under just the right amount of pressure from life, this song has the
ability to make you break down crying. "It's a strange time to drink wine/ The fermentation's overdone." (Maybe it's just me.) Bowie, pop-punk,
multicultural musings—the varying styles that Ten Story Relapse evokes are one of the best indicators of a unique band. Such a treat these days!
By the end of the album, the soft, melodic songs come into play and lull me into a state of peace -- the kind of music I love listening to as I drift
off into sleep. When I wake, I find the songs in my head and a sense of "the cure for me" in my heart.
TSR is coming off a sold out date in Atlanta for their first show to support Antidisestablishmentarianism. The record was engineered, mixed and
produced by Geoff Melkonian and Paul Mahern (Josh Joplin, Modern Skirts and Iggy Pop, Mellencamp, the Fray).
The band got an unanticipated lift when 16-year-old peace activist Ava Lowery was featured on CNN and created a homemade video for the song
"Who would Jesus Bomb" and posted it to her Web site Peacetakescourage.com as a sort of anthem for Lowery's peace movement.
Biography: Ten Story Relapse formed when John Douglas and Mark Milam reconnected after a chance meeting at an Atlanta bar and restaurant.
The two musicians hadn't seen each other since college, where they both played in separate bands. After a cathartic 15-minute discussion about how much
they missed playing music and seeing each other, they arranged a meeting for the following Saturday. It was then that TSR was formed and the first
musical sketches were drawn, becoming the basis for TSR's sound. The result of this chance meeting was TSR's first release "Tug". The current line-up
includes John Douglas, Mark Milam, Kevin Caldwell and Thomas Young. In 2003, Ten Story Relapse scored an indie hit with the release of the single
"Mistress and Surgeon" from their album "Frequency."
Review by Ellen Eldridge
