reviews

recent reviews

Reviews

The Neon Hookers - Calling all creeps!

posted by: Tim de tweede on 18 January 2007

Cabal

Seriously, what where these guys thinking when they picked a name for their band? Is it that illogical to choose something that a) sounds cool or has a meaning and b) fits the music in one way or another? I am not quite sure what the hell those guys where thinking (or smoking?) when they picked this name. But then again, for one reason or another it sticks in my mind by being non-stereotypical. So maybe that’s the trick they pulled: just give your band such a corny name and everyone will remember it. There’s no such thing like bad publicity, right? Truth is: this band name is so bad it didn’t even make me chuckle for being silly.

Well, there’s something about the title of this record as well. Actually, there’s something about the titles of all the songs on this one. It’s not just that they’re goofy (and I don’t mean goofy in the positive sense of the word). In fact, they are all titles of books in the ‘Goosebumps’-series (scary stories for kids). Don’t ask me how I know this, that is a long story involving trees, horses and nurses, which doesn’t quite belong in a review. It’s just that such a gimmick only seems to work for bands that a) wear too much make-up and b) sound like a bad rip-off of Hawthorne Heights.

And The Neon Hookers doesn’t fulfil either of those criteria, surprisingly enough. The name and titles seem to promise crappy goth-emo, but instead The Neon Hookers play hardcore. On one hand, they are not quite doing anything new here. But on the other hand: If you wanted to sound like another band, it’d better be some great band like The Suicide File, right? And that’s exactly what they do: play something that fits right up that alley of rocking hardcore. Sure, it’s not really as good as The Suicide File was. But it still beats the aforementioned bad rip-offs of Hawthorne Heights, I’d reckon. I am sure they will evolve their sound graduately over time, so if they manage to keep that solid ground of rock and hardcore, and start combining that with some more original hooks, they could have gold on their hands. But for now The Neon Hookers is just an unoriginal – but a bit above average – band with a bad name and cheesy song titles.

Rating:

Views: 1082

Related bandprofile: The Neon Hookers