Bad Athlete is a power pop quartet from Norman, OK. The are comprised of guitarist/vocalist Matt Howard, vocalist and bassist Kristen Howard, Grant Nordean on guitar/synthesizer and drummer/guitarist Sean Barker. They admit a heavy influence to Weezer’s blue album and Weezer spinoff the Rentals, but also cite the Beach Boys as another influence. Within a few seconds of listening to their eponymous four-song debut record Bad Athlete I can say I definitely heard all three of these bands’ influences to a degree that I almost thought that maybe this was a Weezer or Rentals cover band that only played B-sides and rarities. I’m definitely a Pinkerton man myself but that didn’t stop me from really kinda liking Bad Athlete.
The opening track “Who Do You Love” has that classic Weezer song structure and howling synthesizers that sound as though they could have been dubbed in from just about any Weezer or Rentals song, (pick one) but their harmonies (they all have some backing vocal tracks of a sort) really give the song its lift and its life. I tried to think as I listened that had I never heard Weezer before what would I think of Bad Athlete? The truth is the music is pretty damn fun to listen to and is probably why Weezer had such a big following and probably still retains most of it to this day either out of serious fanatics or just the sheer pleasantness of nostalgia their sound invites. On the second track, simply titled “Yeah” I realized that Bad Athlete has this style down to such a T that it’s actually quite admirable and the songs are just as fun and dumb as most of Weezer’s catalogue was. It reminded me that when a band takes itself a little too seriously everything can crumble very quickly, but when one is serious about only playing a certain style and focusing so soul crushingly hard on that style that great things can occur. “Yeah” is a simple rock song, but also a damn good time to listen to with its hard punches of rock and its cooing backing vocals. It’s damn hard not to like it. I especially liked the boy/girl vocal harmonies, something that just goes with this music so well, and they hit it on the head on the brilliantly composed “Lonely One.” So I guess what I’m trying to say about Bad Athlete’s Bad Athlete is that sometimes you can say fuck all to having an original sound and just remake something over again, but do it so good that you could even fool people into believing it’s authentic. I look forward to future maneuvers from Bad Athlete. Recommended!
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