Last December, I was invited to see Enuff Z’Nuff perform in a
\nsmall bar in Mundelein — not too far from where I live. While I
\nalways welcome the chance to see the band perform (as well as to
\nconnect with Chip Z’Nuff again – one of the nicest people in the
\nbusiness), I decided to use the evening to scope out the other
\nbands on the bill as well. While many of the notes I write don’t
\noften make it into reviews, they help me later on to see where a
\nband might have come from.<\/p>\n
The middle band on the bill, Supermint, was hanging around the
\narea by the stage, keeping to themselves. And while I’ve been in
\nthis business for a while, I don’t always feel comfortable
\napproaching a band on a “cold call” offering to review a demo or
\nindie disc — ’cause let’s be honest, they don’t know me from Adam.
\nI did give my card to the merchandising person, and he put me in
\ntouch with drummer Randi Scott, leading to today’s review.<\/p>\n
Okay, the reader might now be thinking, enough with the Jack
\nKerouac
\nOn The Road<\/i> tales… what about Supermint’s self-titled
\ndebut? Well, there’s a reason that Enuff Z’Nuff have taken these
\nguys under their wings. While each band sports their own
\ninfluences, they are cut from the same cloth, and while Supermint
\nis still developing as a group, I hear a lot of promise.<\/p>\n
There is a fundamental difference between Supermint and Enuff
\nZ’Nuff. Readers may remember in our review of
\n10<\/i> that I said Enuff Z’Nuff has more of a Badfinger
\ninfluence. Supermint gladly wears the badge of being Cheap Trick
\nand Beatles fans on their collective sleeves, heard in the melodies
\nthey play and the harmonies brought to the vocals.<\/p>\n
One side note about this disc in comparison to their live show.
\nI remember writing in my notes that bassist Steve Mitchell was too
\nhigh in the mix, his 12-string bass work drowining out many other
\naspects of the band. On disc, I’d have killed to have heard
\nMitchell’s bass work moved up – or, for that matter, more usage of
\nthe 12-string bass. Vocalist\/guitarist Kerry Ridout and guitarist
\nDanny Weymouth are mixed well, and both show their talents often.
\n(Ridout even sounds a bit like Robin Zander at times.)<\/p>\n
As for the songs themselves, this is where Supermint is still
\nhoning their craft. Tracks like “What’s Going On?,” “Shouldn’t It
\nFeel Good” (which sounds like it could have easily come from the
\npen of Rick Nielsen) and “Ordinary Mary” are astounding pieces of
\nwork that, if there were a radio god, would be commandering the
\nairwaves quicker than Al Haig taking charge after Reagan got shot
\nin ’81. The middle of the disc sags a bit, with tracks like
\n“Perfect Of Red” and “I Need Everything” not being able to maintain
\nthe energy level of the opening three. Things pick up at the end of
\nthe disc in songs like “Sad” and “All That I Can Do,” fortunately
\nfor the band.<\/p>\n
And I’m not going to steam over a few weak tracks, especially
\nwhen so much promise is heard in the excellent ones. Supermint is
\nstill very much a young band, and they’re working hard at
\nsharpening their skills to razor precision. (Touring with C.C.
\nDeVille’s side project Samantha 7 should be an eye-opener for
\nthem.) So, on the few ebbs, I’m willing to cut Supermint some
\nslack.<\/p>\n
I might have gone out on that cold December night to see a
\nfriend, but Supermint showed me there were many more friends to be
\nmade. If this disc is evidence of what’s to come for them, their
\npopularity circle will soon be wider than anyone could have
\nimagined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6566],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37016","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-supermint","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37016"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37016"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}