Bigwig’s first CD,
\nUnmerry Melodies<\/i>, is one of my favorite CDs. I listened to
\nit twice a day (which really isn’t that hard since it’s only 20
\nsome minutes long) for nearly a year. Then they put out
\nStay Asleep<\/i> and I was even more pumped on this band. The
\nband progressed from touring relentlessly and brought a more mature
\nperspective to their craft. Gone were the blatant “Fuck you\/ You
\ncrashed my car” in “Old Lady” and the direct commentaries about the
\nsocietal groups around them such as college frat boys in “Drunken
\nKnight” and the whole vegetarian\/non-vegetarian group in
\n“Carnivore.” They progressed to topics about selling out in
\n“Sellout,” touring in “13” and the familiar love\/relationships in
\nsongs like “Still.” For the Fearless Records compilation
\nPunk Does Metal<\/i>, they covered Slayer’s “War Ensemble”
\nincluding a jazzy interlude in the middle of the song. When I heard
\n“War Ensemble,” I returned to spinning
\nMelodies<\/i> and
\nAsleep<\/i> on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
So when
\nAn Invitation To Tragedy<\/i> finally arrived in my mailbox, I
\nunwrapped the shrink wrap cautiously. I admit I was worried. The
\ncover art looks like the kind of cover a band puts on their CDs
\nwhen they are weirding out. I mean, there’s a couple of mermaids
\nholding some sort of banner on the back cover and there are
\nelephants and rhinos on the front. Weird. Not punk.<\/p>\n
Until you put the CD in and hear the frantic lead guitar work of The point is that if you have followed the band’s path of Besides that one complaint, and it is oh-so-minor, I think In all, though,
\nTom. The other members of Bigwig have come and gone, but Tom is
\nBigwig. On
\nUnmerry Melodies<\/i>, they had Josh, Dan, John and Tom. On
\nStay Asleep<\/i>, they had Josh, Matt, John, and Tom (replacing
\ndrummer Dan with drummer Matt). Now, on
\nInvitation<\/i>, they replace Josh and John with Jeremy and Max.
\nIf you head out to
\nBigwig’s official site<\/a> (no,
\nnot now), maybe the band members have changed again.<\/p>\n
\nrotating line-ups, you may be asking well, which is the best
\nlineup, like Roth or Hagar, Burton or Newsted (and the correct
\nanswers would be Roth and Burton) of this band. Tom is given credit
\nfor lead guitar on this release and he smokes. His leads ooze of
\nskill on the six string. His lyrics have taken the band to another
\nlevel, especially on the third track “Sore Losers” with these
\nlyrics: “I never played\/ my mom can beat up your mom\/ My dad can
\nbeat up your dad\/ My God can beat up your God too.” These lyrics
\nroll off Tom’s lips like nectar of the Gods. Relationships are at
\nthe forefront of Tom’s mind as he sings “Your [sic] such a waste of
\ntime\/ but I’ll be just fine\/ I saw a picture of you today\/ I can’t
\nbelieve how much you’ve changed” in “Hope.” This guitar riff, while
\ngood, is a little too close to 38 Special or Journey for my taste.
\nSounds like something I’ve heard before.<\/p>\n
\nInvitation<\/i> is a stellar release. It seems that the band took
\nthe touring they did for
\nAsleep<\/i> and captured the tightness of a live band within the
\nstudio. It’s an inspiring release, in a way, because the individual
\ninstruments all have their brief spots in which the musicians
\nshine. If longtime fans are looking for a glimpse to the
\nMelodies<\/i> era, they can take comfort in “Appreciation” which
\nis a short 1:13 track with the group vocals you’d find all over
\nMelodies<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nInvitation<\/i> is by a band that is progressing to become a
\npowerhouse punk band. They have refined their skills. Tom as a lead
\nguitarist works, especially on solos during songs like “Sink or
\nSwim” and “Who Am I To Day” and “Italic.” Drummer Matt pounds his
\nway through the 32:56 on this CD with power. His drums sound full
\nand well-produced. Bassist Max and rhythm guitarist Jeremy fill
\ntheir slots with skill. By the time the guitar riff ends on
\n“Italic” with a single power chord, you’re left salivating for
\nmore. This will do me until they come to my town (ahem, that’d be
\nGabe’s
\nOasis<\/a> in Iowa City or
\n3rd Street
\nLive<\/a> in Cedar Rapids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5874],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37243","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bigwig","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37243","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37243"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37243"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}