Nightlights

So It Goes (2011)

Joe Pelone

I like Latterman. Apparently, so does Florida punk band Nightlights. So It Goes, the group's latest for Eulogy, is a straight up Latterman tribute (and probably a Kurt Vonnegut reference too). There's some of None More Black's throaty melodicism thrown in, but generally speaking, this record is defined by the kind of driving basslines, guitar squalls and singalongs (and goofy song titles) found on Latterman's three records. I feel bad reducing a band's qualities like that, but there you go.

Of course, the one big difference between the two bands is that Latterman's song were about staying positive in the face of adversity. Nighlights, however, tends to wallow. Opener "When You Grow Up Your Heart Dies" is bitter like a bag of lemons at old friends. It's all summed up by one line: "Surrounded by different tones of gray." These guys aren't dong too well.

The rest of the record more or less follows the tear in yr beer drunk-punk songbook. "Truffle Shuffle" is about feeling like a stranger in one's hometown. "That John Denver is Full of Shit!" covers regrets about failed relationships and feeling out of place in one's hometown. "Laces Out, Dan!" discusses getting older. Sad punk bands like this are plentiful right now, so it's kind of hard for any one band to truly stand out when all their songs sound the same and cover the same lyrical territory. That's not to say sad sack drunk punk is entirely bad. There was a great record released this year that dealt with getting older and watching friends move away, about how maybe drinking this much all the time isn't as fun as it used to be, about how growing up means, ya know, growing up, and that that isn't always an easy thing to do. It just wasn't written by Nightlights. It was called Heart Beats Pacific and it was written by Banner Pilot. So it goes.