Noiseheads

Sitcoms for Aliens (2018)

nickEp

Since the release of Nevermind, grunge has never completely gone away. Whiney, raspy vocals by adult men are alive and well. On their sophomore LP Sitcoms for Aliens, Noiseheads are well prepared to keep this trend alive.

Noiseheads have everything. Singer/guitarist Nick Gray can wail with the best of them, his “whoa-oh-oh”s hitting all the correct marks. His guitar playing is slick and polished. The same goes for Joe Gray and Greg Nicholas, bass and drums, respectively. Sitcoms for Aliens comfortably fits right next to Alice in Chains and Soundgarden in anyone’s grunge collections. Even their promo pictures seem like Blind Melon outtakes.

The album is structured the way big budget rock albums are structured. “Wait” and “I, Bleed” are the big one-two punch up top. Later in the album you find “Ballad of Me, Myself, And I” which makes sense, because you need one of those. “Drown Me” follows in the same slowed down/big build up sense. And after that, it’s pretty standard stuff. Any front man from Fuel to Chevelle could have written, “Save my life tonight, I wanna be all right,” or “Completely numb to the pain, I don’t feel anything.” Hell, they probably have. It’s universal. Too universal.

Sitcoms for Aliens, apparently, is how aliens would view our world. Okay, but like everything else here, it’s too telegraphed, too thought out. Noiseheads feel constructed, like every piece was planned to fall into the place it eventually fell: rocker here, dark and heavy there.

While clearly influenced by the 90’s grunge superstars they hope to become, Noiseheads often fall into grunge’s second act, that of Staind and Puddle of Mudd. No matter how you feel about those bands, in their heydays, Aaron Lewis and Wes Scantlin could hit those notes. So can Nick Gray. But also like those bands, identity, outside of sad guy with an outlet, leaves a lot to be desired. Who is this band? Why do you want to listen to them? If the answer is simply, “I like my rock music loud and heavy!” Sitcoms for Aliens is for you. Noiseheads fit nicely into a category and that seems all right with them.