Five Minute Ride

Bathroom Walls... Lipstick Secrets (2004)

Brian Shultz

Whoa. These guys pair melodic singing with screams, and it has to be the most original thing since Cedric Bixler walked up to a microphone stand!

Actually, I'm pretty sure it was some point last year was when we all decided we'd had our fill of predictable, fake screamo-ish stuff with its requisite two parts of singing and screaming. Please…put down the crowbar…the horse's corpse
is rotting already…

For the most part, it's prototypical stuff, and sounds a lot like post-hardcore contemporaries Beloved, though not as talented, or flat-out good for that matter. This comparison especially goes in the intros of "Desperate Times" and "Don't Look Back," where it's practically grand larceny. Their melodic parts aren't too bad, but the screaming sounds as well-timed as one would expect and trite as a result. You can hear some pretty nice percussion work, though.

To be fair, Five Minute Ride can make a half-decent song. Although, as per their name, they can also make a long song.
Unfortunately, it seems they like doing that second thing way more often. For an EP, this thing fucking drags to its
finish at the end of twenty-eight minutes. Even though the beginning and end is 'okay,' don't be alarmed if by midway
through your attention has completely drifted; it's like asking for a ham sandwich and getting two pieces of stale matzah in return.

That being said, here's some early Passover treats.

MP3s / STREAM

"Bathroom Walls…Lipstick Secrets"

"November in my Soul"