Holden Caulfield

The Art of Burning Bridges (2003)

Jesse Raub

Bitch, please.

If you're going to name your band after one of the most famous literary characters, you better be good. Another question: why name your straight edge hardcore band after a kid who smoked and drank a lot? Another shitty release from Surprise Attack Records. This one does offer a tad bit of variety. The vocals don't sound like throat cancer, they sound like a seven year old kid with a nail through his foot.

The title of this album sounds way too familiar. Then I realized, it's just a mix of AFI's "The Art of Drowning" and how ever many other bands had something about burning bridges in their titles. It's also a biography about John O'Hara (according to Amazon.com). To be honest, I don't know who John O'Hara is.

I haven't told you what this album sounds like, have I? Well, it's crap. It's your everyday cliché hardcore. Lyrical samples: "Running through the streets I leave destruction in a trail behind me and a smile on my face/Now you and me and this tank of gas are going out there to do it all" from the song "Set Phazers to Kill." Or how about "Sorry About Last Night," where we get such gems as: "I saw it-now it's over. And I'm left here lying in a pool of blood. No turn on red."

I can't take much more of these terrible bands. Something has to change in the music world.