June

The June EP (2004)

Greg

If you like Taking Back Sunday, you will like these guys. That's all you need to know, because you've all made up our mind on that style of music. I know a lot of bands sound like TBS these days, but these guys REALLY sound like TBS, and June does the sound well. Victory recently signed these guys, so go figure. They also sound like Fall Out Boy, but really them and TBS are pretty much one and the same too.

They've got it down: catchy vocals with dark (often heart broken) lyrics and tight vocal harmonies including sometimes two vocal lines going at once, all over top of music that alternates from diving beats to breakdowns, and it's all emo-licious, assuming that suits your palate. These guys decided to take out the screaming, which was just getting a bit silly with some bands anyway, so good for them. These Chicagoans sure nailed the formula despite that they've only been together a short time and they are all barely drinking age.

This five-song EP is full of flawless musicianship, high quality production and songs that you could swear you've heard before. Opener "Our Escape" starts it off acoustic but just for a second, launching into the standard emo fare, with lyrics about some sort of life-or-death escape tale. "OK Corral" has a little harder feel to it, more like Thursday, even with something like their Cure-influenced lighter sections, alternating with the harder sections. And with lyrics like "My head to fill your crosshairs / your head to fill my crosshairs" sung with such a hook sounds an awful lot like Fall Out Boy. "You Had It Coming But This Time You're A Dead Man"…gotta love (or hate) titles like that, but it happens to be the name of the best track on here. It has a super driving, fist pumping chorus with the catchy lines "Find the hall, make the call, save the girl or let her fall to her creation / You will see, I'll turn the tables back around in this penitentiary."

I do feel this sound is a bit stale, already popularized by the bands above and now copied straight-up by a lot of others, so that results in a lowered score for this review. But June do it well enough to warrant some points; they write a good hook and they have enough variety musically to not be a carbon copy. Some people may really dig this.

Perhaps you were put off a little by Where You Want to Be and want the old lineup back, or maybe you love Take This to Your Grave and are looking for the next up-and-coming Chicago heartthrobs. Then check out June on purevolume because this whole EP is up there, and then wait for the Victory full-length due in the spring.