Slick Shoes

Wake Up Screaming (2000)

Kurt

Ok, back in my hardcore MXPX days, I always noticed how there was this band they were on tour with/thanked/talked about constantly. This band was called Slick Shoes. I started to hear their name everywhere after that. 2 years later, I decided to give them a shot. I downloaded a song from them called "Clenched Fists, Black Eyes" and was hooked. Good gravy. It was all I ever wanted in a pop punk song: little to no intro, fast, clean, and good vocals. I then spent the rest of the day downloading as many songs from them as I could. Then one day I discovered that a good friend of mine had their newest cd, so I uh, stole it from him. The second I put it in my car's cd player, I felt complete. Being the cool guy I am, I drove around all day so I could hear it, and left it in there for a month before I even considered listening to something else. There is not one song on here that I skip.

• 1- Another Day: Nice sample for the intro. This song doesn't really have a major impact, but a good intro song to the cd.
• 2- Constancy: A faster song, a little bit darker sounding.
• 3- Angel: This song is probably what some consider their most popular song. Sweet bass intro and just overall GREAT song.
• 4- Peace of Mind: Transitions straight from Angel. This is probably my favorite song on the cd. Loved the ending.
• 5- Hide and Seek: This song is just kinda there. Not a big impact, kinda resembles the tone of Another Day. Still good though.
• 6- Lucky: Another song that's just kinda "there", but is still not skip-worthy.
• 7- Have I Said too Much?: I love this song, it always puts me in a good mood. Nice and fast and uh, happy. This song is really fun to sing to.
• 8- Elisa: Nice intro that breaks into a fast, up tempo song. This cd is really dang happy.
• 9- Don't Mess With Texas: Good transition from Elisa. I love this song. I use the beggining of it to tune the toms on my drumset too. How handy.
• 10- Good Intentions: More of a darker song, complete with screaming background vocals. A .
• 11- This is Your Life: This is a harder, meaner song with group vocals and what-not. Really different from the rest of the cd.
• 12- There's a Reason: Just another good song. I don't know what to say about other than it's uh, GOOD.
• 13- I Guess: This songs a little bit darker too. Fast song with a sweet breakdown/solo at the end.
• 14- Not That Far: Another happy song. More mellow and mid-tempo, good song to end the cd with.
• 15- :This track is unlisted, it's a laid back vocal-less cover of AC/DC's "Noise Pollution" Very cool.

……..Did I mention this cd is happy? Seriously though, this is definitely one of my favorite cd's of all time now. The musicianship of this cd is superb too, as they blend well with the great vocals and lyrics of Ryan Kepke. Apparently, older Slick Shoes fans do not like this cd as much as their older stuff, but I actually prefer this. While some other bands try to mature, they end up making crap. (ex: Blink 182) Slick Shoes are one of the few punk bands that I've heard that matured music-wise, yet still managed to retain their sound and more importantly, speed. Buy this cd. If it's not hard enough for you, you might want to check out thier older releases Burn Out and Rusty, both very good, fast, hard pop-skate-punk.