Safari So Good
Every Fight Is a Food Fight When You're a Cannibal (2008)
Brian Shultz
One look at the neon-colored promo pics for Safari So Good, who adorn themselves in `80s Cali surfer and skater gear, and you start to think you've fell into the lap of another of these bad joke pop-punk-quasi-hardcore bands. Questionable aesthetics aside, Safari So Good probably have befriended several of those acts, but on their own produce the kind of sunny, guilty pleasure new-school pop-punk that's written effectively enough to enjoy without much respite.
Ex-members of Breaking Pangaea and the Commercials are here, but Safari So Good hardly carry traces of either. Instead, Safari So Good rely on a heaping of `90s emo inspirations, in turn sounding somewhat like the more playful moments of Taking Back Sunday (hello "Dogs with Bees in Their Mouths Who When They Bark They Shoot Bees at You"), Silverstrand-era Over It or later Jimmy Eat World. After all, with an EP title seemingly cribbed from a Demetri Martin one-liner, you know that at least they're taking from fairly respectable modern influences.
Every Fight Is a Food Fight When You're a Cannibal starts off with its best number: "A Pirate's Life for Me," with great changes in vocal delivery and snappy harmonies. Safari So Good are at their best here, hands down, even though the rest of the EP isn't bad at all. And their closing cover of Smashing Pumpkins' "Perfect"? It's surprisingly decent and pulled off with a believably moody and downbeat flair, and it's probably better than 95% of the songs that you'll find on Punk Goes `90s Alt-Rock or whatever.
Safari So Good's Every Fight Is a Food Fight When You're a Cannibal isn't a mind-blowing venture, but the band sure have some hooks. This is one of Takeover's better releases of the last few years, and if the band can capitalize on all the good things here (and maybe strip away their overly-cheeky-song-title-pop-culture-reference excess), good things are definitely on the way. So far, so good.