ZZZ-71 The Riff Randells - Doublecross CD $10
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"A fun, infectious bubblegum punk hit parade...catchy, sexy, good-timepop/rock action" - NowWave
"Teenage pop the way it should be. Catchy and cracklin' with sweetness that makes the teeth hurt..." - Smashin Transistors
Presenting the long awaited debut full length from long running Vancouver, BC all girl sensations The Riff Randells!
Influenced by bands such as Nikki And The Corvettes, Little Girls (who's classic hit Bandana is covered here) Shangri-Las, Ramones, and, Bobbyteens, The Riff Randells blast out 11 colorful, hi energy pop punk/power pop party hits!
reviews:
DAGGER the day I walked into Ken Dirtnaps record store (Green Noise) and he told me he signed this bunch I jumped for joy, doing a cartwheel, then a backflip and then, finally, went up on the 2nd floor and dove off, falling to into a stack of rare punk records and breaking them all (but Ken forgave me). The only tunes I have by these ladies is a 6 songs cd that was released on Delmonico Records (which might be their own label ??). The band is still Kathy and Anne-Marie (and on this recording joined by Chixdiggits KJ Jansen on bass I think they threw Justin out of the band years ago for spilling Crackerjacks all over the floor of the van on tour). The tunes still rock with punches, slugs, and hooks all over the place. These 11 songs crackle with punk-pop energy and just the right amount of snotty tude and cuts like Listen Up The Only One, Double Cross and Traitor of the Heart will all rock your socks off. Suffice it to say if you dig The way bands like The Bobbyteens, The Donna or Nikki and the Corvettes smear their lipstick on the guitar before they plug them in then youll be ok with this. For once, trust me.
GAUNTLET Pop punk holds a special place in everyone's hearts. Who can forget listening to Blink-182's Enema of the State when they were younger, listening to songs about getting drunk or getting it on? How about the time when Green Day had pretensions about being a small-time punk band, releasing albums like Dookie full of songs about love, drinking and getting really stinking high? Vancouver outfit The Riff Randells think fondly on these times and try to bring you back to the simpler times of the mid-1990s with their newest lip- gloss-punk album Doublecross.
Doublecross is a straightforward pop- punk album, lacking in any form of pretension. The Riff Randells are out to make an album for a 14-year-old's pool party and they succeed quite admirably. The group's lead singer, Kathy, coos about love and dating over 11 simplistic, yet wholly entertaining, surf-punk tracks. The album is pure pop with a punk twist and the band is the first to admit it.
This lack of posturing makes the album almost innovative in its willingness to indulge in its own poppiness and be fun for the sake of fun.
One of the problems with Doublecross is just who the CD is actually marketed to. This type of music is an absolute rarity in the over-saturated market of the melodrama-based pop-punk community.
With such energetic hooks and catchy riffs, fans of pop punk will find an album to fill out their record collection. Coincidentally, it's also the perfect album for slip'n'sliding to.
EXCLAIM A little bit snotty but still extremely sugar-coated, Vancouvers the Riff Randells have perfected the female-fronted power pop sound with 11 lively songs about boys, partying, cars and, um, boys. With the risk of exhausting the comparison, the Riff Randells put a spin on Go-Gos style rocknroll mixed with fast-paced lo-fi punk rock care of the Ramones. Highlights of Doublecross, the bands first full-length album after a handful of equally infectious EPs, include attitude-filled tough chick anthem Traitor of the Heart and sing-along-worthy party jam All I Know. While the lyrics arent exactly deep, the Riff Randells make up for it with an abundance of contagious choruses and playful guitar solos. With only one song surpassing the two-and-a-half-minute mark, the Riff Randells songs are still more sweet than short and definitely worth the listen.
GATEWAY ONLINE Regardless of, whether or not youve heard of them, the Riff Randells are not a fresh new band; in fact, the girls have been performing together since they debuted in Vancouver back in 1999. Theyve toured Canada, the United States, and Japan, and released multiple singles across the globe. However, Doublecross marks their first full-length album, and that gives reason for the music scene to sit up and take notice.
The album is filled with catchy, upbeat tunesthe band has clearly honed their pop-punk sound over the past eight years. Though a full, eleven-track albumwith ten original Riff Randell tracks and a cover of Little Girls Bandana_Doublecross_ clocks in at just under twenty-five minutes, with no songs stretching past the three minute mark. But despite this, the album is fun, enjoyable, and even a little bubbly at times.
Teenybopper songs like Traitor of the Heart and The Only One may seem immature to some, but you can tell the Riff Randells were singing with smiles on their faces and basking in every second of each song. Even the whiny When You Go and the jarring title track dont get annoying, providing some contrast to the rest of the sickly sweet album.
The Riff Randells may be flying under the radar for nowand have been, for almost a decadebut that will inevitably change once Doublecross starts circulating to a large audience. Do yourself a favour and grab it early, so you can say you were there before the fame, fortunes, and drugs tore them apart. Sarah Scott, Arts & Entertainment Writer
GEORGIA STRAIGHT Despite eight years of line-up changes and pillow fights gone wrong, the Riff Randells manage to keep the emotional spectrum of their songwriting as narrow on Double?cross as the three chords they tend to recycle over and over again. Their first domestic full-length is almost totally concerned with either dating or not dating, which is all that this kind of bubble gum punk should be concerned with anyway. As the man behind the soundboard, Jay Solyom captures vocalist-guitarist Kathy Camaro's slashing guitar and Anne-Marie Rawk's airtight pounding with a minimum of disturbance, augmented by their latest temporary bassist, K.J. Jansen of Chixdiggit. It's as pure a document of the Riff Randells as we're likely to hear, and basically critic-proof thanks to the band's continuing monomania. Of the 11 tracks, the most immediate include a cover of the Little Girls's "Bandana", and "All I Know", which borrows from "Liar" by the Sex Pistols and allows Camaro to fake a snotty Valley Girl accent. The tones, attitude, and complete absence of anything recognizably modern will keep the Riff Randells afloat in the hermetic scene that loves them so much. In other words, large portions of Japan will be delighted with Doublecross, as will anybody who includes the Bobbyteens and Nikki Corvette on their MySpace page. - Adrian Mack
INK 19 The boys may have a monopoly on rockabilly, but they can't touch the girl group sound of the '60s. It belongs to the girls, and thank the Goddess some ladies out there have been channeling their inner sock-hopper and reinventing the legacy of bands like The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes for a new generation of listeners.
The Riff Randells, from Canada, sound about as authentic as can be -- if Mary Weiss and those other tough chicks from yesteryear had plugged in and really upped the ante. Like my beloved Gore Gore Girls, this trio from Up North have given me yet another disc to wear into the ground. Doublecross is a sock-hop in the midst of mid '80s L.A. The Go-Go's could party there, and The Runaways could have been the house band. The sound they've cultivated is what The Donnas have been trying to achieve for years.
Joining in the canon of he's bad/but I love him/ but I don't need him songs: "Traitor of the Heart," "When He Looks At Me" and "Nothing Without Me."
Forgive the simplicity of this comment, but these girls are just awesome!!!
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