Mars Addict from São Paulo, Brazil released their debut album Lamecoaster last summer. Summer seems the right time for a record like this. I listened to it a lot on my morning walks the past week. For the first time in months we’ve had sun here. It really feels like spring all of a sudden. And Lamecoaster just added to that feeling, the sun just felt a little bit brighter. Some pop-punk records can do just that.
At the same time this record has annoyed me greatly. It annoyed me greatly because a lot of songs remind me of other songs, but with most songs I can’t figure out which song it reminds me of. I know I should know, but every time I think “ah, it’s…” and the reference escapes me. It drove me absolutely insane.
Good for me, but even better for my sanity, I did figure out a couple of references. “I Am Not OK”, “Scared 2” for example remind me of ESC Life. That would mean that I hear a modern version of Husker Du. “Chainsaw Hedgehaze Mayhem” sounds like it could have been written by a second rate Horrorpunk band. You might think this is a bad reference, but perhpas you have noticed that I am a big horrorpunk-enthusiast, so this song is dear to me. This song also has a part that reminded me of The Aquabats. More specifically the madnes that The Aquabats unleash onstage when they fight the badguys. So it’s not so much the ska-sound (there is no ska on this album), but the comic vibe.
Of course this album has references to the californian scene. There is a lot of sunshine worthy music on this. There’s one song on here that I really dislike. How on earth can you include a christmas song here (“Snowboarding With My Dealer”)? Come on… I’ll forgive them this because this album also includes “Back To School” which is my absolute favorite track of the album. This song is the perfect nostalgic view on school set to music.
I liked this album, but as it brings absolutely nothing new to the table I imagine this album will mainly interest those genre enthusiasts that need to have or hear everything that is released in this genre.
