I don't think there's anyone on Scene Point Blank's staff that remembers Mid Carson July besides me and maybe Bob, but I'm grasping at straws there. Mid Carson July was mid-tempo emo band from Pennsylvania that went on to be a mid-tempo melodic punk band from Florida. I owned a couple of CD's from Mid Carson July but never thought much of them and sold the CDs in a fit of "hey I gotta eat" and that was the end of Mid Carson July for me.
Then maybe by fate or just coincidence, Transmit! Transmit hits my mailbox for review and who do I read are the main song writers of New Bruises? The two brothers who wrote the songs for Mid Carson July. Wow. Who da thunk?
Anyhow, New Bruises play melodic mid-tempo punk rock that reminds me of Dillinger Four without the punk rock abandonment those nut balls have. Most of the songs on Transmit! Transmit! seem to almost have a restrained feel to them as if you know there's a great song just waiting to break out but there is something holding it back. The songs have all the requisite hooks and breaks that any great mid-tempo punk band would have and even the lyrics are filled with images of drunken revolution and quarter-life crises desperation.
One would think I'd be all over this; old emo kids playing gruff melodic punk rock that we all have come to love from the swamps of Florida and then combine with fist pumping hard drinking damn-the-man and fuck-my-life anthems. This is just what Jason likes, right? Yeah, well, I like it but I'm not overly into it either. There just isn't anything on Transmit! Transmit! that sticks with me. I've listened to this CD three times today and there really isn't anything I remembered from previous listens and having something cling that'll have me humming it on the bus makes for a good record.
Transmit! Transmit! is a decent record but also a painfully average and forgettable one. If New Bruises came through town I'd probably go see them and bob my head along to their mid-tempo melodic punk rock and I might even buy a t-shirt if their tour hasn't been going so well. Sorry, I guess I just need something more from ex-members of bands that have skipped my mind throughout the years.
