One of the perks to doing Love is Pop is that people send me links to all sorts of promotional music downloads that they’d like me to review. The only trouble is that I’m only impressed by about 20% of them. But of those 20 percent, an awful lot of them are things that I never would have even heard of if I wasn’t doing Love is Pop, so its worth sifting through the dirt to get to those gold nuggets. Double Experience’s Unsaved Progress is such a band and their new album, Unsaved Progress, is superb. It’s like Fall Out Boy meets Queens of the Stone Age meets Dead Letter Circus. (It’s also as catchy as scabies, though it gives you an itch that is mighty enjoyable to scratch.) Frontman Ian Nichols’ voice is a dead ringer for Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and they also share their incredible hooks. The rhythm section, provided by Brock Tinsley, who plays bass and guitars on the album (Ian plays bass live), and drummer Dafydd Cartwright, is where the Queens of the Stone Age influence comes into play. But Brock’s intricate guitar work and the lyrics, which he writes with Ian, have a modern if not futuristic edge that reminds me of Dead Letter Circus. In other words, if Dead Letter Circus covered a Fall Out Boy song in the style of Queens of the Stone Age, this is what you’d get. You could also say it’s like Silverchair covering Weezer. Comparisons aside, the way Double Experience combines all of these elements results in a sound that’s instantly familiar but rather original at the same time. You might feel like you’ve heard opening songs like practically pop rock “SOFINe” and “AAA” before, but you’d be hard pressed to name another band that combines all of these elements so well. Meanwhile, the album’s later songs are considerably less pop rock and more like heavy metal with “Death of Lucidity” being the best song Iron Maiden hasn’t written in years and their cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla” having a mammoth sound that’s like the original version but on steroids. All in all, it’s good time music done seriously and a whole lot of fun at that. Something music nerds and casual pop fans can agree on for a change.
https://youtu.be/z3HJ_NCwkMc
Spring Tour Dates:
4/09 Sydney, NS – Governor’s Pub
UK ‘Team Rock-It Tour
May 3 – Canterbury – Lady Luck
May 4 – Swindon – Vic
May 5 – Harlow – Dog & Whistle
May 6 – Hitchin – Club 85
May 7 – Swansea – The Scene
May 8 – Ashford – YARP Festival
May 10 – South Hampton – Talking Heads
May 11 – Coventry – The Arches
May 12 – Wrexham – Rewind
May 13 – Dublin – Sin E
May 14 – Belfast – The Pavilion
May 16 – Bangor – The Skerries
May 17 – Manchester – Zombie Shack
May 18 – Hull – O’Rileys
May 19 – Birmingham – Actress & Bishop
May 20 – Sheffield – Plug
May 22 – Bristol – The Crofter’s Rights
May 25 – Liverpool – Zanzibar
May 26 – Glasgow – Flat 0/1
May 27 – Leicester – Fan Club
May 29 – Nottingham – The Running Horse
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