Listening to the radio on any given day this week reveals what fans of the genre have feared was coming for a while: pop punk is dead. Those bands once allied with the genre that are still together have moved on and are now either getting political (like Pennywise and Green Day) or have broken up. It’s not cool to write a good song about a girl anymore apparently. Thank god no one told Lagwagon. Back after three years, the band’s new EP picks up right where resolve left off and, from the opening salvo of the self-deprecating “B Side,” Lagwagon proves that they’re in precisely the same shape they’ve always been: a little lonely, a little angry about it, a little upset at being overlooked, and still hopelessly in love with The Descendents. Each song continues to mine that time-honoured formula as guitarists Chris Rest and Chris Flippin lay down a series of speedy, three-chord lines that each wears its heart on its sleeve while Dave Raun apes Bill Stevenson’s solid and ceaseless(ly busy) drums and the dynamics don’t deviate from hard verse/sweet-and-lovey chorus.
Is this a bad thing? Of course not – at this point, Lagwagon has survived long enough to be one-of-a-kind.
Singer Joey Cape hasn’t really changed either. As was the case and continues to be, each song finds the singer impotently railing against the people and event that have done him wrong. The difference is that he’s clearly been unable to remain young forever; these seven songs find Cape now wrestling with mortality (“Live It Down”), creative frustration (“B Side”), fallen ideals (“No Little Pill”) and boredom (“Mission Unaccomplished”) in a way that no teenager/twenty-something to hope to believably pull of. Each of these themes quickly morphs too as the songs play so that each one becomes a ballad of defeat but it’s interesting that, as they play, there is no air of finality here; Lagwagon might be down and out, but they’re not dead yet. Cape says it best himself as this brief tirade fades out with “Mission Unaccomplished.” In the end, he’s left muttering “Mission unaccomplished. Still out here” over and over and, somehow, there’s hope for the band in that statement; Lagwagon has taken a beating – the band’s members have done side projects, members have come and gone, members have died – but they’re going to keep coming back for more.
For more information, go to http://www.lagwagon.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/lagwagon
