Thursday, August 26, 2010

Who Needs Johnny Review



Who Needs Johnny


Who Needs Johnny
Direct Music Distribution
Release Date: June 1, 2010
Duration 10, Tracks, 31:33


With a target audience of teenage girls, Who Needs Johnny offers an album of related relationship songs amid hard driving thrash. These teen anthems are set to raw power punk with a fresh sound. Samantha Haedrich provides lead vocals, backing guitar, and bass with a youthful voice similar to Joan Jett and a style like Pat Benator without the full range of either at the young age of 17. Lead guitar and background vocals are supplied by Alyssa Clotfelter showing simple, yet sharp guitar play with occasional flash. Jeremy Colson is the band’s solid foundation on drums.

Amid the consistent theme of teenage relationship, a number of songs shine. “Poison”, the consensus highlight of the set, has a good overall beat with lyrics relating to ‘the pain inside’ of a relationship, ‘The pain inside is killing me, will someone please suck out the poison’. “Pray for Brian” is actually a plea for help with ‘if you want to leave then go, just don’t pray for me anymore’. A great song standing alone in its simplicity is the finale “Without You”. Solid with a single guitar as the only instrument for the entire ballad, the vocalist extends true remorse with ‘the world keeps spinning without you, if you are gone I might as well be too’. In its simplicity, this song has a strong message of loss and need.

As a freshman release, Who Needs Johnny is a solid effort with hard hitting percussion and clean, fast paced guitar all lead by a strong youthful voice. The lyrics of this set center on youthful relationships experienced by the band members which focuses on a concentrated segment of teenage listeners. With experience lending itself to extend the band’s lyrical storyline and musical experimentation we can look for Who Needs Johnny to offer greater substance by their junior release.

www.myspace.com/whoneedsjohnny






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