Sound Bite

Fifteen no more, Potatomen lacking flavor

Now-defunct Fifteen lacks complexity and talent while the Potatomen blend in a little too much

By Todd Martins
Staff Writer

Fifteen
There's No Place Like Home (Good Night)
(Lookout!)

Punk rock's extremely heralded and long-held idea that the band on the stage is no better than the people in the audience can also be punk's greatest enemy. Fifteen is an example of a band that is haunted and plagued by this idea.
The now-defunct California band went through various lineups, but lead guitarist and vocalist Jeff (The band does not include their last names either on the album or their biographies.) was the founding father and leader of the band through its many incarnations. From 1989 to 1996, Fifteen released three LPs, and this CD is the band's second EP. The seven tracks included here are incredibly simplistic and third-rate pop-punk tunes that make Green Day sound like the greatest band known to man.
The EP opens with "Sun Song" and the band's straight-ahead and straight forward bass lines could be mixed and matched with almost any pop-punk band playing today without anyone noticing a difference. The song builds up until Jeff cuts in with the lyric I need a career / I need enslavement / I need a hole in my head / I need a hole in my head. Pure aggression? Pure rage? No, more like pure stupidity. Whatever happened to punks that just wanted a little sedation?
"Land Mine," the following track, is a political number that tells the story of a U.S. soldier sent to Bosnia, where his legs were destroyed by a land mine. Jeff tries to raise questions about war veterans and homeless citizens and the lack of care they receive, but he has to take up two pages in the linear notes to describe everything his song couldn't. The last verse of "Land Mine" simply calls for the jailing of every political figure the band could think of. There's nothing like a potent political song that just demands for everyone to be locked up. However, it is somewhat interesting to hear an entire band scream Land mine / Blew my legs off / I ask for change / you say to yourself just another alcoholic unbelievably clearly in 2 1/2 seconds.
The bulk of this EP--slightly over 35 minutes of it--is spent on Jeff's "My World Audio Fanzine #4." Here, Jeff presents us with his spoken word fanzine. Maybe he feels more people will get the message if it's put in the middle of the music, or maybe Jeff simply believes most of his fans to be illiterate, but whatever the reason behind it, "My World Audio Fanzine #4" just does not work. This edition of the audio fanzine deals with an educated and attractive teenage girl that fell in love with rock `n' roll and then fell in love with drinking, smoking and eventually the drugs that were given to her group of wannabe rock stars. It is nice to see a rock band taking some responsibility and showing that the rock `n' roll drug myth is only lived out by dimwitted musicians. However, readings from the dead girls' mother and poems written by the girl turn the message into something similar to a made-for-television Sunday night movie.
Fifteen is definitely a punk band on the same level as its audience. The musicianship is little more than generic pop-punk and the lyrics do not rise above anything that could be written by a 15-year-old. D

The Potatomen
All My Yesterdays
(Lookout!)

Being the president of a booming record company would probably give one a pretty powerful feeling. Not only would the fates of countless bands be at your fingertips, but you could also start your own band, release it on your label, and no one in the company could ever second-guess you, at least not to your face. And so, Lawrence Livermore, the president of Lookout! records, has released the EP All My Yesterdays with his band, Potatomen, and is now getting set to release a full-length album early this year.
First, Livermore needs to be given the credit he deserves. He is one of the men responsible for bringing punk rock into the mainstream early in the `90s. Livermore was the man who originally noticed Green Day, Screeching Weasel and many of today's current punk favorites such as the Queers, Pansy Division and the Mr. T Experience. He is also one of the overseers of one of punk's most acclaimed fanzines, Punk Planet. Also, he is not using his reputation to give his band any special treatment, as is proven by the fact that he does not list his real name on the back of All My Yesterdays. However, even though Livermore may deserve a few pats on the back, his band does not.
On the bright side, Potatomen are a pleasant addition to the Lookout! family--a family that has previously consisted mainly of bands that could be considered Green Day's brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. On the downside, the Potatomen are really nothing more than some pleasant ear candy--simple, catchy, not-too-clever rock `n' roll in the vein of the Gin Blossoms, Hootie and the Blowfish, Better Than Ezra or Dishwalla.
The EP contains two covers and a remake of an older Potatomen song. The band's rendition of Tiger Trap's "For Sure" is the best tune on the disc. Former Tiger Trap lead singer Rose Melberg joins the band for the remake of her song. She softly purrs, I'd rather be without you than be anything like her / One day you'll wake up and stop loving her for sure, while Livermore's Chris Isaak-like vocals rise and fall in the background--all this while the rest of the band provides a smooth and effortless Smiths-like rhythm.
The rest of the album would serve as a perfect soundtrack for Friends or Party of Five. It sounds nice and plays well in the background or on the radio, but it does not reveal much. Livermore sings like an old lounge singer with a tenacious voice that slightly rises and dips with each syllable. The simple songs are dry, lovelorn tales that lack bite or a true sense of cleverness. On the title track he's an obsessed romantic living in the past, and on "Laughed `Til I Cried," he's dealing with the heartache of laughing one day and crying the next after losing a lover.
Potatomen suffer from the same disease infecting most of today's modern rock bands. There is simply nothing to make the band stand apart from many of its peers. It's pleasing to the ear and tolerable as long as no one expects to hear anything new or a witty take on the classic love pop song. C