Perky pop-punk trio enters high-school
Formed in a Brooklyn elementary school, this pop-punk girl trio has finally made it to high school. They issued an EP in 2006 and their first full-length in 2007, and after a few personnel changes, this second full-length in the summer of 2009. Their latest album is filled with originals that harken back to the roots of late ‘70s and early ‘80s punk rock, but unlike those twenty-something’s songs of adolescence, Care Bears on Fire write youth rock as they live it. They play as a tight and punchy power-trio, and though their age is novel, and there’s a cute edge to their young concerns, they’re hardly a novelty.
So what’s on the mind of 15-year-olds these days? For starters: girls who’ll do anything to get their way, peer-pressure, materialism, individualism, the tribulations of school, the realities of social networking, and, of course, boys. The extra sharp combination of “Barbie Eat a Sandwich†and “My Problems†takes on the distorted images of beauty and normalcy hammered into young girls by media and society. All of this is wrapped up in hook-filled melodies, girlish harmonies, and sing-along choruses set to power-chords, thumping bass and crashing drums. The band has a very high ratio of musical quality to years-lived, with songs that aren’t artificially grown-up, written to a calculated Disney heart-tugging angle, or brain-numbingly childish.
Care Bears on Fire hit a sweet-spot that’s appealing to their peers and to adults wanting to get an earful of a literate teenager’s day-to-day concerns. Kim Fowley tried, or at least purported to try, to elicit this sort of music from the Runaways and Venus & The Razorblades, but his manipulations left too many adult fingerprints and often gave their songs an artificial, inflammatory air. In contrast, Care Bears on Fire is the product of three teenagers and thankfully free of grown-up staging. This is terrific pop-punk that’s melodic, honest, clever, powerful and lots of fun. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com] 