Album: The Soft Pack
Year: 2010
. . .
Too bad they were only 15 years too late.
Had San Diego’s Soft Pack come out with their self-titled album in 1995 instead of 2010, it might have been a hit, but by then, hooky punk-pop had long since burrowed back into the underground from whence it came.
Which is too damn bad, because The Soft Pack is a pretty great record, leading with the first of several keepers, “C’mon,” which opens with a scrape of solo rhythm guitar until exploding into a full-bore full-bore assault, over which lead singer Matt Lamkin dryly intones:
Don’t have the look
Don’t have the name
Don’t have the walk
Don’t wanna talk
Don’t have the say
In how your town
Could be the next big thingDon’t buy the wood
Just plant the seed
Wait ’til it grows into a tree
Find what it means
Army, navy, air force and marines
And in the blink of an eye, they’re in the chorus, which is just Lamkin joined by bassist David Lantzman in repeating “I c’mon” over and over again. It’s not rocket science, and it’s not poetry, but it works fantastically. Also working fantastically, the long chordal solo taken by lead guitarist Matty McLoughlin, which is followed by a couple of bars of chaotic dissonance.
After that, it’s just chorus over and over, while McLoughlin plays a simple hook on top.
I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon
I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon
I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon, I c’mon
I c’mon
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter if it’s new to me as long as it’s obvious that it’s new to them. Here’s the other thing: I’ll never ever get sick of raw-sounding punk songs with this many hooks.
“C’mon”
“C’mon” Video
“C’mon” live on KEXP, 2010
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page