Some things you know what to expect from them. In a thriller movie/book, you expect thrills and at least a death. You certainly expect to laugh in a comedy club. What to expect from a rock-n-roll record? Good music.
The Los Angeles based Program The Dead is one of those bands that you know they have potential. And you see them working their asses off (not in vain since they have toured with people like Ra, The 69 Eyes, HIM). Ginger is their second album. They say in their MySpace page that they are “one of the many casualties of a major label system devoid of development.” Their first album was released by a label, and as it seems, that didn’t quite work out as well as they had expected. Oh, well.
Ginger is rock-n-roll. It has everything that you would expect from a rock-n-roll album; maybe too much of it. Ginger is a cliché from beginning to end. The two-to-three-minute songs (no song is over four minutes long) are not impressive at all. The songs rock, no doubt, but they’re a collage of rock bands. On Ginger you hear echoes of Oasis, Blur, Sponge and Bon Jovi, just to name a few. It’s not hard to read adjectives like hybrid in people’s opinion of them. Too much wasted energy in a product that we have bought many other times.
There are no surprises on Ginger. To complete the cliché circle, there’s even a rendition of The Doors’ “Hello, I Love You”Â. The good news about the cover? They do it their way and try not to copy it — much.
There’s hope for Program The Dead, though. They have energy and desire. They are fast learners and have good people behind them (how else could they tour with some of the aforementioned bands?), and they are also making a vast fan base (the excerpts from their Atlanta Sessions documentary has hit over 75,000 views on YouTube). So maybe with their third album they will find their own unique, personal style.
Website: Program the Dead
