1. 99
2. Sweater Weather
3. Songs for a Rainy Day
4. Winnetka & Heart
5. Unspoken
6. Promenade
7. Touch my Heart
8. Nanny
9. Valiant
10. One Day at a Time

Well I don’t normally do this – reviewing tracks from an online stream, but let’s see how it goes.  Jacuzzi Fiend dub themselves as a “speed-emo” band, which I can’t say exactly fills me with excitement, although perhaps intrigue.  “99″ begins with a bit of piano before rocking in with the skatepunk, overlaid by loved-up lyrics (ah so that’s what they meant by speed-emo).  The whole track is pretty monotone, and for one which is heading towards 8 minutes long to use 4 chords stretches my patience an awful lot and doesn’t leave enough room for the vocal melody to vary.  This is a problem that transcends to many of their other songs.

“Song for a Rainy Day” is structured similarly to “99″, and even includes some Van Halen type finger tapping, although, just like on “99″, it goes on too long and is awkward to listen to because it’s so out of time with the backing.

Gosh these songs are long, most of them so far are past the 5 minute mark and include way too much instrumental stuff that largely consists of simple chord sequences and a basic lead guitar or something over the top.  Some of their sounds remind me of MxPx’s early days, especially “Unspoken”; the difference being that MxPx would have finished their songs after about 2m30s at the most, but Jacuzzi Fiend seem intent on stringing them out way longer than necessary.  They’ve got a lot of good ideas in their music, but they’re all so far apart, it’s like eating a massive pizza with a couple of tiny bits of really nice cheese and tomato and the rest is a standard base.  I mean I love a double speed drumbeat as much as the next skatepunker, but this is so relentless I can’t wait until each track finishes.

With some great editing, these 10 very long tracks could become 4 or 5 short and awesome tracks I’m certain.  One of the main reasons I like punk rock is that I have a short attention span and this makes me tense and frustrated.

www.myspace.com/jacuzzifiend