alright, so here's how the story goes... they're from australia, the lead singer/guitar player dude worked in a mcdonalds forever where he met the bass player guy so of course they went home after work and wrote songs and dreamed of being rock stars and probably watched behind the music a million times and claimed to be heavily into nirvana and the beatles and assorted british bands and now they are the new next best thing flavor of the week. and apparently he loves fast food, so i guess that's another angle. blah blah blah. i don't care.

the press and hype so far have been abysmal (as always). the band's official website bio claims that they "walk the line between chaos and restraint" and that they will "reaffirm your faith in rock and roll". c'mon people. this is the last band that anyone should take that seriously. which is exactly why you should care.

nirvana used to write huge tunes and riffs without ever feeling too heavy or serious. cobain's nature always kept it somehow light (ironically) and through (and despite) it all, a strange hope and optimism always bled through. cobain always understood the value of tunes and wrote huge pop anthems, sending the simple vision of heroes like the vaselines to the masses while pearl jam and their like pursued their boring bar rock visions.

and when the vines get it right (which is hardly always), they create the same feeling. no nu-metal suffering-in-suburbia sentiments or "i'm really feeling this one here" emo bollocks, just good tunes. i can forgive them for useless hippie exercises like "mary jane" (far too obvious), "country yard", and "in the jungle", and crap lyrics like "slip into the autumn shade / i could sleep for days / but i like the sun when / i can hear another sound" or "there ain't no room for me in the city / the lights go down but it look so pretty / so take me away from the corner / let me hide away in the fauna", because when they get it right, they get it right. which is when they are writing fun, two minute slabs of uptight intensity. i hate to recommend that a band be one-dimensional, but this is the kind of band that should release a string of singles and nothing else. they were built for the 45 but are sadly buried in the 70-minute CD era.

this, their first cd, kicks off with "highly evolved" (the title track). 1:34 minutes of pent-up nirvana-style tension. as greasy as the french fries they likely love. new single "outtathaway" (don't ask me about the spelling) opens with a bouncy "walking on the sunshine" type beat, flows into a clean-chord, screamed-vocals verse, and then slides perfectly into the never-quite-overused noisy chorus routine.

next up is "sunshin", a sleeper hit. again under three minutes (2:43), it chugs along with the newly patented vines energy and simple chord changes. the beatles harmonies come through best on this one, making it sound like a nice update of an old "revolver" outtake. then comes "homesick", their best attempt at a mid-tempo, softer-tones tune. class piano, gorgeous harmonies, shuffling rhythms, big melodic guitar solo, etc. it works.

"get free" is the definite hit. perfect tension and screams and their best lyric yet in "she never loved me / why should anyone". then, "factory" is ob-la-di-bla-da copped yet again. it's fine, but nothing to get too excited about.

sadly, it then all goes far too hippy, closing out with too many mid-tempo tunes and lyrical non-sense. a let-down of an ending for an otherwise upbeat set of songs.

the vines are definitely not the future we're all waiting for (or even the new strokes or stripes), but the vines do represent what has always been great about rock'n'roll -- short songs, random bursts of unadulterated energy, throat-shredding screams, and catchy tunes. tone down the hype, turn up the tunes.

the vines - "outtathaway" video (dsl/cable).
the vines - "get free" video (dsl/cable).
the vines - "highly evolved" audio.
the vines - "factory" ep - "factory" / "ain't no room" / "drown the baptists" mp3.