PREVIOUS ISSUES : CULTURE : Music Last Updated: April 9, 2008 - 1:22 PM   Die! Die! Die!: Promises Promises By Patricia Sauthoff Published: March 5, 2008   Email this article   Printer friendly page   In its March issue, Maxim magazine published reviews for new albums by The Black Crowes and Nas without ever hearing the albums. The Crowe�s album, Warpaint, hasn�t been released to critics yet and Nas says he�s not even finished with his April release. It�s just bad journalism to write critically about something you haven�t heard. But sometimes the temptation is there. Take the most recent effort, Promises Promises, from New Zealand punks Die! Die! Die!, for example. Pretty much every song sounds the same: heavy guitar riffs, yelling vocals and a repetitive drum beat. Sure, it�s new wave-esque punk, so no one should expect flowing melodies and on-key singing, but the anger, at least, should be believable. Instead the band sounds less like Black Flag, the Sex Pistols, or hell, even Rancid, and more like Dookie-era Green Day, when that band was trying sooo hard to be punk rock! Promises Promises doesn�t, however, prove Die! Die! Die! to be the poser punks that bands like Panic! at the Disco are; the members probably do have a lot of gutter punk in them, they just aren�t a great band, at least on record. It�s the kind of music that, played loud and hard enough onstage, is bound to inspire a bloody and violent mosh-pit. So, after listening to the whole thing, twice�take that Maxim�the only educated guess about Promises Promises is that even though it�s not great it�ll be a commercial success for a band that�s a little better than the pseudo-punk that�s been tarnishing the radio for last decade and a half. DIE! DIE! DIE! Promises Promises Saf Records © Copyright 2000-2008 by the Santa Fe Reporter Save This Page to del.icio.us Top of Page