Those who despise integerockers such as Blink-182, Sum 41 or even Lawrence's mi6 have Lagwagon to blame. The Santa Barbara, California, quintet helped father modern-day punk-pop, which infuses the high-octane pep of hardcore with mainstream music's hooks-a-plenty catchiness. Unfortunately, the house that Lagwagon built also became a prison of sorts, one in which the band was left behind by its platinum offspring. Last year, the debt was partially repaid when Lagwagon played the Warped Tour, and in April the group issued its first new album in five years. Blaze retains Lagwagon's barn-burning tempos but forgoes much of the schoolboy doofiness that alienated listeners over the age of fifteen. The smart and self-deprecating "Falling Apart" pokes fun at the group's own legacy, running through a grocery list of medical woes before concluding We're already fading/We'll never be the Rolling Stones ... maybe we'll try to pull it off for another year. Certainly, fans of bona fide SoCal skate-punk hope so.
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