Burning Down Broadway
This week is ALL ABOUT PUNK ROCK. Grab a PBR (hipster, right?) and spend an evening with Burning Down Broadway’s Time is Money. The album is polished in the sense that it sounds good — no distractions with rough quality and, just the same, no distractions with over-production. Released in July 2010, Time Is Money is the Cleveland band-o’-four’s third release and something you will most likely dig. (Dig ’em live when they play Happy Dog on Sun 2/27.)
Eight songs of catchy pop punk goodness. The four musicians are all from beautiful Northeast Ohio, paying tribute to their homeland with “E-Low (Back to Cleveland).” Although written with Cavs player of b-ball past, Craig Ehlo, in mind, the song croons the refrain, “Take me back to Cleveland where I belong, I don’t need a reason to come home. Take me back to Ohio tonight.” Who can object to that? Incensing the same pride delivered (although with slighter magnitude) as Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” this song should make every Clevelander smile.
Lyrically, the songs don’t stray far from what has been done within the genre, topically or stylistically, but are their own and will most likely have you singing along. The songs are across the board upbeat — songs about being young and experiencing love and life. It is a fun album of classic pop-punk — nothing too crazy, nothing your ears haven’t been graced with already, but nevertheless well done. Members Max and Dylan Hayden, Kevin McManus and Jeff Bazzo mesh well together. Overlapping vocals and harmonies with seamless guitar and drums tying it all together… this is a Cleveland act you should check out.
Burning Down Broadway is joined by fellow Clevelanders Maddie Finn, One Days Notice, and Above the Atlantic this Sun 2/27 at the Happy Dog. Not just any old show, this concert has all proceeds going toward the WJCU Radiothon, so rest assured that your cash monies are pumped back into Cleveland music. Give their tunes a listen, pre-show style at http://MySpace.com/burningdownbroadway.
Laurie Wanninger is a Cleveland convert, having lived in Pittsburgh for 20 years. After attending John Carroll University, she was sold on the city and now lives, works and breathes Cleveland. Spare time is spent DJing Music for Your Laundry List at WJCU 88.7, bicycling, going to local concerts and dreaming of microbrews and National Parks.
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