Music Review
Olympia - Emergencies

The drummer (Shane Johnson) and guitarist (Peter Tsouras) of Fairweather joined with Nick Barkley (bass) and Phil Williams (vocals) in 2005 after Fairweather had broken up. “Emergencies” is their debut album out on Equal Vision Records. This is the same label that Fairweather was on (while they still existed). Emergencies was produced and mixed by Matthew Ellard.

Olympia has a sort of indie style of rock to its music at times and on a couple of occasions reminds me for some reason of The Starting Line. “This Ship Ain’t Gonna Sink Itself” is one of those songs that is reminiscent of that feel. Most songs go at an average tempo. “Emergencies” and “Who’s Bad Party Time” take things with a slightly slower pace. Most of the songs on the CD have choruses that seem to be repeated, which can make them catchy, for a while at least – though after a while this can get old. They all have clear vocals and a rock beat to them with the concluding song on the album having softer vocals that come in 45 seconds into the song, “Lo, My Name Is Abhorred”. “It’s Okay to Eat the Dead” and “M-80” seem to speed up a bit in the instrumentation as well as vocals.

I’m liking this CD – it’s not quite as addictive as some of the more mainstream stuff I hear, but if you’re willing to take a listen it gives a good 42 minutes of a break from the overplayed music on the radio. Keep a watch out for Olympia as they continue to keep rockin’.

By: Jason Leyanna (2007.10.19)