Friday, February 13, 2009

The Freeze - I Hate Tourists

(Schizophrenic, 2007)

Reissue of the 1980 debut from these young Cape Codders. Can’t say that I have any real beef with the tourist set, except when they clog the subway turnstiles, but I guess I can see how there might be some resentment on the Cape when you’re a kid working a lousy service job and getting treated like dirt by some yahoo up from Connecticut. Anyway, the boys in the Freeze score revenge by running dudes off the road and then getting their carnal kicks with all the visiting daughters. Melodic punk with some hup-hey shouting in the choruses; a swell novelty, even if the sound isn’t as tough as one might like. And speaking of “not tough,” the other side, oddly enough, is actually a bubbly, sentimental yet snot-faced new-wave ditty called “Don’t Forget Me Tommy.” No need to be too hard on them for not having their business totally together at this early stage, though, considering the fellas were still in high school at the time. Besides, I have a sub-mediocre album from the early ’90s that boasts plenty o’ cohesion and muscle, but loses the fun and innocent pissy-kicks of this single.

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