Slick Shoes -- Far From Nowhere

7/10

Pop-punk...or punk that had catchy choruses and more songs about girls than rebellion, along with slickly-produced emo, hit some sort of commercial escalator in 2003. Really crappy bands like Good Charlotte suddenly saw their albums go triple-platinum, and their members inexplicably started dating or marrying models or A-list actresses. I don't mean to knock the Madden brothers as people. It's great that the two have succeeded in establishing long-term relationships with their respective wives. I don't know them as people, and they might be fine human beings. But their music sucked. Even objectively, can any one argue that "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous" is not an absolutely terrible song? And ironically, the two frontmen went on to marry two of the richest, most famous people of the era, and then become rich and famous themselves. The Maddens method of becoming rich and famous involved writing and recording a boatload of stinkers.
I don't want to bag on just one band, though. How about New Found Glory? They sold more than a million records, and their vocalist sounds like a penny is getting the business from a dental drill. A lot of this music is just terrible.
Unfortunately, some 90's stalwarts got sucked into this vortex of suck. Check MxPx's 2003 release, and career low, Before Everything & After. The band slows their fast punk music down to a mid-tempo, pop-punkish emo crawl, and vocalist, Mike Herrera inexplicably adopts a high, nasally voice, as if he is trying to chase fans of New Found Glory and Good Charlotte's vocals. Then, to add insult to injury New Found Glory and Good Charlotte's vocalists inexplicably show up all over that album! Add to that, Herrera's new, stupid emo haircut, and I hate that album so very, very much (thankfully, MxPx eventually went back to their roots). The ultimate expression of this vibe, Warped Tour 2003, can bite me, though please use a dental guard, as I don't want to catch whatever you have.
Slick Shoes played Warped Tour 2003. Before 2003, they released some very good punk rock albums. Even though their vocalist, Ryan Kepke, had been expending much of his energy singing about love, the band's songs were still fast, gritty, and had an undeniable punk attitude. Would this 2003 version of Slick Shoes, with only two original members, two new guitarists and a new bassist, and on a brand new record label, go all emo and gross, as well?
Nope. You can tell from the first twenty seconds of Slick Shoes' 2003 album, and unfortunately, swan-song, Far From Nowhere, that the SoCal punk rockers have no interest in straying from their roots. Opener, "Darko," is fast and nasty, and even though the chorus is big and memorable, it isn't cloying or syrupy in the least. The rest of the album follows suit.
I was too-cool-for-school at the time. Seeing all the freshly-minted new millennials getting into the bands I had liked for quite some time, and those bands responding by changing to suit those millennials tastes, scared me far away from Far From Nowhere. I needn't have worried. Far From Nowhere panders to no one. If anything, it falters by perhaps adhering a little too closely to formula. There's not too much variation between the songs. The guitarists are lightning fast, and keep the drummer on his toes, and vice versa, but there's not much change in tone, and little diversity to be found from track-to-track. The band's first album with a guitarist change, 2000's Wake Up Screaming, had the same issue, though by the next album, the band's self-titled magnum opus, the new guitarist had settled in and the band seemed comfortable experimenting. Unfortunately, Slick Shoes never had the chance to do this with Far From Nowhere's lineup. As such, Far From Nowhere, is fine as a testament that Slick Shoes was unmoved by popular shifts, and with more reflective Kepke lyrics this time, fine as a final statement, as well. It's just a huge bummer to see this album cover with an open road, and a blue and inviting sky promising a wondrous future, and know that for nearly two decades, Slick Shoes' future ended here.

Recently, the band's original lineup, plus one of Far From Nowhere's guitarists, have reunited to play some shows, and even recorded a new song. Here's hoping, 16 years later, perhaps they've got one more album in them.

2003 SideOneDummy Records
1. Darko 2:30
2. Carpenteria 2:02
3. Always There 2:36
4. Now's The Time 2:37
5. Sleep In 2:08
6. Once Again 3:13
7. Simon's Quest 3:12
8. Hope Against Hope 2:03
9. We Were Young 2:13
10. Hello Stupid 1:54
11. Down Hill 2:31
12 Drive To The End 6:36