The Ataris
So Long Astoria
Columbia Records,
March 2003
Offensive language: one ("A Beautiful Mistake" ONLY ON
THE PRE RELEASE!)
Genre: Indie Rock/Punk
Atari, now that brings
back memories. The Atari 2600 was one of the first mainstream
video game systems that came with Space Invaders. Woops, wrong review.
"Musically," says Ataris frontman Kris Roe, "we took a
back-to-basics straight-forward rock approach. There's no novelty, no
silly aspects to this record at all. It's a serious story-telling
record. Everything is really personal, every song is about something
different, each song is like a page in the scrapbook of memories, but
it's not a dark record at all."
This is about The Ataris, the indie rock band that has taken mainstream
with force and riffs similar to the Foo Fighters. The band had
been an underground punk band in California and with their sixth
release, So Long Astoria, has hit the radio and MTV with their
first hit, "In His Diary." The album has only one
offensive words which is an almost unheard of accomplishment in music
today, but why did they have to put that one! Singer Kris Roe told
Rolling Stone Magazine (April 3, 2003), "I want to bring the
storytelling back to indie rock. He also mentioned the album was
inspired by author Emily Dickinson and he wrote many songs while
traveling across country.
According to their site, www.ataris.com,
"In This Diary," the album's first single, finds Kris
admitting that "Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing
up" before offering up the hope that "...eventually you'll
finally get it right."
In "The Saddest Song," Kris writes a heartfelt apologia to his
daughter, hoping that she'll grow up to understand why her father's work
took him away from home so often.
When the Ataris received a fan letter written to the band by a young
girl confined to a hospital bed with a life-threatening illness, Kris
was moved to write "My Reply,". "I want to make
sure that every thing I say is something that is really from my heart,
something really personal, and something positive," Kris says about
writing this song. "I want to know that if I'm reaching kids, I'm
reaching them in a way that's really helping them. I know what it's like
to be a kid that's totally down, that grew up in a small town and
doesn't have many friends, that doesn't feel like he or she fits in or
belongs. If I'm speaking to somebody in that way, I want to make sure
that I let them know that 'Hey, man, there's hope out there. There's a
lot more beyond this life and you need to look for it."
I searched for anything I could find that may be seen as negative and on
one track, "Looking Back on Today," it does mention the
phrase, "we made out," and also makes mention to drinking
cheap wine. There is one offensive word on the last song and it
irritates me they placed it in the song. They drop the f bomb in
"A Beautiful Mistake" and it seems to have been a
mistake! I have been told by some that this song was taken off the
CD and it was only listed on the pre-release!
This band seems to be VERY solid. I don't know about their past
albums but this one gets a "PG" rating with me due to content
on the two songs listed.