Issuing a tape, which looks as low rent as the music sounds, through ComplainComplain isn’t bound to make White Pages stars or even underground darlings. Five minutes of music rarely achieves that unless Pitchfork instantly becomes your sponsor. And leading off the band’s initial release, a track called “Don't Do Blow With Total Chaos,” sits far enough away from the lovely, lilting choruses so en vogue right now, that some might be offended by everything here. Doing that in a minute and forty nine seconds, though, is pretty impressive. The songs all trebly, chorded guitar and thrashing guitar. Even name checking the cock flap wearing, spiky haired punk band doesn’t seem like a move to endear White Pages to too many folks. But the reference does serve to point out that if you’re currently playing punk related stuffs, you lived through a time when the Casualties and the Exploited were highly thought of in your peer group. And that’s funny.
The level of seriousness related to White Pages demo is just that as well, funny. But intentionally so. The weird thing is that in attempting to run through songs as quickly as possible, referencing everyone from the first Decline of Civilization movie, White Pages winds up sounding something like Long Beach’s Le Shok. It’d be just short of mind boggling if that was the intent of these few songs. It couldn’t have been. But why don’t most bands sound like Hot Rod Tod’s fronting them? I dunno. White Pages makes a case for that needing to be realized.
No, it doesn’t matter if listeners have absolutely no idea what “At Night” is getting at. Even Razorcake doesn’t want to take the time to figure it out. Who can blame them for not putting in the effort, the band doesn’t sound like they did. That’s the reason their tape works though. Relatively successful underground bands pretty quickly move from uncaring to getting a bit too close to genteel – the Black Lips anyone? Either way, it’s safe to guess there won’t be any three part harmonies on follow up White Pages releases. We’re waiting.