By contrast, Hot Water Music is more alive and kicking. Maybe it's because the Gainesville quartet realizes they have more to gain from the split then the Chicago trio does, and as a result, have come to the party with more impressive licks. To be honest, if you were to judge by this split alone, you wouldn't notice a huge diff between these two angst-ridden bands, but you'd remember the Hot Water tracks a lot longer.

"Radio" and "Bleeder" sound like grown-up versions of Dashboard Confessional tracks, sung by an adult rather than a child. "Radio," with its line, "I've got a big fat fucking bone to pick with you, my darling," is the modern-day fist-pumping rock anthem we all used to love in the '80s, while the all-acoustic "Bleeder," with its uncredited cello (at least on my version), and the line "You came to me like a dream / Like the kind that always leaves" tries hard to emote and is only half-convincing.

Neither band really sounds like it's laying it on the line, but even half-hearted performances from these two are better than 90 percent of the DC-esque indie stuff out there these days. Part of the Jade Tree split CD/EP series. Time: 23:46

back to   Posted Jan. 21, 2002. Copyright © 2002 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.