This self-titled e.p. is the first from Milwaukee’s the Everyday Motive, a garage/grunge styled four piece whose style is very reminiscent of the early ‘90s. The band comprises John Marszalkowski on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Desiree Marszalkowski on bass, with Rob Ison on drums and backing vocals and Jerry Bakkus on lead guitar and vocals. The e.p. comprises of seven tracks of hard rocking tunes with some perceptive lyrics.
The first track ‘Anything Done Differently’ storms out of the speakers, with uptempo grunge guitar lines that are reminiscent in parts of some of the better work from Sugar, circa ‘Copper Blue’, or ‘Beaster’. With some frantic self-absorbed lyrics.
“I gotta have it, because I want it, because I need it/Can’t ignore it, because I’ll miss it, then I’ll cheat it”.
And: -
“If I don’t do the things I say then I’m a liar/ Because I can sell the words, but I can’t be the buyer!”
This is a strong start and something that would immediately grab the attention of all but those with the attention span of a goldfish!
The following track ‘Lock It Up’ is slower paced and concentrates on the problems in a relationship, with some good bitter asides: -
“ Love me here and there. But the way you flatter me/ I just don’t hear or care, you should lock it up…Yesterday I was a God, today I’m just a myth, and tomorrow I’ll be gone. Because you locked it up”.
By this time I thought that they wouldn’t be able to sustain the momentum, however track three ‘From What I Can Remember’ bursts through the speakers like a minor punk anthem, all loud and fast guitars with heavy drumming. The lyrics are short and repetitive: -
“From what I can remember, it’s complicated, When I try to remember I get frustrated.”
This is done in a melodic style that made me think of some of the tracks on Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’. Track four ‘You’re No Good’, meanwhile, is more of the same, hard rock with abrasive lyrics and slower melodic chorus:-
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“Don’t talk about me, Don’t act like you care for me/ Don’t say you want me. Stop acting too blind to see/ Don’t patronise me. Sop playing games in my head...Stop messing with me. Don’t make me wish I was dead”.
The next song ‘The Most That Shows’ is an uptempo rocker detailing the highs and lows of life on the road:-
“I wake up in the morning and wipe the dusk from my eyes/Another day of planning, what more can I do but try?/I pass out in the evening. We loaded up all the cars/After another night performing at another empty bar”.
This is really great and bittersweet, detailing the break ups of bands after too much effort with no return:
“Another family falls to tragedy, because the most at shows is you and me”.
‘Bored of You’, which follows is heavily drum and bass laden, with the singer trapped in a relationship that’s going nowhere.
“I’ve done my time without a crime and I’m not paying for it…”
Finally, the EP ends with ‘Waste Away” and it ends on a high note, big riffing, and slow sung lyrics: -
“I waste away, I waste away with no soul, Deny the day, deny the day I turn cold.”
Which reminded me a lot of Nirvana, and was an EP that for a first effort was incredibly strong. Admittedly, being locked into a certain genre gives little room for manoeuvre, but the Everyday Motive manage to add something original to a music style that I currently thought only had imitators. This EP is well worth investing in.
The Everyday Motive on Myspace
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