Check My Wage is quite the unknown commodity. A quick purge of the internet suggests that the band has no MySpace or Last.fm page. The download link for this three track E.P. claims it was released in March 2008 but the band is only now requesting a review. How very strange. Our only clue is this here Punktastic where the band section suggests Brighton as a point of operation. So does this low profile lend itself to an enthralling mystique? Well, no. Certainly on this offering there’s not much to write home about.
Check My Wage basically makes pop-punk music. It’s not quite that straight forward but that’s the nutshell description. Opening track ‘Night & Day’ has a touch of Mike TV and early Green Day about it, whilst ‘Want You Back’ has a main vocal that is somewhat reminiscent of New Found Glory. Final track ‘Spammed With a Grand’, aside from some rubbish jibba-jabba at the end, is the diamond in the rough, offering something a little bit varied. I want to say there’s something a little Smashing Pumpkins about the song, but it only something really little. It is though a slight departure from that before it.
The release as a whole plods along in truly inoffensive manner (maybe punk should be removed from the pop-punk tag), and that is where the problems lies. It plods. This type of music should be pacey, breathless and bouncy. That’s what makes it fun and enjoyable. Maybe the band has made a bid for a more mature offering (perhaps there’s a hint of Finch like depth to ‘I Want You Back’) but it doesn’t pull it off. Simply put, it’s lacking in impetus which means getting off the ground proves nigh on impossible.
Alex