Bad Astronaut - Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment

Since 2000, Bad Astronaut has existed as an alternative outlet for numerous participants in the SoCal pop-punk scene--mostly the venerable Joey Cape, who leads the band. Publicized as an "indie rock band," Bad Astronaut certainly counters the more juvenile matters and musical approaches that Cape exhibits in his main band Lagwagon, and on past releases, the group has paid homage to past luminaries via covers--Elliott Smith's "Needle in the Hay" found its way onto Acrophobe, while the band's version of "Solar Sister" on Houston: We Have a Drinking Problem introduced power-pop stars The Posies to a younger generation. With Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment, the band rebounds from, well, one giant disappointment and comes back with something as strong (or stronger) than anything in its past. In 2005, Lagwagon/Bad Astronaut guitarist Derrick Plourde, suffering from serious depression, took his own life. As a testament to the idea that the band was a shared project between himself and Plourde, Cape has vowed in this record's liner notes that it's the last to come under the Bad Astronaut moniker. On a vaguely related note, he also mentions that this record wasn't the last work Plourde gave to the world, and I'll pass the info along--you can also find the late musician's heart and soul in the band Jaws (http://www.jawsattacks.com). Much of Twelve Steps is surprisingly radio-ready, straddling a line between modern Green Day and the Foo Fighters at times. It's very much a rock record, and though there's the appearance of lesser-used instruments (banjo, mandolin, cello, etc.), they don't appear enough to make much of an impact. "Ghostwrite" is centered around thick power chords with minimal progression, save for a brief blazing guitar lick, as Cape pours out his feelings on what appears to be the punk scene and the stigmas that come along with it--labels, scenes, "being too old," and being branded. "Beat" is apparently a tribute to Plourde, Cape's mourning publicized as he tells his former friend and bandmate that he's "missing everything", and that Bad Astronaut has "recorded [Plourde's] defeat, an album always incomplete." The semi-title track of "One Giant Disappointment" follows the same kind of subject matter still concerned with Plourde and his suicide. The rest of the tracks stumble and fall only occasionally, and for the most part it's the band's most accessible record to date. More often than not, the songs on Twelve Steps... connect, and even though there's an awful situation surrounding much of its lyrical content and creation, it's a more than adequate farewell to both Bad Astronaut's tenure as a band and its fallen musician. Download "Autocare" [www.fatwreck.com]