Four Star Alarm - EP

The curse of The Windy City: breeding bands that had the chance to be huge if they'd come along a decade earlier. Case in point: Four Star Alarm. I've engaged in brief discourse before on how excellent Thick Records' roster is; The Tossers (though they've since left) are the prime Irish punk band in America, The Methadones deserve the excess attention that's been thrown at Green Day for years, and Hanalei is the maturing punk's segue into Americana. Four Star Alarm's debut EP is chock-full of melodic grit, a voracious foray into Hüsker Dü-esque (New Day Rising-era) rock. Straight-forward, with fast guitars and songwriting that, while admirable, doesn't seek out much that's not on the beaten path. "Waste Away" and "Implode" are laudable (but middle-of-the-road), roughed-up pop-punk numbers, with big radio-friendly choruses. "Breathe In" almost sounds like Boysetsfire's Nathan Gray trying to sing for a collaboration between Small Brown Bike and the Casket Lottery, and for the most part, it works. Definitely not the best Thick has to offer, but as we all know, the EP is quite the inaccurate guage. And if we were living in the days of early Hot Water Music and Samiam at their prime, Four Star Alarm would be in a different league. [www.thickrecords.com]