What are the signs that a buzz band is about to break it big? For starters, the band must have the type of tireless tour ethic that lands them on the cover of Pollstar Magazine and sharing stages with punk peers like New Found Glory and Good Charlotte. The music needs national exposure such as rocking Nintendo Game Cube's Big Air Freestyle or rattling hit television shows like Smallville, MTV's Tough Enough 3, and E! Entertainment News. Most of all, the albums should boast an impressive sales track record - such as selling over 200,000 copies of their previous release - based primarily on overwhelming street buzz. Put all this together, and you've got Canton, Ohio's favorite punk-pop pioneers, Relient K, ready to rocket with Two Lefts Don't Make a Right, But Three Do!
Following up the extraordinary success of 2001's The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, Relient K fires up another red-hot batch of punk-powered rock 'n' roll that makes their third release, Two Lefts Don't Make a Right, But Three Do, simply explosive. Their riff-driven new album exemplifies this band's continued growth as lyrical craftsmen and pop hook dynamos all realized through songs as smart as they are snappy. Their latest, which vocalist Matt Thiessen co-produced with longtime collaborator Mark Townsend, perfectly captures the group's signature hooks and harmonies without forgetting to slam it all together with a burly dose of untamed punk attitude.
Two Lefts (for short) opens with "Chap Stick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry," an ear-addicting take on relationships with a classic Relient K kick. The group's trademark wily wit and John Waters-ish nostalgia rings most rowdy in songs like "Mood Rings" (a sarcastic wish to know when girlfriends are thinking kiss or kill) and "Hoopes I Did It Again" (which describes Canton as "90210 without the Beverly Hills"). And showing revenge is best served loud and fast, "In Love with the 80's" pays back those childhood poundings as Thiessen mocks his older brothers' new wave rites of passage, such as wearing pink cummerbunds to their proms and sporting the famed mustache-and-mullet.
When not jabbing at pop culture stereotypes, Relient K also exhibits deft skill in capturing life's highs and lows in songs that really hit home. Last summer, the group witnessed their music's reach when tragedy stunned their hometown community as a local teenage girl was kidnapped and later found murdered. Relient K happened to be the girl's favorite band, so at her parents' request, the group flew back home from tour to perform "For the Moment I Feel Faint" at her memorial. Recalls Thiessen, "We got to meet her parents and really interact with all her friends. It was incredible to see the impact that the music actually had."
With Two Lefts, serious songs like "Getting Into You" stress the importance of setting one's priorities straight, while "I Am Understood?" deals with feelings that no one understands, including yourself. Likewise, "Falling Out" focuses on the aftermath of a bitter failure, and "Over Thinking" tackles the torn emotions of concluding ill-fated relationships. Clearly the impact of last summer's tragedy further stirred Relient K's approach to offering hope within well-crafted songs.
Looking back, Relient K originally formed with the simple desire to play shows making their live debut on New Year's Day 1998. Even then, the group's humor invaded the band's very name, which they christened after Hoopes' train-wreck heap of a car, a Plymouth Reliant K. Thiessen laughs, "One night we stopped the car on the highway to see how fast it could go from zero to sixty. It took over fifteen seconds!"
In 2000, Relient K dropped their self-titled Gotee Records debut, which earned the group a Billboard Video Music Award nod. Their 2001 follow-up, The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, proved to be the group's breakthrough as it continues selling thousands of copies every week while turning these young Buckeyes into a club headliner. In fact, Relient K sold-out 25 mainstream clubs last fall on their first top-bill tour. With Two Lefts promising even more success, Relient K is already set to rubber the road again this spring on the national See Spot Rock Tour, expecting to fill over 40 auditoriums in "A" markets across the country.
"We are just regular kids," confesses Thiessen about his band. "I think we relate to our audience because we are our audience. We like the same music that our fans do, songs that helps us have a good time but that also make us think."
Without question, Relient K's latest is about to deliver a lot more of these good times, and that's something to think about!
