BANDS:

Punk & Ska
80's New Wave/
Post-Punk/
College Bands
90's & Beyond
Virginia, North
Carolina, & DC

The Honored Guests: IAWOKEINACITYASLEEP
[Breakfast Mascot]

The Honored Guests are a band from Chapel Hill, NC that just finished up their first album, Iawokeinacityasleep.  From such a haven of indie rock, youd expect a nice solid effort with a touch of disorderly distortion and fumbling guitar stabs used to liven up the old rock song formula, right?  Well, if so, The Honored Guests are happy to supply this for you.  I appreciate the bands economy on the release too.  After playing for two years, Im sure they had more than eight songs, but it sure is thoughtful when an artist delivers a solid album that is stripped free of potential filler.

I Cant Keep You gets a bit personal with some relationship references, and the title track is a fairly interesting chunk of rock, with some odd studio flourishes that help draw out the bands sound.  1.12 is sort of a short two-minute instrumental with a nice and lazy Pavement feel to it.  Album closer Days Are Getting Brighter has some nice spooky vocal harmonics too, and you generally get a sense of the bands energy as it channels through lead singer Russell Baggetts performance.  Theres some good stuff here, and plenty of room for The Honored Guests to develop their sound or lyrics into something more unique in the future.  Until then, strong tracks like Postmarked and Boston should still be exciting enough to perk the ears of a few new fans.  The band is on a bit of a summer tour now, and theyll soon be passing through Washington DCs Velvet Lounge amongst a few other scattered dates around the country.

This album can be purchased at the Honored Guests Official Website

More Album Reviews

About LOTD        Contact/Staff        Advertise        Home

All content  LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved.