BANDS:

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

Mercy's Web: Self-Titled
[self-released]

Mercys Web is a four member outfit of boys from Memphis, TN.  Their debut EP, a self-released, self-titled CD is their first big step into the world of music.  The album presents musicians who can handle their instruments and a tortured lyricist in lead vocalist Shane Harkness.  All the songs seemingly deal with love, losing love, recognizing love when it is smacking you in the face not the most uplifting subject matter ever but classic heartbreak nonetheless. 

Mercys Web is referred to as nu-rock and power pop but I just dont hear it.  Yes they are pop but in more of a Hootie & the Blowfish or Dave Matthews Band, kind of way.  In a, my college friends are in this band and they are playing every other week at this bar in town, so lets go down there and get sauced, kind of way.   After reading some articles about these boys, I even came across the label pop-punk quartet.  Pop-punk? On what planet? I have listened to the record over and over, simply to try and understand from where such an idea would come.  I didnt think that Memphis was so musically barren that this carefree, traditional type rock record would ever garner a genre tag like pop-punk.  Yikes. 

All in all, this is a well-produced record, but the songs need some work.  All four sound quite similar.  After hearing the fourth track Lady of the Mountain, I had to stop and replay the first track Blue Sky Falling, because I thought it was the same song.  Yes, one song starts with guitar and the other with full on instruments, but not being a guitar player puts me at a slight disadvantage.  I cannot be specific nor technical, but my deduction is that the chord progression is either identical or just incredibly similar.  Overall, Im not so much into this EP.

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