What would rock be without girls? Well, girls and boys, but the boys sure do love to sing about the girls, and how much they love them, or don't. Gocasual, like many before them, can't quite make up their minds. Is it love? Not so much? You know, "What I really want to say is/ 'I love you. I mean it,' " but, at the same time, "Thanks for everything/ You'll never see my face again."As a plot line for two on-again/off-again characters on the OC, Gocasual's The Whole Time I Knew You ain't half-bad, and it works as a nice 20-minute piece of pop-punk, too. In fact, Gocasual have sloughed off some of that punk aesthetic since their self-titled debut in the summer of 2003, like wine getting mellower as it ages (this is a theme I also explored with the review of the last album by Local Nothing, with whom Gocasual share drummer Andre Tranchemontagne and guitarist Mike Roy). Some of this comes simply from the improved production, this time handled by Jon Wyman (recording and mixing) and Adam Ayan (mastering), who really should just announce themselves as a super duo — Portland's musical version of Batman and Robin.
But frontman Mike Larrabee has definitely polished his delivery, getting more timbre and traveling less in the whiney sneer. On "I'm Only Good for One Kind of Fun," he even gets away with cribbing Morrissey, dropping lower in the register to sing about the relationship's lowest point, the "disaster." But the treble-heavy guitars that signal pop punk come storming back a song later, with "More Regrets, Please," repeating a phrase that disappears when the vocals start. Things must pick up, as "Gravity holds our clothes to the floor/ The backs will arch tonight ... Your picture is cold/ Her body was warm." And if you were wondering whether it really was a Wyman record, the hand-claps here should dispel any doubt.
While Gocasual do well with mixing up entries and exits, they have a tendency to bury the chorus on some songs, where the similarity between the verse and chorus, or the extreme length of the chorus (relatively — these are three-minute pop-punk sons, after all), can hamper their catchiness factor. Best is probably "Honesty Is the Worst Policy," where Larrabee charges in from the get-go and his breathless delivery gets the pulse going. The verses are minor-themed, but then the chorus goes major for some solid sing-along potential. When the bridge goes quiet and touchy-feely, "Ignore my efforts/ And all my lines/ And I'll keep trying," then ramps up with some kapow guitars for "Until we cut the ties," I'm just about totally sold on Larrabee's emotional investment. "Distance makes the heart grow cold/ And time won't heal anything" finishes the song, with a cool back-beat drum and some room sounds, like the drummer putting his sticks away. Very nice from start to finish.
Add in a 4/4 (actually) 23-second "Waltz," featuring a snippet of Christopher Walken from True Romance (they were, like, 10 when it came out) telling us he's in a "vendetta kind of mood," and there's enough variation on the disc to keep me interested despite some repetition in the rhythm section. It's to be expected in this genre, but Gocasual don't let themselves be boxed-in by it.
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Sam Pfeifle: sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com
