Candystore

Candystore w/ Hi-Test and Kangaroo (Saturday, May 1st, 2004, 400 Bar, Minneapolis)
Reviewed by David de Young

Candystore released its new CD "This is How Things Work" at the 400 Bar Saturday night
Their press kit calls their music "Danger rock for modern lovers." Their website calls it "genre bending." I have no idea what either of those phrases mean, but I liked Candystore's new CD, "This is How Things Work" enough to go out and catch the first part of their CD Release show at the 400 Bar on Saturday night.
Despite other flowery phrases they lavish on themselves like "they "skillfully play with the concept of musical genres by crossing, mixing, matching, and inbreeding musical styles," or they go "beyond their base influences to implement touches of country, pop, and various other musical styles when writing to create a sound that is both fresh and playful" what I heard when listening to their new disk was a straight ahead, no bullshit rock record with enough echoes of some of my favorite post-punk rock bands like the Brains and Billy Idol to temper the mainstream rock influences that suggest the band spent a fair amount of time listening to Loverboy, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Slaughter while growing up. (Listen to a few songs here and decide for yourself.)
Candystore is a hard-working band both on and off the stage. Two members, drummer Chad Weis and singer, brother Kent are involved in Minnesota's new music magazine, Rift (Chad is the Advertising Sales dude and Kent writes) which just hit the stands a few days ago and coincidentally features an interview with yours truly. Candystore's release party Saturday was solid, if a little stiff. The boys brought their own laser light show which added to the quasi-arena rock quality the band attempts to project and only gets them extra points in my book. Chad Weis told me in an email Sunday that he felt the band had had better shows, but that he and the band "had a hell of a good time." From what I could see, the healthy-sized crowd at the 400 Bar Saturday night did the same. Weis also says the band has been writing a lot of new songs and has plans for another EP in the not too distant future.


I caught all of middle band Hi*Test and found them much the same as ever, if not moreso, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good, because they're doing very well for themselves and I still insist they are ready for the next step, which is to break nationally. (Note to the producers of the O.C. Contact these boys to discuss licensing a song.) The bad thing is that although they are one of the tightest pop-rock outfits in town, their music and I don't get along as well as they might if my musical sensibilities leaned more towards the Top 40 end of the radio spectrum instead of, well the "bottom of the dial" as they say.
Sadly I missed ALL of opening band Kangaroo, but that was only because I was still sitting at home re-listening to their album Skyscraper Spaceship. A diverse and interesting soundscape of an album, I was first drawn to Kangaroo when I heard their outstanding single "River" on Cities 97 a few months back. Once you've given the album a good listen it should come as no surprise to hear that they were nominated for two MMA's last year for both Best Pop Group and Best Pop Recording of 2003. They also made the City Pages list of the best albums of 2003. Whether they would have made my own personal "best of" list last year if I'd heard the disk in time, I can't say for sure, but the fact that the disk somehow sank to the bottom of my shrink-wrapped stack of un-opened CD's until a few months ago pretty much guaranteed they would not.
Kangaroo has a show coming up on Saturday, May 15th at the Bryant Lake Bowl. The first issue of Rift Magazine also features an interview with Kangaroo conducted by ubiquitous music freelancer Holly Day.
- How Was The Show.com