Gym Class Heroes – As Cruel As School Children
It’s a fact. The world of underground hip-hop is finally evolving, growing into the limelight. It’s been innovating and developing all along, but so deep underground that the only coverage afforded was in seedy record stores in University districts around the nation. The internet, along with ample access to crying while eating videos and forum space to argue your point of view in Kirk Vs. Picard, has crafted a variety of new and inspiring musical acts that actually become popular, because people are able to hear them easily. You aren’t faced with the undesirable option of paying $20 for an album only one random guy who’s so pale you can see what he ate for lunch through his skin recommended in line at a seedy bar concert. Myspace is the new MTV and rightfully so, because it puts the listener in control, not Carson Daly or Lala.
One of the most intriguing and enjoyable bands to come out of the Myspace wave of new music is Gym Class Heroes. Their first album, The Papercut Chronicles, released in 2005 was a brilliant mashup of Hip Hop poetics and the stage presence of the indie generation. A Supertramp sample put it all over the top.
The band returned in the summer of 06 with a new album, As Cruel as School Children, that not only rewarded the promise of the first, but improved upon it tenfold. Travis, the group’s lead singer and poet extraordinaire proves himself not only an ample showman but an incredibly gifted writer. The album is laid out as a day in school, each track labeled as Period 1-13, with the inclusion of little asides (lunch, study hall, and yearbook club) that make up a three part poem titled “Sloppy Love Jingleâ€, cleverly produced and just funny enough to fit the band’s style.
The tracks themselves are almost without exception energetic, foot bouncing dance tracks, complete with hook, chorus, and the musical curiosity of Sting. On “The Queen and I†you’ll hear a combination of acoustic and electric guitars, the smooth synth enhancement in the background, and a chorus leading Travis’s frantic, energetic narration of that girlfriend we’ve all had at least once.
They don’t stop there, constantly searching and poking at different stylistic elements, testing the heavier guitar riffs and even penning a poppy ode to the site that saw 13 million listens, Myspace, in “New Friend Requestâ€.
Funky R&B sensuality isn’t above the boys as one of the best foot tapping, dance inducing tracks of the album pops up in “Clothes Offâ€, evoking throwbacks to Prince and Parliament Funkadelic.
Every track on this album builds upon the previous tracks, taking a cozy, warm journey through the boys’ own trek these past couple years as they rhyme about their careers, the hard times they went through, the women troubles, the writing troubles, and ultimately the successes. The final rallying call to “Write On†and do it on your own, captures mentality that so pervades the music of the 21st century.
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