Silverchair

15-09-1995

Review - Frogstomp

By Eli Davidson (Red Bluff Joint Union High School Newspaper (Red Bluff, California, U.S.A))

If you haven't heard of Silverchair yet, you must be living in a rat hole, or else you just don't care about alternative music.

The band, silverchair, consists of 16-year-old singer and guitarist, Daniel Johns, 15-year-old drummer, Ben Gillies, and 15-year-old bassist, Chris Joannou.

Residing in Australia, the trio got their big break into the music world by winning a national demo competition. The prize was a day in the recording studio of the national alternative-rock station where they recorded the single, Tomorrow. After it was added to the playlist, it quickly became a number one single. The hit song is also currently number one on the Oz Rock 50.

Once their single became a smash, all it took was a record deal to make the rest of their songs turn into a double platinum album.

The album, frogstomp, totally rocks. Every song on the album is worth listening to, and I personally enjoy listening to the drummer rock out.

Most of the songs on the CD are the hardcore, mosh type music, which all kick @#!!. Among the adrenaline pumping tunes are a few slow paced ones which break up the monotony. These songs are just as worthwhile to listen to as the faster titles.

Some people out there might say that Daniel Johns is trying to look like Kurt Cobain, and sing like Eddie Vedder, however, this is not true. After listening to them closely, you can hear that they have their own specific sound.

Daniel Johns even admits that, at first, Pearl Jam was a big influence on them, and he was trying to sing like Vedder. However, now he claims that the band doesn't like Pearl Jam any more. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Daniel has said that they like Pearl Jam but weren't influenced as much by them later as when they recorded Tomorrow.]

I thoroughly recommend this album to anyone who likes this type of music. It will make an excellent addition to your alternative rock stack of CDs.

This band not only sounds way cool, they are also a big inspiration to garage bands across the country. Bands in high school can look at their success and hope that they might have the chance of making it big also.