Superior Sounds
By Mike Couling
2003

Squint Sparkles in “tinsel life”

Squint, a Houghton based alternative rock group gone national, has made a name for themselves during the past seven years by relentlessly touring the country and playing every club and bar that would let them set up equipment.

Now based in Ruston, Louisiana, Squint’s newest album “tinsel life” is starting to catch fire on college radio and has even had songs featured on MTV’s “Road Rules.” The album, released on Hoxie Bat Records, manages to progress the raw primal punk sound found on earlier Squint albums like “Beeker” into a well produced and balanced effort that should propel them even further into success.

The band brought producer Ed Stasium in this time around, letting him ensure that every cymbal crash from drummer Tote and every arpeggio from guitarist Matt Fredrickson can be clearly heard at an appropriately loud volume. Stasium has worked with national acts like Soul Asylum and Living Colour and mixed and recorded this album in a fine style.

Kicking off the record “Anthem for Closure,” splits Fredrickson’s guitars into stereo leads as singer Dane Adrian snarls out some trademark bitter lyrics. “This is the last time in which I’ll speak of you,” spits Adrian.

The rest of the 11 songs on the record follow the same thematic path, all dealing with feelings of loss, pain and rejection. Mixing the best parts of the sound of the early Replacements along the snappy pop-punk of the Ramones, who Stadium also recorded, has worked wonders for other similar groups, but Squint still manages to keep a sense of originality inside their chosen genre.

“Glimmer and Phrase” starts out with a bagpipe drone and then explodes into crunching guitars complete with harmonics from Fredrickson. It’s his guitar playing that stands out the most on “tinsel life”, precise yet full of feeling, violent and clear in tone. His best moment on the record comes in the opening of “Unfinished.” Backed by the strong bass playing of Young Charles, Fredrickson fires tasty riff after riff to build a rock wall of distortion.

Adrian turns in a performance that also manages to mix angst and smarts in equal parts, truly turning the pain of broken hearts and smashed up relationships into battle cries for the repaired and wary. “I know people make mistakes, but you messed up pretty bad,” Adrian croons on “Random Caring. “Most people spend their lives, looking for what we had.”

The newest album has just been added to the A@R Worldwide chart at number 23 as well as commercial specialty charts. Squint was nominated for the 2003 American Music Awards Coca-Cola New Music Award and has toured alongside the Toadies and the Goo-Goo Dolls. Squint was also named band of the week by Rolling Stone magazine in January of 2002.

Squint will be playing a special one night only home stand this coming Monday at the Exurban, located at 416 Sheldon Ave in Houghton. The all ages show starts at 9:00 with a $5 cover and will also feature a yet to be announced opening band.

More information on Squint can be found online at www.squint.com.

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