San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Subsurfer
We Are Stars
(self-released)
When I was a teenager, I regularly sifted through the discount CDs at Music Trader in search of long-forgotten gems. As it turned out, the CDs I bought were forgotten for a reason. Bands like The Figgs and Pep Squad might’ve sounded good at first, but their albums weren’t unique or passionate enough to survive repeated listens.
These days, I can’t even remember what I did with those CDs. For all I know, I probably donated them to The Salvation Army years ago. I probably would’ve for gotten about them entirely were it not for Subsurfer, a local indie-rock band. Their new album, We Are Stars, is just the kind of half-decent thing I would’ve plucked out of the bargain bin back in the day.
Taking cues from ’90s bands like Weezer and Pavement, Subsurfer offer up the kind of crunchy alt-rock riffs and catchy hooks that would impress a mainstream radio DJ. The album starts out promising, but it loses steam halfway through and becomes almost unbearable on subsequent listens. The hooks are catchy in a mind-numbing way, the lyrics cliché and unimaginative. And then there’s singer / guitarist David Montalbano’s moping, half-spoken vocal style. He sounds sick with self-pity, as though he wants you to feel bad for him—even when he’s shooting for romance with a line like “I am so into you.” His bandmates validate his feelings with their dutiful performance, but even they sound bored with his timidity.
Subsurfer has been getting a fair amount of local buzz lately, but I see a bargain bin in their future. I’m sure We Are Stars will sound better than a lot of the other dreck, but I’d never pay full price for it.
Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.
