Like a snottier
Weston,
FM Knives takes
the Buzzcocks and plays the vibe with the spirit of 1977 and an off-kilter, purposefully fumbling groove.
Useless & Modern, the band's debut, rabbles through anthems like "16 D.O.A.," ominous spy punk like "The Man from O.S.I.," and feel-good, old-school jams like "Summer Holiday." They're from Sacramento, but they sure sound like they're from the U.K., and this slab of teenage aggression will take listeners back to simpler times. Sure, technically it's punk-pop, but
FM Knives doesn't have too much in common with mall punk like
Sum 41 or
A New Found Glory -- this group would fit much better with
the Undertones and
the Television Personalities. Consequently, it's not particularly innovative, but that hardly matters when a song like "Any Other Day" can blow most of its contemporaries out of the water.