It's Tax Season with Taxpayer PREV / 2 of 2 / NEXT yet most adolescent bands, much like adolescent relationships, eventually dissipate. This is not to say that the evolutionary process that produced Taxpayer was without breaks. Band members went their own ways during their college years, and it was only boredom and disillusionment with life after college that eventually reunited them. It was at the release party for their seven-song EP "I'll Do My Best to Stay Healthy," that Lunch Records' Paul Buckley asked Taxpayer to contribute songs to a compilation entitled Four By Four: Volume 1. This lead to an invitation from Lunch records producer Paul Kolderie, who's worked with the likes of Radiohead and Hole, to release a full-length album, later titled Bones and Lungs. The band's eclectic inspirations are clear on Bones and Lungs; a quick scan through the album's ten tracks becomes a game of "Name that Musical Influence." "Bottleneck," and "Bottom Line" bring to mind Radiohead-style guitar melodies, circa The Bends, while "Gifts With Strings Attached," which the band recently shot a music video for, is a dead ringer for Joshua Tree-era U2 (the song could easily have included a segway into "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"). "Cut It Again" seems to borrow elements from the unlikely combination of the Cure and Coldplay, and "Dial Zero For Assistance" seems vaguely Pavement-like. This mixed bag of borrowed elements shows an inclination towards Taxpayers anticipated unique sound. They haven't quite made it yet stylistically but there are several surefire signs that the potential is there. The pure emotional force behind Marsh's lyrics and voice ("Don't trust the ones you love and adore/ People can change with time and they might need you no more") is an intimate glimpse into his inner-psyche, and his insistence that "You're better off" on the brief-but-brilliant opening track, "Among Low Clouds," has me truly convinced that he's right--and I'm not even sure why or how I'm better off. The determining factor, however, is the closing track "In My Final Year." Separated by the other tracks on Bones and Lungs by its slow tempo and sharp turn to romantic, the song's swirling, simultaneously haunting-yet-comforting harmony will immediately lodge itself inside your head. The song seals the albums fate as decidedly catchy, and will make you wonder what more is to come. Taxpayer will play the WBCN Rock n' Roll Rumble on April 3, at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA, and WFNX Best Music Poll on May 18 in Boston. For more information see Taxpayer's official website, http://www.taxpayermusic.com, or check out their profile on MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/taxpayer. --Caitlin Curran Monday, 03 April 2006 (c) Copyright 2024 Tweed Media PREV / 2 of 2 / NEXT