soft targets

whatever happended to soft targets
RC010 EP CD [2010]
Chicago's Soft Targets delivered an "icy-cool postpunk sound halfway between the Only Ones and Joy Division" (Sharp Darts, Chicago Reader) on this five song CD EP. A split release with Backward Masking label and recorded at Electrical Studios with engineer Kris Poulin. All's I can say is: buy it!
Track Listing:
Returning
Clearing the Brush (on Brokeback Mountain)
Crushed
Black Radiance
I'm Sold
More Soft Targets releases:
(Let it) Ricochet b/w Straight Line 7
We Hate You Soft Targets
Soft Targets Must Be Destroyed Don't Put Out
Above the Arctic Circle
Soft Targets/Mediums split 7"
The Rise and Fall of Soft Targets
The Night After Day After Day Digital Mini LP
Soft Targets website:
Soft Targets
Press
Photos:





NEW CITY
The post-punk
Chicago unit—which borrows gracefully from indie-rock royalty like Dinosaur
Jr. and Built to Spill—aim high with Whatever Happened to Soft Targets? the group's new EP. Opener "Returning" shoegazes its way through under-mixed
vocals and a nice delayed guitar lead, all backed by a fuzzy, distorted guitar
progression. "Clearing the Brush (on Brokeback Mountain)"--if you
can get past the title--works as a countrified instrumental, jangly and moving-down-the-trail
in an assured way. "Crushed" is pure pop, reggae-ish in its guitar
parts, and a rock song that could actually benefit from a horn section, if the
band had the resources. The next track, "Black Radiance," is bona
fide early nineties rock, minor chords and distortion, world-crushing depression
and angst. While the band mixes genres a bit and could probably use a different
distortion pedal, there's something very endearing about the closer "I'm
Sold," my favorite of the group, should be able to sell you with the lyric
"Same shit, different day."—Tom Lynch
CHICAGO READER
On the new EP Whatever Happened to Soft Targets?,
this four-piece just about nails an icy-cool postpunk sound halfway between
the Only Ones and Joy Division. The guitars jump from overdriven chugging to
expansive, echoing chords, the drums are trebly and brittle with slapback reverb,
and vocalist Chris Auman sings with world-weary aloofness -- when he hits the
occasional wrong note, it just sounds like he can't see the point of trying
any harder. But while icy-cool postpunk leans pretty hard on a specific production
style, it also needs songs, and these guys don't have them. Whatever Happened
starts promisingly with the shoegazery "Returning," which features
some great drum bashing from Dave Potter and a simple, catchy vocal melody.
After that, though, things go wrong and stay that way. It's bold to make an
instrumental the second track on your CD, but the instrumental in question,
"Clearing the Brush (on Brokeback Mountain)," is saddled not only
with a terrible name but with a go-nowhere chord progression that sucks away
any excitement still lingering in the air after "Returning." The faux-reggae
"Crushed" doesn't do much to redeem the disc (or the idea of unfunky
punks trying to get even a little bit irie), and the last two songs are a forgettable
blur of awkward structures and half-assed melodies. The Soft Targets may be
shooting for inspired ennui, but by the end it comes off more like plain old
boredom.—Miles Raymer
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