"New #2"

2006 Antipoison Records
Score: 4 (of 10) 

New #2 is latest release by the northern Virginia rock band Her Next Friend.  The EP, which includes six original songs as well as a cover of The White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army,” is the follow-up to their self-titled debut EP 

The music that Her Next Friend plays is a jangly-guitared alterna-garage rock.  The songs are fairly well played, and “Reeling For Me” has a decent melody, but for the most part they are simple, a bit repetitive and not very interesting. 

The vocals are fairly poorly performed, with a flat, dull sound that tries a bit to be punk, but doesn’t quite make it.  The lyrics are incredibly simple and not very well written, such as on “Hustling Guy,” which features lines like “Roomed alone with a window of hope/ His crib was dope/ Surrounded by spies” and “It was all she wrote/ And he shaved off his goat.” 

Overall:  An EP that sounds like neighborhood bar band stuff.