If It's Cool with You, It's Cool with Me

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On this follow-up to their fine debut, If I Knew Now What I Knew Then, Hot Rod Circuit refines their sound, tightening things up and only vaguely approximating the oft-compared emo-core artists like the Get Up Kids. The melodic focus and energy of the group's indie pop (not to mention eventual label affiliation with emo's greatest names on Vagrant Records) solicit the obvious comparisons, but Hot Rod Circuit (guitarist/vocalist Andy Jackson, guitarist Casey Prestwood, bassist, Jay Russel, and drummer, Wes Cross) deserves credit for more than their casual resemblances. Tracks like "This Is Not the Time or Place" illustrate the band's own unique songwriting and performance abilities, that while ordinary in their arrangement almost defy description. As the 21st century arrived to a chorus of sexualized child pop stars and extreme rap/metal pointlessness, If It's Cool With You It's Cool With Me charted the strong development of Hot Rod Circuit, a band that held enormous promise and (with only a few others) the very relevance of rock in their guitar cases.

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