While they do exist, women in punk rock are a rare phenomenon, and entirely-female bands are even more a rarity. That said, The Halo Friendlies, a four-girl punk rock group, are in relatively select company. Apart from this unique angle, the Friendlies' recent release, Acid Wash, shows that they can hold their own in a male-dominated genre.
This energetic five-song EP does a great job of displaying the diverse talents of the band. With harmonies reminiscent of Juliana Hatfield, combined with the crunch and experimental edge of Sonic Youth, the Friendlies pull off a set of tracks that prove to be quite appealing. Because it is a short album, it's hard to choose any favorites; "Falling Away," followed by the title track, make for a good one-two punch, and the album ends on a noteworthy song, "Hush."
In the end, this album has a great indie sound and is generally a pretty good collection of tracks; one can only hope that they will release a full-length album soon.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #79Reviewed by Doug Van PeltSince HM has gone on record to use the word "chick" in this issue's Hard Music Sampler CD, then I guess it's okay to call this "Chick Rock." While the last Halo Friendlies album was fun to listen to, it did not have near the maturity and sonic care that this 5-song EP does. The songs are solid, a little more serious, played better, and the production is top notch. Nice move by the band to fly…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by ConradBoy, was I surprised with this one. If you've heard their first release, you know it wasn't very good. This one is way better. They do have a little left of punk/indie rockness and they've gone more rock. The vocal melodies aren't that catchy, but they're still more melodic than, say, Slant 6. I can't say that there was one part of this EP that was annoying, and I've listened to it a few times. I…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Tom BastianI could not stand this band's first CD. Actually, if I remember correctly there was maybe one song on their entire full-length that was even near good. So let's just say this new EP is one heck of an improvement. This time around the girls seem to have stayed with one general style, that being rock with a bit of a punk influence. The first song, "On Our Way," was to me definitely the standout…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by TimGirl punk. The first song was good, and the rest...well...the rest sounded like The Donnas, and in my book, that's not a good band to sound like. I will go so far as to say that the Halo Friendlies are about a million times better than The Donnas, but I just can't get into this. They get an 'A' for looks though. C+Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Matt R.Being as selective as I am when it comes to punk music, I found myself amazed at the first track on this record. It was like suddenly being transported to a party attended by all my favorite characters from 80's movies, all looking exactly how they did fifteen years ago. However, after the upbeat pop-rocking opener the record starts to falter, and I'm reminded again why I didn't like the band's…Similar sounding releases
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