Red Knife Lottery So Much Drama

Imagine a band that sounded roughly like an amalgamation of At The Drive In, Blood Brothers and the Sounds. Now imagine that you aren't cringing at that description and give me two paragraphs to explain why the Red Knife Lottery might actually be worth your time. This female-fronted Milwaukee, WI quartet's transformation of all-too-familiar elements into something all their own is a testament to both the band's songwriting ability and the charisma of vocalist Ashley Chapman. On So Much Drama, the band's debut EP, the Red Knife Lottery serves up six incredibly catchy tracks of post-hardcore influenced rock and roll designed for fans of abrasive music with a pop sensibility. In addition to the aforementioned bands, I also heard a little bit of everything from the Murder City Devils to Le Tigre in there. The surprising highlight of the band for me was definitely Chapman's vocal performance, an inspired mixture of the Sounds' Maja Ivarsson, the Locust's Justin Pearson and 90's alt-rocker Poe. Her vocals give the Red Knife Lottery the ability to edge past "OK" into legitimately interesting and worth checking out. Bottom Line: This record isn't about sprawling sonic landscapes or technical virtuosity. It's an ambitious rock record that challenges you not to nod your head along with it. If the Red Knife Lottery can consistently deliver tracks of this caliber, I expect them to earn quite a following.