Album Review :: DeeCRACKS / New Rochelles Split : The Smile of the Tiger

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Okay, so you guys already know how much I love the New Rochelles, so needless to say I was super psyched when I heard about this release. The Smile of The Tiger is a split 7” with the New Rochelles and DeeCRACKS. I had never heard of the DeeCRACKS but damn, they blew me away.

The first two tracks are from DeeCRACKS, the are fast energetic pop punk with these great gritty vocals. Let’s Get Outta Here full of clapping and background whoa whoa whoas. She Belongs to Me is a Ramones cover, but sounds nothing like the ballad that the Ramones recorded. The DeeCRACKS version is  super catchy, fun, and will no doubt get stuck in your head. Sorry to all the diehard Ramones fans who are reading this, but this cover surpasses the original. By a mile.

The New Rochelles are as fun and infections as ever. Cuidado is fast and melodic and a bit more layered  than I have come to expect from the New Rochelles. I am sure that their typical humor is there, in the Spanish words that I don’t know. Nightcrawler, though, is classic. It is super poppy, fun, silly, and you will be humming it for weeks upon weeks.

After I listened to this split a few hundred times, I started listening to everything that DeeCRACKS have recorded before this. That is what any great split should do, convert fans of one band to fans of the other.  All while having a damned good time.

The DeeCRACKS / New Rochelles Split, The Smile of the Tiger is out now on Swamp Cabbage Records.