Cassette Review // Stop n' Shop "Time Wasted" (Lazer Burn Audio)

$10 //
Edition of 15 //
https://lazerburnaudio.bandcamp.com/album/time-wasted //

When I got this cassette I thought I could spend a decent amount of time typing about how- at the time- the grocery chain of the same name was on strike.    But there is a lot going on during these songs, so I feel like I cannot.    When this cassette first starts I feel like I'm hearing this fun, energetic pop punk type of sound, which takes me back to bands like Schatzi and The Beans. 

By the second song though I hear more of artists like All Get Out and The Casket Lottery, which is funny because those are the bands I tend to listen to when I'm sad (among others, such as Sorority Noise and The Hotelier) and it's late at night.   These songs have this pop punk aspect to them at times, but they also can fall into that indie rock genre where I can't quite place them.

"Between You & I" has elements of Modern Baseball to it (another one of my sad bands) and there is also an audio clip from "Of Mice and Men" in here.    "Apologies" has that All Get Out feel to it at first, but then it shifts into something more like Violent Femmes and as the cassette goes on you'll hear the songs pick up these pieces along the way and the overall sound just expands and grows.

There are a lot of words on "Apologies" and then "Locomotive" has that folk punk thing going on.   By the time we get to "Time" you'll hear these sweet guitar riffs and bass lines, which build to this screamy mewithoutYou type of song.   Again, it's about picking up the pieces along the way, adding them in little by little until you hear them much more fully.

Along with this sound which should have you singing along, I tend to find these lyrics to be meaningful to me.   On "Indirect Post Malone" there is a line:  "I don't like the way he lives / But it don't matter what I think"   While the song itself seems to be about leaving behind childish ways, I tend to think that too much these days we get defensive (especially on social media) of others based upon what they like and what we don't like.

In some ways, I like to think of this as being "The Post Malone Effect" because I, for one, do not like Post Malone as a musician, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be allowed to make music even though others might feel that way.   People will say he's not talented or he has no place in music when they really mean that they just don't like him.  That whole thing needs to stop.  Just because you don't *like* something doesn't mean it's wrong.

"Fishbowl" has this great line: "I need help to help myself" which is something I wish I realized much sooner in life.   We can't solve all of our own problems and sometimes we don't have to.  Sometimes we can help someone else and sometimes someone else can help us.    In that way, I feel like this cassette has really helped me because it rocks and the lyrics give you a lot to think about.   Perhaps it can help you as well (or you can just rock out)