No Target Audience

Click below for high quality mp3s of the newest EP, 'Gifts & Returns':



reviews:

"Ohioans seem to grace us with their presence a bit too much for our liking here in SC. To put it plainly, we as South Carolinians have grown a bit sick of them. I mean, I know the weather is better down here and we have beaches and shit but seriously, go to NC already! Anyway, none of that is to say that I don’t love me some Ohio bands though, cause I certainly do. Per capita, Ohio might just be putting out the best stuff these days and No Target Audience should be added to that list.



No Target Audience take you on a whirlwind 15 minute ride with their latest release, Gifts & Returns. The EP starts off with the raging melodic hardcore of “Our Good Friends The Police” which clocks in under one minute running time. The track is rather deceiving as what follows bares little resemblance to the hardcore of song number one. “The Earth” kicks right in and you quickly hear the band’s secret weapon, the dreaded saxophone. Now, I say dreaded cause I am usually not the biggest fan of that instrument being used in anything outside of jazz. But No Target Audience actually make use of it quite well as an accent to their soulful pop-infused punk rock. The band settles in to a nice mid-tempo pace for the rest of the EP. The band’s songs are memorable and catchy and touch on several different genres from ska to punk to rockabilly. The five-minute plus “Passing Through” closes out the EP on a somber and unexpected note. It is fantastic song that shows the wide range of the band. The handmade packaging is the final genuine touch for a band that obviously has their hearts in the right place. Check out Gifts & Returns for something a bit different."

-Sound As Language (www.soundaslanguage.com)



"With bands like Reverse the Curse, Echoes of Harpers Ferry and the Sidekicks, among many others, the scene in Ohio -- specifically, the northeastern chunk of it -- appears to possess a healthy amount of diverse acts, and most of them are really fucking good. No Target Audience can safely be added to that list with their new-ish EP, Gifts and Returns.



Hearing to the gritty, blistering hardcore of 58-second intro "Our Good Friends the Police" might mislead the listener into thinking Gifts and Returns is a re-imagining of a sound from a quarter of a century ago, but that's where the homage ends.



The other four songs here are kind of all over the place, but there isn't anything included that's so outlandish it'd cause you to say out loud to yourself, "What the fuck is that doing in there?" I mean, Christ, there's a saxophone prominent on both "The Earth" and "High Horses for Tired People"; the former is a fairly conventional grit-laced pop-punk jam and the latter is louder and slightly more chaotic, but again, neither song is hampered by it. And if you're waiting for a lazy, name-droppy comparison, here's one: these songs sound like a cross between Get Warmer-era Bomb the Music Industry! and any-era Latterman.



And if they still haven't blown your mind -- with diversity! -- No Target Audience end Gifts and Returns with "Passing Through," a five-plus-minute opus with a somber introductory piano part and more horns. The song maintains a mid-tempo foundation throughout and ends with some positively infectious gang vocals. Not too shabby."

-Punknews (www.punknews.org)