What the Negatives have going for them: wall of fucking sound. Speed and thick, thick smoking traction from the second the needle scratches the wax. What the Negatives have to contend with: the elements that they’re using for their sound – from the guitar tones to the nasality of the vocalist, to the drumming – are all previously patented, tested and approved OC punk, perhaps not in this exact way, but close enough. This is okay, but I’m yearning for a twist, a tweak, a push, a little bubble in the needle that’ll make me go, “Huh, that’s a little different than I expected. Jahoo, it’s addictive” and have it really fuck with me. They’re definitely not a clone band, definitely not a blatant rip off from a single source – like the Detours or the Smut Peddlers or the strings of TSOL – but I’m catching glimpses of where they can truly put that speed to greater use and want to see them peel out in a creation that’s more their own. That said, it’s not a bad single at all.
–todd (Hostage)