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Reggie & The Full Effect
Promotional Copy
Heroes and Villains/Vagrant
Here’s a rule: novelty releases suck. Here’s another: the songs from any artist’s side project are never as good as the songs from said artist’s main band. By being a bit of one, a bit of the other, and, in reality, neither, Reggie & The Full Effect may or may not serve as the exception that proves the rule, because Promotional Copy is an impressive amalgam. On the novelty front, Promotional Copy’s press would have you believe the disc was culled from tapes discovered amid the rubble of a torched studio after Reggie’s disappearance, and the record is peppered with jokey tracks. On the side project tip, Reggie is in fact one James Dewees, who plays keyboards with emotional postpunk upstarts the Get Up Kids, in addition to drumming for noisy mathcore outfit Coalesce. In reality, however, R&TFE is simply Dewees blowing off steam and stretching his writing muscles. Apparently, he’s having a hell of a good time, and Promotional Copy’s big sonic smile is infectious most of the time – it’s only on the really absurd stuff that things go awry. Most of the disc careens between short, sweet, choppy pop-punk with a pronounced Old Wave bent, and abrasive mock-death metal. No, seriously. The pogo-inspiring ‘From Me 2 U’ and melancholy ‘Congratulations Matt And Christine’ segue into the grinding space-doom of ‘Something I’m Not’, which breaks into an astonishingly catchy chorus groove – Dewees can’t stay away from the big melody for long, and there’s always a hook somewhere. ‘Relive the Magic…Bring The Magic Home’, moody and saccharine, drops into the sludge-pawp of ‘Good Times, Good Tunes, Good Buds’. The stop-and-go ‘Megan 2K’ prefaces the ultra-synth of ‘Thanx For Stayin’. And so forth. The funny thing is, so much of it works; simple riffs, obvious melodies, tons of styles, immediate gratification. Reggie only falls short on the overtly goofy fare, such as the aptly-named ‘Doot Doot Pause Doot Doot’, the corny redneck-techno ‘Boot to the Moon’, and the irritating break in the aforementioned ‘Something I’m Not’. ‘Dwarf Invasion’, however, brings humor and style together for a big finish. Why mix such obviously great tuneage in with such obviously low-grade humor? Only Reggie knows for sure, but the wealth of great stuff on Promotional Copy is more than worth a handful of eye-rolling moments.
Scott Harrell
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