Death By Television

The Lillingtons were a pop punk band from Wyoming, around from '96 to '01 (and kind of from '06 to '08). Though always a pop punk, their later albums were different from their first. Their debut album, Shit Out Of Luck, was definitely a Ramones-core pop punk album. Pretty basic instrumentation with immature lyrics, i.e., My Genitals Itch. It was catchy, really catchy, but plenty of bands do the same thing. Then, in 1999, they released their sophomore album, Death By Television. With a complete lyric overhaul to a 1950s sci-fi kind of thing, The Lillingtons both matured and became better musicians.

The albums opener, "War Of The Worlds", serves as a great lead-off track. Opening with a great guitar solo, Kody Templeman's (now of Teenage Bottlerocket) voice has become much better. As the track leads into the second song, the energy keeps flowing, with "Don't Trust The Humanoids" being even shorter and faster than the previous track. Track three though slows things down a tad. Clocking in at 3:16, "Black Hole In My Mind" is the longest song on the album. Complete with guitar solos and backing vocals, the track serves to show just how good of musicians the entire band really is. The band really picks up the speed on "Invasion Of The Saucermen". The song is blazing fast, the chorus is catchy; complete with repeated lines. The song has a breakdown in the middle, which really puts the brakes on the song and leads it into the mellower next few tracks. The next song, the slower paced "You're The Only One" hails back to their first album for lyrically content. It's a standard pop punk love tune. They're nice, they make you smile, but they're so played out.

After their love song, the album reverts back to the science fiction themed lyrics with song titles like "I Came From The Future", "Robots In My Dreams", etc. The sci-fi themed album is a great concept and really separates Death By Television from the rest of the standard pop punk albums released at the same. Sure, most of the instrumentation is pretty generic, especially the drumming, but, it's catchy and it keeps the songs moving. The Lillingtons were a great pop punk from the 90s, and luckily Kody keeps up with the current pop punk scene by playing in Teenage Bottlerocket.

9/10

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