AMG Review of Infinite Jest

Rick Anderson
All Music Guide

Ferociousness is cheap, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun, and "ferocious" is definitely the word that comes to mind as soon as you start listening to the debut EP from this Toledo quintet. It's not the death-obsessed, self-hating hardcore kind of ferocity, but more of a sex-obsessed, girls-and-scotch-loving variety -- the kind that might bring to mind an attention-deficit version of the Buzzcocks if you're over 35, or maybe a slightly more frenetic version of My Chemical Romance if you're a 20-something. Singer Jeremy Lublin somehow manages to sound simultaneously frantic and louche, and guitarist Chris Hatfield is a man of about 100 different guitar sounds, all of which he throws down on the floor together in piles about ten or 12 deep while Lublin staggers and gasps his way around them. Lublin's lyrics flirt tantalizingly with coherence, but the harder you try to figure out what he's saying the more you realize it isn't anything very interesting: "We are all the pawns while the king and queen push us along," "You want to talk about indecision?/Just take a look at all the Seminole lies," and so on. In terms of pure sound, though, these guys show real promise.