By Amanda Hu
Being musically original in this day and age is, by all accounts, really gosh-darn hard. How does one come up with new ideas when they are bombarded with pop music’s incessant, draining presence? In Secret Broadcast’s case, they simply don’t.
The Calgary trio’s debut EP, Plastic Fantastic is a thinly disguised throw-back to the Killers, the Bravery and every other pseudo-indie pop punk band that has surfaced in the last five or so years. Despite receiving critical acclaim in the form of invitations to play Warped Tour 2007 and the North by Northeast music festival in Toronto, Secret Broadcast seems to be content to play the same 16th-note-on-hi-hat-driven drivel as nearly everyone else. The collection’s opening “Big Bad Man” could easily bleed into the Bravery’s “Honest Mistake” without much question. A song approaching unique can be found in “Blue Bottle.” Opening with a mildly funky and almost promising guitar riff, it slowly melts back to the band’s default pop-blah.
Band members Matt Lightstone, Bryan Craig and John De Jesus seem like capable musicians and at this stage in their young career, have potential to become a big-name act. But at this point Plastic Fantastic is admittedly a catchy offering, but it’s not much besides that.