When The Clock Strikes: The Better Friends EP Review: Pop-Punk Gold

December 12, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Fueled by powerful lyrics, booming vocals and a fast-paced set list, Oklahoma’s own, When The Clock Strikes’ “The Better Friends EP” is a pop-punk journey that you won’t want to end.

Reminiscent of early 2000s Mitch Allan-written pop-punk, you know, forgotten, but always-awesome bands the likes of Bowling for Soup and SR-71, the tracks on this EP have catchy hooks and excellent drums and strings. There’s not a turd on the EP, at all.

A three-piece, this band’s sound is incredibly rich and deep, with vocal harmonies and layers galore. Every track seems to feature a different part of the band as “Too Many Cooks” has the best guitar work of any song on the EP and “Better Friends (From a Distance) shows off Blake Westerly’s pounding drums. The Bass lick at the start of “Fair Weather” will make you think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but Daniel Basden’s voice changes things and puts the WTCS stamp on the sound.

“Redemption” has a bit of a Hoobastank sound to it, a bit rougher around the edges, but it has it all. A top-notch baseline, a fun and wild guitar solo from Steven Walker and the best drum work on the EP. There’s also another mix of “Better Friends” on here, which too is enjoyable, but again, it’s Basden’s voice that makes the futuristic take on the track a special one.

Speaking of trademarks, Basden’s voice is the straw that stirs the band’s drink. Powerful, but poignant, he’s a storyteller. That’s perhaps a huge element missing from modern Pop-Punk- too obsessed with hooks and not enough attention paid to get the listener to care enough to keep the song on until the hook. This is definitely not a problem for When the Clock Strikes. Make no mistake, this band is one of the best independent Pop-Punk bands around.

While all of the tracks have a jump right in and listen quality to them, “Too Many Cooks” has the best overall flavor and feel. It’s a hit single that belongs on the radio.

Thanks to their often poetic lyrics and solid overall musicianship, “The Better Friends” EP is the type of work that’ll take you back to a better day in Pop-Punk history, But make no mistake, it’s not 2000, it’s 2016. This band, although throwback in sound and nature, is here now. They deserve your ears.

Editor’s Note:

If this EP wasn’t enough of a reason to dig this band, their cover of the “Pokemon” theme song is awesome.

Photo by Mike Cambiano Photography

For more on the band, Click Here.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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