I'll admit, when I first heard of Drowningman back in the day, I had a whole lot of preconceived notions. It was in a magazine, Revolver or Tiger Beat, that featured an interview. After looking at the photo, I was ready to dismiss them as Warped Tour rejects that play the excruciatingly banal bullshit that I'd come to expect from assholes like (start writing those hate letters kids!) MXPX and their ilk.
Soon after, on one of my numerous excursions to the local indie music store, Wal-Mart I think, I stumbled upon their split 7' with The Dillinger Escape Plan. It was then that I realized my aural elitism had once again turned around, bitten my ass and sent me crying all the way back to Poseurtown. For how could a band sharing space with Dillinger be bad? I slapped it on the turntable and the rest is history.
Fast forward to 2005 and we have Don't Push us When We're Hot, the band's fourth full-length album, and first since reforming after a two year break, finally succumbing to a ridiculously revolving roster that makes Megadeth look stable.
A wise man once said that there's a fine line between stupid and clever, and with songs like 'Major Disappointment Reporting for Duty' and 'John Mellencamp is the White Devil', you might think the band leans toward the former. You're half right.
When it comes to the non-sequitur titles, it can be either a blessing (Alice Donut) or a curse (anyone else). So, if you're going to call it 'Dude Status: Revoked', you better be able to back it up with some serious music, which thankfully, Don't Push us When We're Hot, is chock-full of. There's still a small element of little-brother syndrome however. It's like they try to have the spastic precision of their elder statesmen but don't quite make it. But just give them a couple more albums and there's a good chance they'll be spoken of in the same hushed tones of reverence reserved for The Dillinger Escape Plan and Isis, if they can stay together long enough.
