When you consider the potentially high profile of Shorebirds, it's surprising how quietly they operated. Singer/guitarist Matt Canino was in the much-loved Latterman and bassist Chris Bauermeister played in Jawbreaker. With all the hype this could have created, Shorebirds instead laid low, putting their records out on Canino and co-owned label and establishing almost no presence on the Internet. And when they broke up this past Summer the announcement was as brief as possible. Whatever the reason for their demise was, it must been a good one because Shorebirds were onto something special.
That something is a gritty form of pop-punk that brings together Latterman's fist-pumping enthusiasm with Jawbreaker's lyrical approach to personal politics. Only one song on It's Gonna Get Ugly tops three minutes with the rest being efficient, economical bursts of emotion, fitting the themes Canino lets fly. His guitar acts almost as a second vocalist, his melodic lines accenting the end of a lyric or burning right over the whole band. Not one song doesn't have the ability to burrow into your brain and make you hum it all day, but without that gross "Macarena" aftertaste.
Matt Canino's voice and words will stay with you long after the first listen to It's Gonna Get Ugly. The quality of his voice could be debated by the more professionally-minded, since he misses notes a lot. Though it's obvious that Canino's throat was just flat out ragged for much of this recording, it actually creates an urgency that's palpable in the conflicted view he shares of his surroundings. A line like, "Please don't stop living" is delivered with conviction, yet the same feeling is there when Canino tells us of "A world so cold you can feel it in your bones." It's that exact hope and lack of hope that line the album's opener and closer, "Highways" and "Byways." These two songs sort of act as a prologue and epilogue, as they share similar lyrics and chord progressions. In both songs, Canino sings, "Triumph and failure crash and burn as we struggle to get home."
For reasons undisclosed, Shorebirds have crashed and burned themselves, leaving us with a year's worth of remarkable music. Matt Canino has already started a new band called Reviver, so a reunion doesn't appear likely. All we can do is take this breakup, try our best to not weep uncontrollably, and play It's Gonna Get Ugly until it wears out.
