Fresh off their Trustkill Debut "Minutes to Miles," Crash Romeo are back again with their follow-up dubbed "Gave Me The Clap." But this time around the group strike the pop-punk ranks with A different formulaic blend of poppy melodies and vocals loops then before. In their 2006 "Minutes to Miles," the group's sound seemed to draw parallel to that of Boys Like Girls where this time around these rookies have developed their style into a form that fans of The Starting Line, Taking Back Sunday, and even All Time Low would appreciate A lot more. When considering "Gave Me the Clap" for purchase at your local record store or in most cases I-Tunes, there are a few things you must be aware of before confirming your transaction. Crash Romeo are in no way out to re-invent the pop-punk genre. In fact in most cases, the group's latest efforts remind me of the bands that built the foundation of which the genre was formed on. They impliment simplistic leads with faster strummed rhythms ala All Time Low and top it off with vocal tendencies of TBS and TSL to make this pop punk experience A truly enjoyable one. In tracks such as "Popular" listeners find themselves faced with copious amounts of cringe-worthy lyrics. But It's pop-punk, What do you expect? If the genre wasn't full of 25 year old guys still singing about Highschool and being "Popular" it just wouldn't be pop-punk. "Victim Liar," "About to Break," and "Better Off In Jersey" are tracks that open up to the aforementioned Taking Back Sunday influence combined with hints of Armor For Sleep (mostly evident in "Better Off in Jersey.") While the title track opens up with A Brand New-esque riff relevent to "Jude Law and A Semester Abroad." Crash Romeo don't score very high in creating a soley original album, but the group truly wins me over when they combine influences from such bands as Brand New, Armor For Sleep, No Use For A Name, Taking Back Sunday, and All Time Low. Granted these are popular bands to copycat, but Crash Romeo pull together influence from each of the artists' early material which is sure to send listeners for A trip down memory lane. With this album being as catchy as it is, I think it's safe to say Crash Romeo's "Gave Me the Clap" is one infection that penicillin won't easily scare off.

Crash Romeo is virulent. On Gave Me The Clap they offer up eleven tracks of infectious guitar-based post-punk rock. This disc is a basement party unto itself, and you’ll find yourself slamming the pit fantastic from the opening notes to the last dying chords. Much in the vein of Green Day and A Newfound Glory, Crash Romeo fills the chasm between punk tradition and pop rock. Lead vocalist Travis Weber fits the bill perfectly here, delivering clear and pleasant vocals. Crash Romeo surprises with delicious harmonies not often heard on the post-punk side of the charts. The musicianship is first class, and production values are very high. Having already found placement on MTV’s The Hills, Crash Romeo is going places. Popular seems to be burning up the T1 lines from iTunes of late, but the album is full of great tracks. One Night Only and Better Off In New Jersey are personal favorites, but there are no weak tracks here. In Gave Me The Clap, Crash Romeo have offered up a near-perfect concatenation of punk and power-pop. The results are startling and breathtaking. Check it out for yourself.

Green Day have a lot to answer for, wresting the punk scene out of the underground and tossing it into the mainstream, undermining its intrinsic menace with layers of melodies and big fat hooks, and opening the door for blink-182 to streak through with a horde of generic pop-punkers hot on their heels. Well that's one theory -- another theory would blame the Buzzcocks. Years have passed, but the sound remains the same: gooey melodies, lashings of bright guitars and pummeling drums, de rigueur sweet harmonies, and lathers of angsty lyrics. All perfect for the pimply set, although the bandmembers themselves have invariably long since left adolescence behind. Crash Romeo veer very close to this category, and on the daringly titled Gave Me the Clap flirt dangerously with cookie-cutter songs, pulling them out of the fire via musical mix-ups, adding varying degrees of rock to their pop-punk-rock confections. The infectious title track boasts a shout-along chorus, "Lady Luck" is underlain with a tough rock edge, "Maybe Lane" adds a hint of metal to the mix, "Better Off in Jersey" more than a hint, while "Honest Eyes" sparkles with classic rock. "About to Break," in contrast, is tinged with the palest shade of old-school punk and "Popular" crosses rock with the stop-start rhythms of the post-punk era. Intriguingly, there's even a string-laced ballad on the set, the yearning "Give Me Something" -- now that's unexpected. Beyond the genre crossovers, Romeo's true salvation is drummer Ryan Weber, who steadfastly refuses to deliver up the tired old drum patterns that normally power this genre. With a penchant for the unexpected, like battering out punk patterns on the rockers, then rocking out on the punkier numbers, Weber resolutely turns the tables on virtually every track within, unlike the whiny lyrics so beloved of the teen-in-turmoil crowd. The other band members provide plenty of exuberance, and even if the tunes are fairly interchangeable, the energy and hooks land this set in a league of its own.

Crash Romeo know how to make a great and energetic album. Their music and lyrics are catchy and fun. This is modern punk music at it’s best and the perfect formula for alternative radio success. Building upon the popularity of their debut album, “Minutes to Miles”, Crash Romeo’s sophomore effort “Gave Me The Clap” is definitely a step in the right direction. The lead-off song, “About To Break”, gets things going with some great vocals by Travis Weber and the rest of the band. Ryan Weber only adds to energy with some nice drum-breaks. Crash Romeo’s first single off the new album is entitled, “Popular”. The chorus is very catchy and should have no trouble being picked up by alternative radio. Crash Romeo know how to make a song memorable with simple lyrics and an unforgettable chorus, which is also featured in the title song “Gave Me The Clap”. The band does show their softer side with the ballad “Give Me Something”. While the song is a nice break in the action, you almost can’t wait for them to bring the music back up to full-speed. That wish will be granted with the songs, “Honest Eyes” and “Set It Off”, which shows the band doing what they do best. The album finishes with the song, “Better Off In Jersey”, which talks about self-respect and to not forget where you come from. While the album clocks in at just under 40 minutes, it is a powerful, concise piece of music that should give these boys some attention. If you are into the modern punk music that is played on today’s alternative radio stations, then do not overlook Crash Romeo’s “Gave Me The Clap” album.

About a year and a half ago, Alternative Addiction had a chance to interview Crash Romeo but the main interviewer... he kind of dropped the ball on his shot. I can say I definitely regret that now. Crash Romeo's second record for Trustkill Records "Gave Me the Clap" is one of my favorite punk offerings so far this year. The songs are excellent but not over produced and all in all the band's offering reminded me of one of my favorite bands to ever be in the genre; Diffuser. I only say this because like Diffuser used their rhythm section slightly different than any other punk band did before. It wasn't a steady beat like you normally hear. The drums were slightly menacing and unpredictable and the guitars were so prevalent it was almost like hearing a second vocalist... that's what Crash Romeo is on "Gave Me the Clap." Ryan Webber is a madman on drums and Steve Anderson’s guitar lines throughout "Gave Me the Clap" are sick. The only problem I have with "Gave Me the Clap" is frontman Travis Webber, while fronting the band admirably, Webber does lose some steam on some of the songs- there are places here where he made good songs normal and great songs good. I don't know if that's due to the producer dropping the ball on the vocal tracking or what, but vocally there are bits of pieces on this album that are a little shaky. All of that aside, Webber writes some great songs, and he does a good job for most of the record and he's definitely helped out by a very talented group behind him. Crash Romeo's "Gave Me the Clap" isn't the only pop punk album we're going to see released this year, but it could come out to be in the upper echelon of the best that this year has had to offer.

Lately I've noticed when a band would release their sophomore album, it either got one of two responses: 1. It was as good/as bad as their debut. 2. It's much worse than their debut. And then of course there's the response of "They've always sucked." In Crash Romeo's case, my response to their sophomore effort Gave Me the Clap is one not listed above: It's much better than their debut. In May of 2006, Crash Romeo released Minutes to Miles, their first album on Trustkill Records. Overall, it was somewhat enjoyable, but aside from maybe one or two songs, it all got old very quickly. The vocals were whiny and annoying and the amount of synth used on it was enough to last me for a lifetime. However, now two years later, Crash Romeo is ready to release their new album Gave Me The Clap with producer Chris Badami once again behind the boards. So what makes this album so much better than their last? First off, what I was surprised and pleased with the most is that they've completely dropped the synth. Now, I'm by no means a synth hater, but Minutes to Miles just simply overdid it, and the fact there isn't any on the new record already makes it better and much more tolerable. Secondly, the pipes on vocalist Travis Weber has gotten a lot better as well. Although some may consider it still a typical generic pop-punk voice, it's now much more easier on the ears and much less whinier. As for specific songs on Gave Me the Clap, it still has the incredibly catchy characteristic that Minutes to Miles had which drew me towards the band in the first place. You'll instantly be able to sense the improvement the band has made from the beginning with the first track sing-along "About to Break." Gave Me the Clap's lead (and obvious) single "Popular" was the first song I heard off the album, and I knew then that this release was going to be everything that Minutes to Miles could have been. If one thing didn't improve with this band though, it's their lyrics. Lyrics on Minutes to Miles weren't any good, and the ones on Gave Me the Clap aren't much better. Weber delivers laughable lines in "Popular" with its chorus: "Popular / But I don't want to see your face again / And I don't care who you were / Cause you're never gonna be popular again." Despite bad lyrics, "Popular" is still one of the catchiest songs I've heard all year, so if you don't care about clichè high-school-themed lyrics, then this song can easily make it on one of your Spring playlists. Track three (the title track) probably isn't what you're expecting. "Gave Me the Clap" isn't a song about chlamydia, but rather clapping your hands, as Weber clearer states in the chorus "clap clap clap clap your hands." I know, I'm sure you're disappointed, but if it makes you feel better, the song is catchier than herpes. "One Night Only" and "Victim Liar" are sure to be potential singles, as well as fan favorites. If I described these songs any more though, I'd only be repeating what I've been saying about every song so far: they're really, really catchy. But by now you're probably sick of that word, so luckily for you it's time to talk about "Give Me Something." Imagine hooking up with a hot cheerleader in your bedroom only to have your little brother pop out of the closet while blowing an air horn. Pretty bad, eh? That's how this song can pretty much be described. The band tries their luck with a ballad, and it's not that the song is entirely bad, but it felt completely random and out of place. After seven straight songs of material I'll be singing in my sleep, an acoustic song with piano and strings surfaces and it could not have ruined the consistency of this album anymore. However, Crash Romeo stick to the game plan with "Honest Eyes," "Set It Off," and "Better Off in Jersey," the final three songs on Gave Me the Clap. Overall, Crash Romeo has made an album that is now a solid powerpop record, instead of one that will drive you to the nearest pharmacy for Tylenol. There's no doubt that they've improved greatly with Gave Me the Clap, and hopefully they can reach their full potential next time around.

Crash Romeo are going to be huge: Let's just get that out of the way now, as it seems rather pointless to put it any other way. Gave Me The Clap, the second album of delectable pop-rock tunes from the young NJ quartet is one sure to see the band busting out on big-name tours and taking second steps out on the likes of Warped Tour this year. Songs like the aptly-named one-two punch of openers 'About To Break' and 'Popular' see the band at their best, belting out high-school tales chocked full of massive melodies and a chorus needed to be sung from the highest rooftop. More importantly, though, is the complete absence of the overdone synth that so badly plagued the band's Minutes To Miles debut. As a result of this welcomed axing, 'Gave Me The Clap' sounds fresh, bouncy, and certainly as good as anything else breaking out at the moment. 'One Night Only' is effortless pop-punk at its catchy best, whilst title track 'Gave Me The Clap' sees vocalist Travis Weber begging you to "clap, clap, clap your hands" over a shovel-load of huge melodies and punchy hooks (I mean, really, what did you think it meant?). New Jersey pop-rockers Crash Romeo have everything. They've got the hooks, the looks, and a set of songs so assured that it's almost impossible to not see them being thrust into the mainstream limelight over and over again across the next twelve months. Good stuff indeed.