Record Label: S/R
Genre: Alternarock
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

I’ve always wondered why more bands don’t sound like Primus. There’s a band that carved out its own sound, but unlike most unique bands they’ve had no clones. (Well, besides side bands Sausage and Laundry, or Prawn Song artists Eskimo, but who the hell has ever heard of Eskimo beside me? And by the way, Eskimo rules.)

The Passive Aggressives, another San Fran band but years after the alternarock craze where they’d have any chance in hell, incorporate that mix of rhythm-heavy guitar and bass interplay. And, oddly enough, they’re female-fronted.

Now, they’re not totally Primusy. It’s only the jazzy drumming, pinbally guitars, and bouncy bass in certain parts that bring Primus to mind. And that’s only on a couple of songs (“Sweet Lisa” and “Tool Shed” primarily). And it’s not even that good.

The breathless female vox don’t help. They simply don’t fit the music, or take what could’ve been a heavy rock sound and turn it into amateurish bar rock with some funky flavor. (It also doesn’t help that they sometimes throw in dopey male vox a la Sugarcubes.)

The Passive Aggressives sound like a third-tier, half-baked alternarock band from the mid-90s that might be good enough to have one local college radio hit, but otherwise never go anywhere. What they’re doing here, now, is anyone’s guess, but Primus can rest assured that their crown is uncontested.

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