The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza
Self Titled
5.7
Call me old fashion, but I am of the opinion that, in the public eye, the name of a band should never eclipse the music the band makes. This immediately sets me at odds with The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza (here in referred to simply as Tony Danza). Given their zany and whacky (okay okay, and childish) name, I wasn’t sure what to expect from these guys, which, I have little doubt, is how most reviews of this album will begin. I still can’t decide whether I’m glad to find that Tony Danza don’t play thirty second songs that call to mind people shooting one another with laser guns (see, Daughters). I suppose it is a bold move to play what is more or less technical metalcore and have a name like that, but I was resigned to the fact that I’d be reviewing a band fitting somewhere between Daughters and The Locust. I must concede, however, that Into The Moat and Ion Dissonance are a better comparison.
While their musicianship is not as technical or tightly performed as either of the aforementioned bands, on this self-titled full length Tony Danza offers their own stylistic take on the genre. While song titles such as “God Aint Got No Use For No 180lb Bag of Sugar” and “Big Pun's Not Dead Because I Just Saw Him At Crispy Cream” demonstrate the band’s ‘light-hearted’ attitude towards metalcore, their music adds a more serious degree to their image. With just two songs surpassing the three-minute mark, Tony Danza offers a noisy, spastic, and raw combination of chugging hardcore and high paced ‘technical’ riffing accompanied by blast beats. Song writing takes a backseat to individual parts which results in song structures that feature the occasional catchy riff deposited amidst songs that never completely thaw. Unfortunately, the album’s production doesn’t help to balance out the equation. What keeps this album from hitting as hard as Ion Dissonance, for example, is perhaps due most to the sometimes muddled and generally noisy production. The energy and aggression is definitely there, and the musicianship is indeed worthy, but the album’s production detracts from the potential heaviness of the band. If they intended for the album to have a ‘hardcore’-oriented production, then it was accomplished. I personally, however, would prefer to hear them with a thicker sound.
Try as I might to not repeatedly compare the band I’m reviewing to other bands I feel the reader might have heard of (okay, so maybe I don’t try that hard), it’s generally the best way to convey a band’s sound via words. That said, a quick, haphazard summation of how Tony Danza sounds is this: A crust/punk interpretation of Ion Dissonance. What this really means is that The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza isn’t breaking new ground here, except, it could be argued, in regards to the ‘humorous’ attitude of their song titles and name. That said, they do manage to produce some moments of groove, and while there isn’t a great deal of memorable material on this album, I can definitely see (some) fans of the technical metalcore genre enjoying this.
