Mailbox Baseball

“Diminished Marginal Returns”

By Rich Cocksedge
(SugarBuzz UK)

SugarBuzz Magazine

There I was, sat listening to football (soccer!) commentary on the internet as my team, Newport County were continuing their awesome (and I’m not using that word lightly) season with a 4-1 win at Weston-Super-Mare and was multi-tasking by checking out my MySpace page, where I found a ‘Friend Request’ from a band called Mailbox Baseball. Intrigued by this name I clicked to their profile, turned off the commentary and began listening to the three available tracks and was so impressed that I immediately headed off to iTunes to make my first ever download purchase of the “Diminished Marginal Returns” EP.

So, an interesting band name, an EP named after an economic law I learnt about in college and five tracks chocked full of sweet poppy-punk that are wonderfully simple yet totally fun to listen to. This three piece (Brad – guitar/vox, Jill – bass/vox and Ernesto – drums) had me caught up in the band and their music within minutes of checking them out.

The EP kicks off with “Dead End Streets”, a hook laden song with well placed leads, a guitar sound that is reminiscent of bands like Doc Hopper and Sinkhole and a rhythm section that drives the band along in a bouncy kind of way.

Next up is “Sticks”, which is just over four minutes long and has a relaxed lounge intro with fuzzed guitars dropping in and out throughout the song. Some lovely backing vocals by Jill as Brad’s slightly snotty vocals give the song the punk edge.

“Angst and Rebellion” is another laid back track, with Brad sounding a bit like Fat Mike at times and the song does contain a hint of NOFX’s less hectic moments but still sounds fresh.

With “Zombies Ate Our Brain” the Fat Mike vocal comparison continues but I’m still enjoyed the sum of the whole of what Mailbox Baseball are delivering.

Finally, comes “Marcy”. A little bit like the later period Mr T Experience stuff, which I found a bit too twee, whereas there is a distinct lack of twee with this track. All in all a pleasant and enjoyable listen across the five tracks.

The blurb below comes from the bands MySpace profile and made me chuckle, another plus point for the band! I look forward to future cook offs and the yet to be released full length, tracks from which I presume appear on MySpace.

Mailbox Baseball started as a weekly cooking club in the year 2007. Many a burnt lemon meringue pies were sacrificed trying to come up with the perfect recipe. Still, the group felt they were on to something and forged forward, travelling distant lands and tweaking the ingredients as necessary. This group of now seasoned professionals can be frequently spotted at local county fairs and are known to never turn down the opportunity for a good cook off. Somewhere along the lines, they also decided to start playing music.

http://www.myspace.com/mailboxbaseballrock

SugarBuzz Magazine