Although they seem like they'd be four of the whitest kids you'll ever meet, the Oregon pop-punk quartet Broadway Calls is very much like a 185-pound black man. Not just any 185-pound black man, but Indianapolis Colts wide receiver, eight-time Pro Bowler and Superbowl champion Marvin Harrison. Like Harrison, Broadway Calls are ever-selfless, humble, and remarkably proficient.
Without flashy, over-indulgent self-promotion, Harrison quietly broke and set pass-reception records while flashier (yet inferior) receivers like Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson hammed for the camera and soaked up every second of media attention with choreographed post-touchdown celebrations and their insatiable need to revel in controversy. Similarly, while bigger, self-important pop-punk bands pose for and snatch magazine covers, MTV face-time, and top-market radio play, Broadway Calls quietly plugs away in suburban basements and hole-in-the-wall venues playing its infectious brand of pop punk and breaking misconceptions that moving pop punk has to be bells 'n' whistles and smoke 'n' mirror guitar effects. Like Harrison knows football is more about team synergy and making the best possible personal contribution to benefit the collective effort than boosting your own personal stats, Broadway Calls knows music is more about the final product, whether it be presented live or captured on disc.
BC knows posturing, high-flying on-stage antics, and high-end music videos are just confectionary, and what really matters is the music itself. Broadway Calls is BC's second release and first full-length, filled to the brim with straightforward, melodic pop punk that spares the juvenile lyrical themes and traditional pop-punk cliches and missteps. The 14 tracks on Broadway Calls traverse across topics of social issues, political discourse, dismantling apathy, and lasting personal relationships.
Junior high journal excerpts never make their way into the final cut. Or any cut, for that matter.
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