from The Eugene Register Guard's Ticket
by Serena Markstrom

The Underlings Operational Excellence

...I had to wonder at how many CD release parties for his friends’ bands I would have to see Underlings frontman Ed Cole attend before his group held its own.

The band has been around since 2006. Its debut on Dan Jones’ Daily Records label, “Operational Excellence,” lives up to the noun in its name with tight punk-pop songs from a working class point of view.

My one criticism of this solid project is that the songs are almost too perfect for their gritty content. That you can hear every word sung and bass line strummed makes it hard to swallow that these guys work at factories and such and not in professional studios.

This, from a news release, might explain it a little:

“After more than a decade on the Eugene scene in bands like Billy Jack, Activator, the Naysayers and White Hot Odyssey, Cole wanted a tight, aggressive three-piece, playing minimal, in-your-face arrangements inspired by the bands he grew up with: X, the Wipers, Dead Moon, the Meat Puppets and Mission of Burma.”

Being crisp and high quality doesn’t bother me, but in the genre, a little roughness can be good. The quality makes sense if you look at the liner notes, which list a who’s who in local production.