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The Pinker Tones: A little of this, a little of that for a summery sound.
(Thepinkertones.com)
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Tokio Hotel
Forget the New Kids on the Block reunion. Millions of teenage girls are freaking out over the hottest new boy band, Tokio Hotel. Of course, you're forgiven if you've never heard of this four-piece German outfit, who've earned a U.S. fan base in the last few years thanks to concert clips available on YouTube. So when the band came to play its first American shows in February, fans lined up hours beforehand to catch a set of energetic, glammy emo-pop songs, many of which are on its English-language debut, "Scream."
Tokio Hotel's first record was performed in German, so it's likely that English-speaking fans were more taken with the band members' divergent physical appearances. Frontman Bill Kaulitz looks like a cross between a Japanese anime cartoon and Nikki Sixx; guitarist Tom Kaulitz (Bill's twin brother) sports Axl Rose-style dreadlocks; drummer Gustav Schaefer resembles Spencer Pratt from MTV's "The Hills"; bassist Georg Listing, strangely enough, could pass for Steely Dan's Walter Becker in the '70s.
But what about the music? For what it is -- slickly produced, thoroughly modern rock songs with calm verses and seize-the-day choruses -- it's not terrible. Title track "Scream" is powered by crunchy guitar riffs, arena-ready beats and Bill Kaulitz's adenoidal croon, while "Don't Jump" is the kind of soaring, string-laden ballad that could work on the soundtrack to a big-budget action movie.
As a hyper-sensitive young man, Bill Kaulitz writes lyrics that often address breaking away from some vague apocalyptic nightmare, and he typically wants to take a special someone along for the journey. No doubt one of his female fans would accept the invitation. But, as is the ephemeral nature of the boy band, you have to wonder: Would she say yes five years from now?
-- Kevin O'Donnell
DOWNLOAD THESE: "Scream," "Don't Jump"
