Artist: The Big Screen
Album: Yours Today, Mine Tomorrow
Label: Undecided Records
Tracks: 5
Length: 15:20
Review by: Phil Nichols

 

It's a miracle that Daniel Pundik is still alive.

In the five songs that make up his band's debut EP, the telling lyrics shed light on the devastating array of diseases and discomforts that plague this courageous, young man. To name a few, Daniel suffers from: Insomnia ("I remember the nights that I didn't go to sleep"; "My sleep is broken"), Cold Sweats (there is an entire song dedicated to this called Cold Sweats, Dark Lights), Ocular Hemophilia ("My eyes are bleeding"), and even a heart murmur ("Candlelight flickers by my bed, and so does my heart").

And not only does he brave these physical ailments, but it appears he also suffers from some mental damage also; he is a pathological liar. Case in point: when asked how he indends to fill the shoes of his older brother, Jordan Pundik (of New Found Glory fame [or infamy, depending on your point of view]), Daniel answered, "I don't. I'm doing my own thing."

Most of the time when one sibling is trying to get out of the shadow of another sibling, they will say something like that to avoid comparisons. For example: Ashlee Simpson tried using "edginess" to distinguish herself from her sister, but as the Saturday Night Live debacle proved: regardless of what they each said, at the core they are both little more than manufactured pop acts. In the same way, though Daniel Pundik says that his band is his "own thing", at it's core, The Big Screen is just another dreivative pop-punk band beating the same dead horse as his brother's band.

The five songs of the Yours Today, Mine Tomorrow EP, really don't stand much of a chance in the already crowded scene and the reasons are three-fold.

First, the lyrics. Aside from his lamentable medical conditions (as outlined above), the songwriting revolves mostly around cliche teenage poetry, overused metaphors, and lines that make you wonder exactly what these guys were thinking when they wrote them ("Cali makes me go [WHOA!]"). They do take a stab at pretty serious material in 7/23, which is about a friend who died in a car accident. From a subjective standpoint, the song could be powerful or thought-provoking if one was familiar with the particular situation, but objectively the topic addressed is not something new and the lines ("Emptiness feels the same. Words keep repeating. In my head.") are not memorable enough to save the album.

Secondly, the vocals. Apparently, in the same way that Daniel's brother shares the same face with Quentin Tarantino,

He also shares the same voice with his brother.  The same nasally, Pundik whine runs in the family, thus it also permeates through all five tracks of the Yours Today, Mine Tomorrow EP.

Thirdly, the music. The music is three-chord pop-punk. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it is so tiresome after the thousands of bands who have put out records that sound exactly the same as this, that it fails to intrigue or interest the listener.

If you are a fan of New Found Glory or The Starting Line or other mall-punk bands, then you may enjoy this album as it sounds very much the same as these and other similar artists. But be warned, chances are you will grow weary of this, if not after a few listens,  then at least in the not-too-distant future. This is not an album that you will come back to for repeated listens; this is something that will keep you occupied for a little while. It's not a full-sized meal; it is a snack-- something that will hold you over until something a little more substantial comes along.