The parable of the macaroni and cheese.

Artist: The Panic Division
Album: Versus
Label: The Militia Group
Tracks: 11
Length: 43:10
Review By: Christopher Thomas!

My mom makes the best macaroni and cheese. Stay with me here; this is going somewhere. My mom makes great homemade macaroni and cheese. It’s creamy and cheesy and delicious and so bad for you. It rivals pizza as my favorite food, and if you know me, you that’s saying something.

Now I’m in my mid-twenties, and I make my own meals at my own house. And any poor college student will tell you that macaroni and cheese is where it’s at for a cheap and easy meal. Kraft mac & cheese is my boxed pasta of choice, and I eat it often. I even won a macaroni challenge against my friends by eating nearly 3 boxes of it in less than an hour.

Kraft mac & cheese has the same basic ingredients as any other macaroni and cheese: pasta, cheese, milk, etc. It’s cooked in generally the same way: cook the noodles, add the other ingredients, mix, serve. But I am here to tell you that Kraft has nothing on Rhonda Thomas.

So what does this have to do with Versus, the newest release from Texans The Panic Division? Well, The Panic Division, like many bands on The Militia Group roster and many other label rosters is the Kraft mac & cheese of independent music. It’s not bad, but there’s a lot of it out there, and it all tastes the same. Simply follow the recipe, use the standard ingredients, voila: a new rock band.

The Panic Division plays well, and they have energy, but they lack anything that sets them apart from the slew of similar melodic indie bands with which they have to compete. Put this band on shuffle with most of the Militia and Tooth & Nail bands, and I will have a hard time discerning which songs belong to which band.

Maybe labels should stop signing so many Kraft bands and sign my mom.