Fear no big or little geeks

The Big Fear

Common Rotation

Recommended if you like: Barenaked Ladies,…

The Big Fear

Common Rotation

Recommended if you like: Barenaked Ladies, Phish

A mix of folk-rock explosion with beautiful and awkward harmonies strung through distinct, pleasant guitar riffs that dance through the airwaves and create toe-tapping reflexes sums up the sound of Common Rotation’s new album The Big Fear pretty well.

Common Rotation sports a “geek-rock” feel with harmonies reminiscent of Barenaked Ladies albums, and a folk-rock, make-you-want-to-jam feel that screams Phish.

The band has a Hollywood star in Adam Busch on vocals, a musician/actor who’s pretty good at both.

Those of you that are still bumming over “Buffy” being cancelled can take heart in the fact that the actors are still working; Adam had a recurring role as Warren, the builder of the BuffyBot.

Rounding out the band are singer and guitarist Eric Kufs, drummer Ken Beck and bassist Mike Uhler.

Common Rotation has a slight touch of seriousness to some of their songs but are able to have a lot fun as well. The majority of the songs are much like Barenaked Ladies songs: lighthearted and poppy filled with hooks and catchy choruses.

In “Sit Down,” they mix harmonies with punchy guitar riffs to make a fun pop track. The lyrics run through rapidly much like Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week,” but slightly slower; you can actually sing along to “Sit Down” and not be confused as to what exactly they are saying. “You sit down before you fall/ Now you know sit down before you fall down/ You gotta sit down before you fall/ Now you know you sit down before you fall down.”

They also do a cover of They Might Be Giant’s “Don’t Let’s Start,” that has a nice twist using fiddles and folk-guitar riffs. Covering the song seems to be a nice “Thank you” to TMBG, because TMBG bass player Dan Weinkauf helped produce the album with Brian Speiser. Common Rotation has also been playing some shows on the road with TMBG.

Another track that is slightly different is the opening track that sounds like something Wheatus – remember “Teenage Dirtbag?” – would do. The track titled “Indie Rockin'” is a fun song about not wanting to be labeled that has a bit of a lo-fi sound at the start.

Label them or not, Common Rotation plays a little bit of “geek-rock” with a folk-funk feel, and as odd as that sounds, it’s still pretty good.