RUBBER PLANET – Fun With Rubber

Rubber Planet. Does this mean that the whole planet is a prophylactic? Or, does this mean that we are rubber and non-Earthlings are glue and everything they say bounces off us and sticks to … them? Regardless of the meaning behind the name, Rubber Planet bombards you with some finely-tuned melodic new wave of American pop punk tunes that could very easily find them bouncing off the bedroom walls, cars and MP3 players of the majority of CD purchasers today. And the best part about the bands’ following: they are known as rubberheads.

Rubber Planet is a Denver, Colo. based-band that was voted the “Denver’s Hardest Working Band” back in 2002. How that translates into success is yet to be known. They have done some shows in the American Midwest and opened for the likes of Great White, holding their own and then some. Their sound is somewhat akin to bands like Jimmy Eat World, Simple Plan and American Hi-Fi, but they are by no means a mimic.

On this CD — sadly only three songs in length — you are going to get a sampling of their sound that only makes you beg for more, but since they are working on a new 10-song CD, the wait won’t be long.

Guitars crunch at the start of “Past and Slow,” a song that has an almost ‘80s guitar construct to it while vocally, sounding nothing like the past. The addictive chorus of “jumping, head first, slowly going go berserk, trying to find a way, to bring back bring back yesterday, past and slow,” has a well thought out lyric that is surprisingly poetic. If someone with any “pull” gets a hold of these guys, you’ll be hearing this song all the time. The end of the song has a very cool drum/bass groove that any hearing person will dig.

The second track, “Surprise,” is a slower song, that crescendos at the chorus, has a pretty falsetto note in the chorus, and offers somewhat repetitive guitar playing that isn’t exactly annoying, but hitting the same note 10-15 times in a row may be overkill. You can tell their songwriting isn’t something they tossed together in 5 minutes and called it good, though. This song has some meat, but could be better.

“Space Girl,” though, is going to blow you the hell away. Wow. If MTV ever quit showing Beyonce’s ass long enough to play a video that they weren’t paid to air — and if Rubber Planet had a video for this song — then the number one song on TRL would be “Space Girl” until they wore out their welcome. This has Blink 182 success written all over it. The ultra-melodic and catchy chorus of, “Hey little Space girl, can you take me high enough (high enough …), hey little astronaut, can you pull me down to earth,” is nothing less than brilliant.

What do you do? Bands with talent like this are all over, but someone needs to find them. Why don’t you find them right now, pick up any of their CDs, and enjoy some underground, undiscovered music before they get their big break.