Aux-In

I have never been one of those listeners who always knows what's going on with a band. However, I do make a habit of checking in on bands that I like from time to time. You know, those bands who you forget about, or who are on hiatus, or who break up and then get back together, only to later find out that they've put out new material right under your nose? Boy Hits Car is one such band for me. The last time I actively looked into their new materiel was when I bought 2007's The Passage. When that album was released, they had little to no support from labels, if I'm remembering correctly. I want to say that I ordered directly from them, but I probably got it off Amazon instead. Since then, Boy Hits Car has gone on to release Stealing Fire (2011) and what this review is about, 2014's All That Led Us Here, their latest. Note: Discogs lists this album as self-released, but the label on the CD says Eternal Sound Records.

1) "Silhouettes Fade": Great energy to start off. Hard riffs and all that good stuff.


2) "Battles of the Heart": Now that the second song hits, it reminds me of the same style they had on their self-titled album Boy Hits Car (2001). This album is shaping up to be a blend of that, only heavier.

3) "Anxious but Gradual Rythms": This one is all over place. Cregg Rondell, the lead singer, does that thing where he goes off-song, in a sense, to go on a scream about something inaudible, then gets back to the mic and the rythm of the song. I'm not a fan of that effect. No melody to this and the backing vocals don't harmonize either. It comes off as more of a jam session than a song.

4) "Quiet Storm": Getting some Indian chime vibes at the beginning. Starts slow and then hits hard -- quiet, then storm.

5) "The Extremist (Do you feel me on this?)": The band's work sounds solid on this one, even if the lyrics and vocals feel out of place in some areas.

6) "Ocean Equation": Light, acoustic guitar at the beginning. Reminds me of Days of the New, which is never a bad thing. Midway through it breaks into harder guitars and signature screaming for which nu metal is known. Think Chester Bennington. This track is a balance of the soft/hard dynamic.

7) "Come On": This one sounds kind of cheesy:

Don't go drown, the final round
Take my hand and we'll fight on now
It's our last chance, this fight won't last
Together we'll be victorious

8) "Ourglass (As Time Slips Away)": Mostly rock, the guitars sound good. I did catch them using an electronic stutter effect on the vocals @ 4:07. Thought they'd slip that by me, aye? . Still a pretty rockin' track.

9) "What's on Your Mind (pure energy)": A more radio-friendly sound with clean vocals. Catchiest song so far on the album.

10) "Can't Run from Yourself": This sounds very familiar, but I can't place it; something from a popular '60s or '70s song. If some epiphany happens and I remember the resembling song, I'll come back and update this. The song is slow-paced and thoughtful. Uses acoustic guitars.

11) "Daregveda": Oh yeah. This sound heavy as hell. Hearing what sounds like fifes later on in the song. Vocally, I'd prefer more screaming; the vocals are too clean and fail to match the heaviness of the band. Ex: where the clean vocals worked on songs 1 and 9, they seem mismatched here for some reason.


I've always considered Boy Hits Car a perfect hard rock band for beach bums. After the band went a softer route for a bit, which always worries me with rock bands, they've come back to a heavier, much less beachy sound than either their self-titled or The Passage when it comes to vibes. I can't say if they did the same on Stealing Fire as I've not yet heard it. Boy Hits Car can be grouped as hard rock, but I also think there are some nu metal influences within their sound.

Even though they've had hits in the past, such as "Man Without Skin" and "I'm a Cloud," Boy Hits Car is, and has always been, an album band. To the point where I felt that the vocals weren't syncing with the band as much as I would've hoped, I will need more listens to get to the bottom of why that might be. I mean, Cregg Rondell's voice is Boy Hits Car. There's no way around that, so it's strange to feel this way about this album. Anyway, it's good to see this band's still together and putting out a sound like this. Even with its faults, the band's enthusiasm comes across throughout All That Led Us Here, and I intend to give it further spins to fully get a sense for it.

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"All over a bowl of bitter beans."

Shadou Dan

Honestly, I hadn't heard of anything from them since I heard "I'm a cloud" like 15 years ago. I'll be sure to have a listen to this at some point today. Also, if I'm not mistaken, I think their bass player was one of the kids from Ernest goes to camp, lol.