If I remember my British childhood memories correctly, the Earwig is a small creepy looking insect that would rapidly crawl into the ears of any small child who lay on the grass and could only be removed by the most sadistic of doctor’s equipment. On that basis ‘Earwig’ is a great name for this Columbus, Ohio based three-piece, because their music does a very good job of lodging itself somewhere in the inner regions of your ear canal. Luckily you will have no desire to remove these extremely well crafted tunes.
Fronted by Lizard McGee on guitar and vocals the band has been around since the early ‘90s and the heyday of Grunge. That whole scene is still evident in the music of ‘Earwig’ but it is joined by a mixture of shoegazing indie and more aggressive alternative rock. McGee stands front and center twisting the various vibes around him, backed by the bass playing of Rich Cefalo and drumming of Justin Crooks.
Opener ‘Best Kept Secret’ starts of with an almost generic indie riff before the drums kick in and we are suddenly presented with a genuine anthem, driving guitars and heart felt ‘I’m a loser in love’ lyrics. It has been released as a single and is apparently receiving some decent airplay in areas of the country that are lucky enough to have rock stations who are not merely the dripping pustules of evil soulless corporate entities.
Track two is ‘Drag’, which is the other single, it is if anything even more of a shout-along song than its predecessor. Helped by some impressive screaming from Lizard it is probably the song with the greatest chance of giving them ‘breakout’ success. Two tracks in and it is obvious we are on to a winner.
The quality songs keep coming; ‘Anatomical Gift’, ‘In My Ear’, ‘Two Dragons’ and my pick of the album ‘Cinema East’; are all simply excellent examples of well crafted pop tunes wrapped in various musical cloaks. Check out their music sample page to see for yourself just how good they are.
With ‘Perfect Past Tense’ Lizard McGee has proved himself as an extremely capable songwriter, able to balance maturity with popularity, rock with pop. He also has the talent to carry his songs, and the bandmates to help craft it all into reality. If you want to see the perfect example of how a ‘Grunge’ era band could grow away from its roots whilst keeping the important factors close to heart you could do a hell of a lot worse than ‘Earwig’. Two thumbs and a big toe way up.

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