THE OTHER PAPER (august 14th-20th 2003)

Tom Foolery and the Mistakes: A Welcome Surprise
by Chad Painter

I'll admit it: I was expecting the usual bad punk rock you'd find in a band with a name like TOM FOOLERY AND THE MISTAKES.
But I was wrong. On their latest, TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM, the Mistakes sound a lot more like the Cusacks than the Queers, with their take on the jangly, lo-fi pop aesthetic.
The band is at its best when playhing lovelorn bouncy pop such aas "It's Not 1999", and "Broken Hype Machine".
The best song, "Biggest Mistake of Yr Life", follows the same path, with Kyle Sowash singing "I hope to get a clue/I just hope I get some time/to convince myself you wouldn't think it's the biggest mistake of your life".
However, the band falls flat a little too often, like on the slowed-down "Everything's Under Control", and the under-developed title track. There are also two back-to-back instrumentals halfway through that just kill TEAM'S momentum.
The Mistakes can also be a little too kitschy for their own good, like on "Urkel's Lament" ("It's gonna be awile before i can fell right again/Maybe when the day is done/I'll be Jaleel White again")