Blue Skies Broken Hearts Next 12 Exits

The story of the Ataris reads like a Hollywood script, with vocalist/guitarist Kris Roe giving the Vandals his demo tape at a show in his backwater Indiana town, only to receive a call out to California by Vandals bassist and Kung Fu Records head-honcho Joe Escalante to put together the Ataris. A 1998 EP (Look Forward to Failure) on Fat Wreck Chords got them attention, and now this full-length on Kung Fu shows what all the fuss is about. The Ataris play pop-punk of the NoFX school, with emo lyrics that are occasionally cringe-inducing but always charming in their heart-on-sleeve frankness. They toured here recently supporting MxPx, which is a good indication as to their genre. The sound is pretty straight ahead, but the quality is uniformally high. This is a band bristling with potential, and one who will doubtless make major waves in the worldwide scene in the years to come.