Review: Stop It! - Self Made Maps

artist: stop it! album: self made maps label: robotic empire released: 2003 by: rob tatum For a while there, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever hear another band that played melodic punk similar to Small Brown Bike, then comes Stop It! and quickly dispels that fear from my mind. Driving guitars, fast beats, and solid melodies fill Self Made Maps from start to finish. To totally stray away from music, I have to mention the packaging and liner notes to this CD. A multi-colored cardboard sleeve accompanies the CD rather than a typical case. The liner notes look like a collage of various pictures and papers, and the lyrics are slammed into the middle. It really has nothing to do with the music on this album, but it is a nice side-step from the conventional album artwork and packaging. Okay, back to the music. If you took away the vocals, the band could easily pass off as Small Brown Bike, or maybe older Hot Water Music playing an instrumental. It’s nothing fancy, but it sounds terrific. The downside to that is that the band is going to have a hard time avoiding constant comparisons. The vocals sound nearly identical to Small Brown Bike, and so do many of the songs. Lyrically, Stop It! tackles a variety of subjects, but manages to keep the lyrics pretty generic. I am a huge fan of Small Brown Bike, so I enjoyed this release, but at the same time, I really hate to see carbon-copy bands. Stop It! is solid in almost every aspect, but the resemblance really hurts their standing from my perspective. Self Made Maps is a good listen, but I’ll bet that I’m not the only one who can’t stop making the constant comparisons. favorite song: "name + number" rating: 84%/100% listen to stop it!