Countdown to Warped - We Are the In Crowd

               

              New York’s young pop-punk outfit We Are the In Crowd are due to play at Warped Tour this year following a run in 2010. Amidst a lineup with bands like Born of Osiris, After the Burial, and Chelsea Grin, it’s obvious WATIC represent the lighter side of the Warped lineup. With female frontman (frontwoman?) Tay Jardine, and a healthy dose of synthpop and major-heavy riffs, they and bands like All Time Low will probably give the lineup some much-needed variety.

                Again, I decided to check out WATIC after Jardine graced the cover of July’s AP alongside Sleeping with Sirens’ Kellen Quinn and Pierce the Veil’s Vic Fuestes. While less of an obsession than SWS’ frontman, WATIC have nevertheless maintained a popular following in circles with bands such as the Ataris, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Paramore.

                Surprisingly enough, the band has a fairly small discography, consisting of one EP (Guarenteed to Disagree) and a studio album Best Intentions. I tore into the band expecting another generic Sum 41 knockoff, but what I found was a vastly different, but nevertheless fun experience. At their core, WATIC are a pop punk band. You can’t expect too much out of them, and they don’t brand themselves as something they blatantly aren’t (*cough* Fucked Up *cough*). Lyrics are suitably innocuous, few liberties are taken with instrumentals, but nevertheless WATIC are a fun, fun band.

                The thing about pop-punk is that you can go into it without expecting much, and because WATIC are so inexperienced, almost anything is forgiveable. True, they sound moderately generic, but it’s fun music that’s not meant to be taken seriously. Sappy love ballads abound, and there isn’t an overarching theme that many other bands busy themselves with, but it’s fairly obvious that the bandmembers are having a lot of fun writing and performing their music.

                And in the long run, that makes them sound fundamentally different. Artists who take themselves too seriously come off as either too pretentious, annoying, or both – which is obviously something you want to avoid. If you’re letting loose and just making some music, of course it’s not going to sound particularly good, but WATIC are all right with remaining a relaxing alternative to a lot of other punk derivatives out there. In a genre severely lacking chill music, bands like WATIC are the closest we can get, and that’s why they’re a band I’m looking forward to seeing on this Warped Tour.