Playback STL Rock EP Review December 6, 2005
SOMNIA: ROCK EP I was a little skeptical when I opened the package to Somnia’s new Rock EP. Press materials said they’d chosen to abandoned their former “alternative rock” sound and focus, instead, on good old rock ’n’ roll. Their press photo shows each of them—Mike Heeley (guitar), Mike Lowder (drums), and Aaron Popp (bass and vocals), and Jack Walker (guitar)—making the rock sign with their fingers. “You will be rocked,” they claim. But once I put the CD into my player, I was pleasantly surprised. Somnia do know how to rock, and they do it well—but it’s not a hard, unlistenable type of rock like I’d feared; it’s a more melodic type of rock, one that would be equally at home on KSHE-95 and 101.1 The River. Standout tracks include “Tease” (which sounds, oddly, kind of Just Add Water-ish) and the foot-tapping “Radiotherapy”; there’s also a fun remake of Greg Kihn’s “Breakup Song.” Available online at www.somniastl.com. | Laura Hamlett