Customer Reviews

Kona Town

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i have to admit, i was biased towards this disc even before it arrived at my house. i have been to kona on two different occasions and overall, i have spent nearly a month in this beautiful town on the big island of Hawai'i. also, the music of sublime is some of the most interesting and enjoyable music on the planet. so when i heard the pepper song 'stone love' on a reggae sampler, it sounded alot like a sublime groove, so i figured i would check out the disc, and after listening to it a few times, here's what i have come up with:
musically, 'kona town' has a great sound. it was well recorded and well produced. the reggae grooves are tight and make you bob your head. the singer's voice has a sound that is very reminiscent of the late (and legendary) bradley nowell, and the songs do borrow from sublime, sometimes heavily. (the band photo inside pepper's c.d. booklet looks an awful lot like the band photo inside the booklet of sublime's self titled album) but if you are a fan of sublime's music, (ALL of sublime's music) you would know that the comparison between these two bands pretty much ends here.
what seperates sublime from pepper was the sheer unpredictability of bradley, bud, eric and miguel's musical melding, and bradley's even less predictable lyrical configurations. nearly all of pepper's lyrics are on the up-and-up, whereas bradley would be spitting some snatch from a classic reggae track, and all of the sudden he was talking about shooting his girlfreind or hitting the bong too hard. this type of unpredictablity is nowhere to be found in pepper's music, and most of their lyrics range from being a bit immature to downright boring. pepper tends to mix mostly hard rock (not metal, hard rock) with thier reggae, and come off a bit more like 311 than sublime, who had a much more punk influenced sound. there is a bit of punk mixed in there, but it is simply not on the same level as sublime.
because of the solid reggae sound on the album, all of pepper's songs could have been great. 'stone love' is probably what i would consider the best song on the album. 'tradewinds' is also a good song, it sounds a bit like jack johnson (another fellow hawai'ian). some of the other tracks are fair, like 'ho's', "dryspell", and 'stormtrooper', which has a guest vocal appearance by josh fischel of bargain music. (incidentally, fischel also produced sublime's 'stories, tales, lies and exaggerations' documentary, a dvd that i would highly recommend to any fans who have not yet seen it) most of the other songs are rehashes of these songs, with very little change in attitiude or intensity. even the parts of the songs that are supposed to rock hard sound somewhat tame and uninspired. i do like the picture drawn on the c.d. booklet though, a water color of the center of the kona coastline, looking in at the bridge on ali'i drive, right near lulu's and huggo's (if you have been to kona, you know what i mean), or at least i think that's what it is, it looks very similar, and that made me smile and remember hanging out by that bridge back in '01, hooking up with the best doja i ever did puff on.
overall, pepper's 'kona town' is a fair effort, made for those who are into the sound of reggae without needing to be inspired or entertained by lyrical style or messages. i am not sure what kind of following they have in the 'high school jock/college frat boy' and 'cheerleader/sorrority girl' circles, but i would imagine that they sell alot of discs to those groups of fans. for fans of sublime looking at possibly buying this disc (if you are reading this, i would imagine that you are at the very least a casual sublime fan), you will appreciate the attempt at the sound, but you will be dissapointed when there is no mention of a "g.i. joe kung-fu grip on your mushroom-tip" or "the answer always waiting at the liquor store" or "a fifteen pack of old milwaukee, a dalmatian and a girlfriend but i ain't got no money". if you don't mind the lack of humor in the lyrics and lack of intensity in the music (and you can get the disc used for 7 bucks like i did), go ahead and pick it up.

pepper is a fair band, but that aren't key!

I found out about Pepper when I purchased the '04 Warped Tour compilation. The compilation was awful, with the exception of the song "Back home" (sang by pepper) and a few others. I really liked the sound of this band so I listened to some of there stuff from this album liked it, and bought the album. I am a huge third-wave ska fan and I enjoyed this.

Pepper has somewhat of a unique sound. They arn't punk or ska, they play a slow relaxed style of reggae music. Some people say they sound like Sublime or 311 but I disagree. 311 has a quicker sound and Sublime is more unique and expirements with a ton of styles. If you like punk, or 3rd wave ska you probably won't like this unless you have an open mind or you don't mind slower more relaxed music.

I really enjoy this album, but I only listen to it once in a while. Pepper doesn't do anything to go outside the box. The songs sound the same with the exception of maybe one or two. Most of the songs are built off guitar riffs, slow drum beats, and the lead singer singing of course. I really like the lead singers voice, it isn't quite as good as Bradley Nowell's but it's still refreshing and satisfying. There are two songs that I really enjoy on this album "Sitting On The Curb" because it's quicker and it has a cool trumpet solo. "Face Plant" is also cool because it's a little bit quicker and the lyrics are cool.

Overall this is a decent disk. I have to give Pepper props because this music is good. Pepper has it's own style of music, but it's safe to say that this is a quality disk worth your money.

With the use of a heavy bass guitar, Pepper blends punk, reggae, ska, and some hip-hop into their music that gives them a "Sublime like" sound; however it should be noted that there are major differences and the comparison to Sublime is used rather carelessly. Pepper has a softer island sound to their music, lacking Sublime's musical creativity and Long Beach influences (e.g. hip-hop samples, etc.).

They are a very talented group and it was inevitable that Pepper would blow up. "Give it Up" is now the #1 requested song this week on KROQ (Los Angeles). Normally, the rest of the country will follow KROQ's lead, so you will probably hear "Give It Up" being played 50 times a day on your local radio station sometime soon.

What is ironic is that this album has been out for over 3 years and "Give It Up" in my opinion probably the worst song on the album. The song has a pop/upbeat tempo that really sounds like nothing else on the record. The rest of the songs on this CD are consistent with Pepper's unique style so don't expect the CD to sound like what you hear on the radio.

The bottom line is that I recommend buying this CD and think that you will be impressed. - 4 Stars!

If you like sublime or any reggae in general check out this album, or there new cd in with the old

Highlights:

Stormtrooper
Boot
Tongues
Stone Love
Ho's
Give it up

Or download Ashes, Love affair,or Use me from In with the old

I cant believe no one has reviewed this album yet. Pepper is a bad ass band. I saw them live in Detroit last night, and that was the best show I've seen in awhile. They have a very chil sound unlike anything one's ears have ever heard. The best way to desribe there sound is that they sound like Sublime. Pepper is very original, very refreashinG to here this kind of music. DO NOT HESITATE IN BUYING THIS ABLUM.

So I started listening to pepper because a friend told me about them. The first dc I got was pink vibrations and I loved it played it day in and day out! So I knew I had to get another kona town was his favorit out of all of them so that was the next one I got, and I love it aswell! This is a great band and product I live in texas and the don't sell there dc's here so I buy all of them from amazon!

great vibe. solid music. soured by lame lyrics. After converting to mp3's, I ended up deleting about half the album from my computer. The half that remains I actually like quite a bit and listen to fairly often.

I'm editing this review because I've actually listened to several albums and disagree with my previous opinion. I thought Pepper was another Sublime wannabe band until I listened to them more. Reggae rock will always give me a reminder of Sublime but Pepper has a hint of Caribbean/Hawaii style mixed in. If all ska or reggae-rock sounds the same to you, listen to more and you will find out there are differences b/w artists. This is probably my 2nd favorite album of Pepper's. In with the Old being the first.

I'd bump my new rating up to 4/5 if I could.

This is the best CD of the three they have out, though I am anticipating this most recent one that will be out soon. If I were a new Pepper fan, I would definitely buy this one over the other two. I wasn't a big fan of Give'n It, it really didn't seem that great to me, but In With the Old seemed to get a little better, there are definitely some great songs on there but my all time favorite is this one. Every song is catchy and puts you in a great mood. So roll down your windows, crank any song of this CD up, and enjoy life!

I was actually introduced to this band through a friend on one of their street teams. And let me tell you, I saw them play the Norva last summer - what a blast! The CD gets stuck in my CD player for weeks at a time even a year later, and if my friends are lucky enough, I can wrench it out for long enough to throw in some of our beloved 80s tunes. Admittedly, the comparisons to Sublime are unavoidable, but they have their own vibe and I strongly encourage anyone to take in a show of theirs if you have the opp.