The Frankl Project

Detail: You can say that Reggae's not your thing, but then you remember those summer deck parties where tanned cuties belted out Marley tunes like true rastas. And it's alright if you don't dig Ska, but then how might you explain the fact that 311's "Down" still brings about that inexplicable yearning for boys in Etnies and skate pants?

One great thing about local three-piece The Frankl Project is that they fully grasp the human inability to completely reject any one genre of music -- their music is an embodiment of that one great Slipknot song, that admittedly hypnotic Dave Matthews guitar solo, that fill-in-the-blank-with-whatever type of music you said you simply couldn't tolerate. The incredible part? The members of the Frankl Project range in age from a wee 17 years old to a slightly-closer-to-legal 20.

This "young" band's penchant for smashing genre boundaries and delivering shining examples of each with uncanny clarity is something that should come as no surprise. Although it's a common mantra for many bands -- "Our sound is unclassifiable!" -- in the Frankl Project's case, that's much more than a candy-coated cop-out. They're still finding themselves, sure, but the common threads in the Frankl Project's musical fabric -- like Tippey's powerfully emotive vocals and the dead-eye rhythms and beats laid by Schroder and Frankl -- are strong and they suggest that the destination is already locked in. Nothing wrong with enjoying the journey.