Scapegoat Wax’s number one rule for success: If at first you don’t succeed, repackage your material on a different record label. A victim of the collapse of the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal Records, the label that imploded on itself after its biggest signing coup, At the Drive-In, became too big to handle financially and then broke up, Scapegoat Wax spent most of the past year out of a job after barely registering a blip on the radar with his debut single, “Aisle 10 (Hello Alison).”

Recently, however, Wax cut a new deal with Hollywood Records (incidentally, the same label that signed and then quickly dropped Jesse Camp and the 8th Street Kids), which allowed him to re-release most of the underpromoted Grand Royal material plus some new tunes under a new album name, SWax. In fact, seven of the twelve tracks on SWax are on Okeeblow, though one or two of them have been redone.

Back for a second round are last year’s quasi-single, “Aisle 10,” the mostly hip-hop “Eardrum,” and the slow jam “Crawlin.’” Another familiar chestnut, the I-hate-being-a-poor-white kid anthem “Almost Fine,” has been lyrically retooled to reflect Wax’s souring experience with the music industry, including this wonderful prologue: “Just when I thought I caught a break, my record label goes out of business! What kind of s*** is that, huh?!”

Of course, there are new tracks as well, otherwise SWax would be a complete waste of money for those who already own “Okeeblow”. “Back Alive” is that kind of reintroductory song that might have some people scratching their heads, because they probably wouldn’t remember him in the first place. “Lost Cause” starts out with a guitar riff right out of a Miller High Life commercial but morphs into a pop-friendly beat that almost seems ripped from Smashmouth. On the whole, the new songs mesh well with the old songs’ mix of hip-hop, funk, rock, and R&B, though perhaps the new songs are a little more pop friendly, which is a necessary evil if Wax intends to gain any new fans this time around.

VERDICT: If you already have Okeeblow, you could probably get the five new songs on SWax from the Internet. (Although, we don’t advocate that practice, especially with new artists. If you like a new artists support them by buying their CD’s, that is if you want their record company to put out future releases from them. – ed)  However, for fans of Okeeblow the new version of “Almost Fine,” and the single “Lost Cause” make the new album enjoyable enough that it’s worth picking up, especially if you can find a used copy or it’s sold cheap.  
 

• Visit the Official website.
• Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

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