★★★★★
For their first release since 2007's criminally underrated The Underground Is A Dying Breed (and the first release with their "classic" lineup since 2002's Sorry About Tomorrow), second-wave emo unit Hot Rod Circuit don't try to fix what ain't broke. This self-titled EP's lead track, "Forgive Me," is a smooth, melodic rocker with a healthy dose of twang from guitarist Casey Prestwood...
- www.altpress.com
2011-11-14
★★★★★
Hot Rod Circuit has been around since 1997, getting more popular with each passing year. This popularity seemed to culminate when they were signed to Vagrant Records, a label on which the band fits quite well with their brand of pop-rock mixed with a bit a punk (think Alkaline Trio, Saves the Day, Audio Learning Center)...
- www.lostatsea.net
2010-02-19
★★★★★
Sound: "The year is 1965, and you and I are undercover detectives on the hot rod circuit." That phrase by Mr. Burns from The Simpsons inspired a band from Alabama to call themselves Hot Rod Circuit. This wasn't the start of their music career as the guys have previously released a quite successful record by the name of Antidote. They were craving out their own unique sound since they were in school back in 1997, ignoring mainstreams and the tastes of radios...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2009-11-15
★★★★★
The fact that the members of Hot Rod Circuit are quite adept at playing their instruments has been the band's saving grace: the flashy lead guitar lines and surefooted rhythm section keeps them from being a bottom of the barrel, run of the mill emo-punk band. While that trend continues on their new LP, Reality's Coming Through, it's not quite enough to sustain them anymore...
- www.lostatsea.net
2009-10-30
★★★★★
Two bands playing two very different styles of music, with each band doing one cover tune and one of their own, equals, in this particular case, 12 uneventful minutes. If it weren't for the interesting artwork of Scott Altman and the fact that the CD itself is clear, I would have been even more disappointed. This Year's Model performs "Visible Distance," a song originally done by Universal Order of Armageddon, and their own "God's Gift To Old Tricks...
- www.adequacy.net
2009-07-21
★★★★★
Alabama's Hot Rod Circuit play radio-friendly emo-pop tunes in the same vein as Saves The Day, All American Rejects, and the dreaded Fall Out Boy... So why am I not vomiting in my lap right now?The Underground Is A Dying Breed is the band's fifth album and I can't tell you how it compares to past efforts because I had no clue that this band had even been around long enough to have made so many records...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
Lackadaisy pervades the fourth album from Connecticut's Hot Rod Circuit. Having played more often than not a supporting role for bands like Saves the Day and Dashboard Confessional (apropos, Chris Carraba guests on "Unfaithful"), Hot Rod Circuit has never been able to bubble to the top. Things start off okay note with "Inhabit," but songs like "Save You," "Cheap Trick" and "Failure" just reiterate that this band is an uninspired mess that will end their career on someone else's coattails...
- www.prefixmag.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Hot Rod Circuit are the latest in Vagrant's assault on radio/MTV while simultaneously getting punk rockers to listen to music that belongs on TRL as much as Blink 182 or Christine Aguillera do. Ok, I know. That's kind of harsh. But I've long wondered, since the days of Sensefield (remember them...
- www.aquariusrecords.org
2009-06-05
★★★★★
Hot Rod Circuit are the latest in Vagrant's assault on radio/MTV while simultaneously getting punk rockers to listen to music that belongs on TRL as much as Blink 182 or Christine Aguillera do. Ok, I know. That's kind of harsh. But I've long wondered, since the days of Sensefield (remember them...
- www.aquariusrecords.org
2009-03-22
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