★★★★★
After releasing Astray in 2000 ? which has grown to be perhaps Samiam's most well-regarded album ? the band sort of went away, breaking up but not really breaking up, no longer concerned with being a "career band." Six years later, though, Samiam were back in the studio recording Whatever's Got You Down and the pressure was fully off; with the assistance of Chris Moore, the band produced large parts of record themselves with middling results...
- www.punknews.org
2013-11-21
★★★★★
Samiam: a band that for many, hold a plethora of hugely positive memories and I am happy to count myself amongst that group. Those recollections include the longstanding, such as finding them supporting (unannounced) the Dickies in Bristol many years ago, to the more recent, again a Bristol show in 2011...
- www.punknews.org
2012-11-09
★★★★★
Samiam just won't go away. Over the past decade, uncertainty has been the one constant for the five-piece, but they've kept their name alive the old fashion way: endless touring. Finally, after a five-year recording hiatus, they're back with Trips, featuring 13 tracks in 40 minutes, which accentuates just why Samiam became a beloved punk staple for fans throughout the' 90s. "80 West" is an upbeat opener, with simple, sweet melodies that remind how well singer Jason Beebout can deliver a hook...
- exclaim.ca
2011-10-17
★★★★★
With 2000's Astray, it seemed '90s emo pioneer Samiam was moving into the next millennium with a simmering, almost dignified indie-rock sound. Then came silence--that is, until 2006's murky, ill-conceived Get It Right, a disc that didn't. Trips is the delinquent follow-up, only this time, the half-decade break in recording has done the group some good...
- www.avclub.com
2011-09-12
★★★★★
The dominant lyrical hook in Trips opener "80 West" goes "I've been away for so long," and it's an apt one. This is just Samiam's third full-length in a dozen years, a pace that even the casual fan could recognize as slowed from the band's going-all-in era when they frantically released five studio albums between 1990 and 1997. Now firmly ensconced in their part-time status, Samiam sound right at home on Trips...
- www.punknews.org
2011-09-12
★★★★★
There are some bands that have been going for what seems like a lifetime and yet barely break out from the underground. They continue to plug away, producing good albums that have their cult-like following in raptures, but never get the wide approval they deserve. Samiam, the Californian quintet, are one such band...
- www.alterthepress.com
2011-09-05
★★★★★
Samiam's Orphan Works is a handy compilation for an aging punker (or any kid with a historical fondness for '90s emo and punk). Orphan Works collects alternate and live versions from what many might consider the pinnacle of Samiam's career, 1994's Clumsy and 1997's You Are Freaking Me Out, merely offering a variant look on a great deal of material from those records...
- www.punknews.org
2011-07-25
★★★★★
I love catching a band on tour before their album is out, because you get a chance to buy it there before the stores carry it. And so I've been listening to Astray (which people, including Samiam singer Jason Beebout, keep pronouncing Ashtray for some reason) for a few weeks now, and it's grown on me the way all Samiam releases grow on me. None of the band's music has had the immediate impact that "Capsized" from their major-label album Clumsy had, but they all stand the test of time...
- www.adequacy.net
2009-07-21
★★★★★
This is what Husker Du would sound like on a kinder, gentler label. Samiam features stunning lead vocalist Jason Beebout buried under a wall of sound created by an energetic and enthusiastic back-up band. Getting the lyrics takes more than a few listens, and the small scribbles in the extensive liner notes need a magnifying glass and a belt of scotch to decode, but they are worth the effort...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
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