The Rocket Summer - The Early Years EP

Genre rock Publisher The Militia Group External Links Official The Rocket Summer Website Official The Militia Group Website

The Early Years EP is the latest release by the power-pop rock outfit The Rocket Summer. Actually, calling it the "latest release" is a bit of a stretch. The six song, twenty-five minute EP is really a bunch of songs that were written in a two-year period from 1997 to 1999.

Since The Rocket Summer had modest success with it's previous CDs Calendar Days (2003) and Hello Good Friend (2005), the band's record company decided to release some of the first songs they ever wrote and recorded.

The release is a notable one as it showcases the talents of Bryce Avary, who is essentially The Rocket Summer. Avary hails from Colleyville, Texas and he has played the majority of the instruments himself on all of the band's releases.

The songs on The Early Years are no different. All the songs were written and recorded by Avary and astonishingly, they were done when he was a young teenager. The earliest song on the collection was written when Avary was 14 and the latest when he was 16. Considering the quality of the songs, that is an accomplishment. "So Far Away" is arguably the best and it even sounds like it could be a hit today with the emo crowd. The hard charging "December Days" is also a highlight.

Still, the songs do not sound different from anything The Rocket Summer or any emo or young pop-rock artist has released in the past ten years. Sure, the fact that the songs were written by a teenager is impressive especially since most normal teenagers are just worrying about getting rid of acne and finding a date for a dance. That does not make The Early Years an essential purchase though.