Going to the Mall
released 2006 - Red Shirt Records
While I liked this EP, I found it really hard to describe, even after multiple listens. There is a definite metal influence present; either late Sabbath or early Ozzy yet oddly, overall it has a more of a trippy/groovy vibe. I loved the use of keys, bells, and chimes; you can tell that there is some serious songwriting going on here. The singer has a great voice and the songs are well produced and well paced. It's not at all typical for the kind of music coming out of SoCal right now which made it refreshing to listen to.
- Ruby Soho, Big Wheel Magazine, Dec. 2006
Thick guitars meshed over a succotash highhat on Disco Beaver. The guitars wah and the verse is borrowed from Sab. Drums rock and 'disco came on and I pissed my pants' but the groove isn't disco enough for me (big TSOP fan). High Strung is rumbling power chord rock with riffs. Good natured fuzz box no chug metal. Alternative Nation's reverbed guitar gives way to thick block chords. We've got a rule here (made to be broken) that we listen to 4 songs so I skipped ahead to Melodramatic Stoner Song for the title alone. Calliope organ, tremolo and fuzz pattern for the first 1:30. Tweaked vocal and drum break back into the pattern. Points for the wind chimes and flanged craziness.
- Unknown, Reviewyourdemo.com, 2007
Chop Suzy take an affirmative upgrade sonically on Going To The Mall, compared to their first album. Their songwriting and musical execution feels much tighter too. Still, it's hard to beat their first EP for raw grit, and this release is exactly the opposite, almost slick. It's really like this though, "Disco Beaver" is as alterna as you get and why it is not a staple at all these new so called "alternative" stations (20 years after alternative was "big") is a real mystery. At some places on the album, Chop Suzy might kinda glide instead of punch, but that might be that they're all kinda fleshed out production wise in a few spots. Some overspill mighta been liked here and there. The clue is really, these guys are incredibly diverse, and they stretch out on numbers like the flowing Melodramatic Stoner Song. When they actually check the alternative state of things, on "Alternative Nation", it's probably there that they are not the Chop Suzy I want, but that's corrected on bluesy barn burners like the next daddy-o called Chicken 15. It'll be all-ight, Chop Suzy's in tha house!
- Todd West, Underground Sound, 2007
