5.2001

The Cautions (self-titled)
By Michael Baldino
Northeast Performer

The Cautions are self-described as "Weezer versus the Cars in a fight to the death over Elvis Costello tickets," and there are indeed touches of all these bands in their power-pop-punk sound, but to my ear, they have much more in common with TRL faves Blink-182. Their songs are very well-crafted and arranged, which is unsurprising considering that Eric Barao (vocals, guitar, synth) and Jeff Caglarcan (guitar) met while studying at the illustrious Berklee College of Music. Despite their ready-for-heavy-rotation sound, their super-ludicrous lyrics are a caustically ironic parody of mass-market pop trash. Some sample lines: "Her name is Meg but her nametag says Megan / She takes her coffee black 'cause she's a vegan""My girl bakes cookies for me / We get stoned eating and watching TV / And we always have a good time / She serves me my Corona with a perfect slice of lime." Their straight-faced delivery is particularly funny given the success of deeply meaningful boy bands like LFO-you know, the one where the singer likes girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch, Chinese food makes him sick, etc. If MTV is still hip enough to poke fun at itself, you can expect to see legions of twelve-year-olds hanging out in Times Square breathlessly yelling, "My name is Mandy from Topeka and I requested The Cautions because Whooo!!!"