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review

REARVIEW MIRROR

“All Lights Off”

Gobstopper Records


On their debut CD, Rearview Mirror has the dual honor of being produced by the legendary Steve Lillywhite, and 
being the first band to release music on Lillywhite’s new Gobstopper Records label. This would seem to give 
Rearview Mirror a solid footing to support the inferred high expectations. Honing new talent is old business 
to Lillywhite – as a youngster himself, he produced an unknown called U2 on their first album, “Boy,” and has 
helped other newcomers along the way like the Dave Matthews Band. He has guided a stable of talent that reads 
like a “best bands in rock music history” list – XTC, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, and Phish, 
to name a few. And he has proven he gets the best out of the best. After years of enhancing great talent, 
starting a new record label and refining handpicked raw talent makes some sense. So, Lillywhite has placed 
his ‘new’ career in the instruments of Rearview Mirror and their first CD, “All Lights Off.” 


That said, every track on this CD has sonic hooks that are crisp and creative. Lillywhite compares Mirror’s 
spirit to early U2. Well, at least one physical similarity to U2 is the number of members and instrumental 
configuration of the group - Adam Ptacek, vocals, Matt Olsen, guitar, Jason Ptacek, bass, and T.J. Kramer, 
drums. Vocalist Ptacek has a Vedder-like smooth, yet forceful crackle, and Olsen creates some trademark guitar 
rifts on the debut release. The first track of “All Lights Off,” appropriately named “In the Beginning,” has 
some screeching vocals and intricate guitar in a driving post-modern rock composition. “Blade” and “Sinking” 
are tracks woven with guitar moves that could become classics. “Sinking” is a tune with a bass-heavy beat 
merged with an eloquent vocal progression that should result in it ‘rising’ to the top of the modern rock charts.


Growing up in rural Cresco, Iowa, the four-member band, aged between 18 and 20, has already been together 
grazing on the local club scene for the last 5 years. Their youth, combined with a decent amount of time 
behind them as a unit, should be an asset. While the complement of being compared to the greatest band of 
the last 20 years is grand, it’s not a time in music when new bands are driven like U2 was in their youth. 
No matter what they’ve been through in Middle America, it would be hard to equal U2’s politically charged 
urgency sprung out of years of being exposed to the slings and arrows of unrest in Northern Ireland. 
However, as you can sense throughout “All Lights Off, “ they do radiate a raw energy and power that singes 
your senses. No matter what is in the future, they certainly don’t need to be looking in any rearview mirrors 
these days. 

- Dave Geller