Most people out there probably aren't familiar with the name Chase Stain, but if you have supported the local scene at sometime in your life, odds are that Chase Stain was somehow involved. Stain originally got his start as the bassist and vocalist for the Phoenix based band Dirty Laundry, that played punk rock in a mixture of sub-genres, like skate punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, and what the band describes as "humor-core". Dirty Laundry split up in 2002, but the band recently released a 3 disc box set featuring their entire catalog of music. While in Dirty Laundry, Stain created the local record label, Bad Stain Records, which has released over fifty albums to date, featuring various local bands such as Against The Majority, Corrupt Citizen, Subject Mad, and D-I-X. Bad Stain Records gained recognition after releasing a series of compilation CD's featuring several local artists, as well as popular 90's punk bands like Link 80, 30 Foot Fall, FYP, At The Drive In, and Less Than Jake. Stain also started Laundromat Productions, a booking agency that put on hundreds of shows from 1997 until 2013, most notably the Arizona Ska Punk Awards Ceremony, which Stain also created. Stain is also responsible for Bad Stain Fanzine and Unspeakable Thoughts Fanzine, and has written for various punk rock publications ranging from Talespins and Punk Planet, to The Punk Rock Tribune and Maximum Rock N' Roll. Stain is probably best known as the bassist and vocalist for the Phoenix pop punk band, Numbers On Napkins. NoN gained recognition in the local scene in 2005, when the bands debut album released and their single, "Runaway" was featured on several radio stations throughout the state. The popularity of the song helped land the band on great shows opening for bands like The Queers, Yellowcard, Plain White T's, Teenage Bottle Rocket, and Flogging Molly. If you went to see Authority Zero around the time that A Passage in Time was released, odds are that NoN was the opening act. NoN released several other albums after their debut album, "Waiting for Tomorrow", but never had the success that they achieved like they did with their first album. Stain has also played for various other bands in the valley, such as the pop punk group Yars Revenge, and the metal screamo band, Forever Falling. In 2005, Stain released his first solo CD, "January", followed by his second EP, "February". In 2010, Stain released his first full length solo album, which was actually just a collection of the first three EP's in his "Month" series, titled "The First Quarter". The album contained all of the tracks from the "January", "February" and "March" EP's, as well as two previously unreleased bonus tracks. After the release of "The First Quarter", Stain started to gradually slip away from the scene, and his band NoN started performing less often, and he rarely played solo shows. In 2013, Stain's band NoN went on hiatus, but Stain himself seemed to go on hiatus as well, and quit performing live shows, stopped booking shows with Laundromat Productions, and even quit releasing albums on his label, Bad Stain Records. Stain was a bit of a recluse for the next five years, but in 2017, Bad Stain once again started releasing new albums from newly signed artists. Stain started producing albums for many of the artists on his label, and in 2018, NoN returned from the hiatus and ended up releasing a new full length album, "From Buckeye To Beardsley" in 2019. NoN also released a four song EP later that same year, and released a special 15 year anniversary deluxe edition re-issue of NoN's debut album, "Waiting for Tomorrow", in 2020. The re-issue contained all of the tracks from the original album, plus several bonus tracks including live recordings, demo tracks, and previously unreleased material. Last month, NoN announced that the band was officially calling it quits, with members each going their separate ways. Just a few weeks after the announcement, Stain released his first solo album in over ten years, the "April" EP. Stain has played a variety of styles in several bands, and his solo material has always had a punk edge, but it can often steer off in vastly different directions. I must admit that I was very excited to hear the new EP, and I was curious to see how Stain has progressed over the years. Now ten years is a long time in the music industry, and I feel like Stain had plenty of time to produce an incredible album, but maybe I had my expectations set too high for "April", because what I ended up hearing was an album that was just okay, and not nearly as good as any of his previous releases. "April" has a total of five songs, and the overall recording quality of the songs is pretty low. The EP starts with the title track, which features a fairly complex bass line and guitars, but just doesn't seem to "pop" the way it should. The rockabilly song sounds like a mixture of Brian Setzer and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and features classic rockabilly lyrics that tell the story of a greaser slicking back his hair and grabbing his switch blade, and heading to the bar where he meets a rockabilly goddess named April who will surely turn him into an "April Fool". The song is fun, talented, and well written, but the overall production is so low that it really kills things for me a bit. Fortunately, the second track, "Lady Luck", has a much better recording. "Lady Luck" is just an acoustic guitar with vocals, but it has a very strong "Sublime" feel to it. The ska guitar riff is basic, the song is short, but it's a quick little jam that tells a story of Stain going to Vegas with friends and losing his shirt, spending the evening trying to find out where his Lady Luck has run off to. The third track is also well recorded, and is also just an acoustic guitar with vocals. Track three is actually a cover of the popular Screeching Weasel song, "I Wanna Be Naked". The song is the star of the album, Stain manages to really make the version his own, changing up the style of the song so drastically that most people probably wouldn't even realize it's a cover until they stopped and paid close attention. Track four is titled "My Mistress", and while the lyrics are unique and strong, the production value and overall execution is weak. "My Mistress" has a bit of a blues feel to it, and Stain sings about his guitar, and how he feels that she has stuck with him throughout everything in his life and is his ultimate true love. The song has clever lines written throughout it like "She stayed by my side when I was just sixteen and my first heartbreak it was killing me....lasted through my marriage and stuck by my side, supported me through my drug years when I was way too high....made it through the birth of my baby girl, and she's the second most important girl I git in the world". The song goes into a rant about staying true to your art with music with lines like "I got a few things left to say, being in the music scene shouldn't be about fame or getting paid. It's about what you write, it's about what you make, it's about putting your whole life at stake. See if you can touch one person's life then you know in your heart that you've done something right". While I think the song has great lyrics, it's just hard for me to get over the terrible recording. The final track, "One thing about Santa Carla I never could stomach.....all the goddamn emo fags", has a bit of an emo feel to it, with a hint of new wave. The song has a so-so recording, and is well executed, but I'm not a huge fan of the song. Lyrically, Stain sings about feeling regret over a former girl that he never pursued after she sends him an invitation to her wedding that is planned on his birthday. The sad emo lyrics with the vibrant chorus and reverb filled guitars and keyboards make the title of the song totally ironic, which I'm sure Stain planned. Overall, I wasn't impressed by the EP, but it was still worth taking a listen. Usually, I would just recommend listening to this album streaming on YouTube or Spotify, but Chase Stain has followed suit in the same way as he has for his previous EP's in his "Month" series, and none of the tracks are available in digital format. You can't stream any of the songs, and you can't even download the songs. The only way to listen to them is if you purchase the EP, which has a limited pressing of 500 copies, like all of the other EP's in his "Month" series. I assume that Stain will eventually release "May" and "June", and probably release all three on a collection CD like he did with "The First Quarter", but if it took ten years for "April" to be released, who knows when that will be. If you are a fan of Stain, or NoN, or Dirty Laundry, this CD is obviously something to add to your collection, but if your not familiar with Chase Stain, it's probably a better idea to pick up a copy of "The First Quarter" instead of "April". With that being said, Stain's cover of "I Wanna Be Naked" is so unique and original, that it is almost worth buying just for that song, and fans of Screeching Weasel should definitely get the EP to hear Stain's rendition of the tune. I just hope that Stain's next release, "May", is a stronger album, and I'm really hoping I don't have to wait another ten years to hear it!