Close Only Counts (feat. Juan el Mundo)

Cardboard Mercenary is a 'Jukebox Train' tribute band from 2076, accidentally transported back in time during a freak "sciencey" accident to 1983. Don't ask questions!

That said, the group is centered on a solid eight-piece Rock n' Roll core with dynamic influences from around the musical spectrum; classic soul, contemporary hip hop, reggae, and electronica. The group features drums, bass, guitar, saxes, trombone, and trumpet in their energetic live shows and their debut album features Ukelele, Organs, Synths, and some hand claps for good measure. When initially formed, the group was a rough-and-tumble power-trio that played mostly punk tunes and folky drinking songs, but it evolved over time into a multifaceted musical hydra.

"Jukebox Train" is a groove-based tune featuring thick brass and woodwind melodies over a Latin rock reggae bass with driving guitar and thumping drums. Dramatic vocals and raps paint an image of a tourist left behind in a foreign land, looking for a way home.

"Hula on the Dash," is a retro-style clap-along that’s half 50's-pop and half neo-calypso. Featuring a catchy horn line and mesmerizing bass behind the light-hearted, folk-style lyrics, the tune depicts a woman on the run from the law.

"Close only Counts" is an ominous waltz with haunting vocals and horns over ebbing-and-flowing drum and bass. Melodies reminiscent of an old music box discovered in the dust of an abandoned house back the cryptic but passionate vocals. The piece builds to a powerful electric flamenco chorus that works to balance the slower, dramatic, funeral dirge of the verse.

"Holiday Collection" plays to the inner rock n' roller in all of us. A fun, heavy guitar riff paves the way for catchy horn melodies and vocals that tell of a hopelessly trashed hotel room and the inevitable expensive cleaning bill after a night of debauchery.

"Day breaks like Glass," featuring lyrics by Boston-based rapper/trumpeter MistOrBlizzard, is a smooth and earnest tune with thick horn and bass backing a punchy chorus that serves up a fist pump every time.

"Mission," (originally “Mission to Juarez”) is an instrumental track in the style of a spaghetti-western soundtrack that collided with a Latin-flavored James Brown funk jam. With heavy reverberation mixed with driving, catchy riffs - you'll find yourself on a deserted dirt road somewhere in the southwest...

"Operator," is the album’s longest track, fitting for a tune about evolution and the first monkey to discover thought and reason in a world just beginning to take shape. Lyrics speaking of "tree-top limbos" and "Charlie" (A tip of the cap reference to Charles Darwin), fill out this rock-based epic featuring wild drum and breaks symbolic of The Big Bang.

"Contagious," the album's only fully-electronic track and quasi-love song, is a hyper-catchy pop tune just begging for a dance re-mix. Echo-trailing synths, woven behind a warm and resonant bass, back harmony-rich vocals that reminds the listener how "a smiling heart is so contagious."