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Record Reviews1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | 0-9| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M | | N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z| Below are some recently posted reviews.  RSS Feed
FIFTH HOUR HERO:
You Have Hurt My Business and My Reputation Too: CD
I love this band! Quebeçois punk rock! Girl and boy vocals! (I wish we were at the point in punk rock where I didn’t have to point out when there are girl vocals, but, unfortunately, this is still mostly a boy band scene! Just look at the Backstreet Boys! NO girls at ALL!) Anyway, three songs of great melodic punk, plus one more folky number! Think Discount! If you haven’t already bought their LP, Scattered Sentences, what’s wrong with you? If this were a cereal, it’d be Marshmallow Alpha Bits! Could become Lucky Charms [my favorite!] quite soon! My only complaint? I’m assuming you speak French, so why no French songs? Je l’aimerais bien!
–Maddy (No Idea)
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FIFTH HOUR HERO / THE SAINTE CATHERINES:
Split: 7"
Fifth Hour Hero: I still can’t shake the Discount comparison. It’s especially evident on their second song, “A Map Within.” It’s strange, since Discount was from Florida and Fifth Hour Hero is Canadian; I thought accents would change the vocals up a bit more. That said, since Allison of Discount is now busy smoking cigarettes on stage in an effort to remain mysterious and changed her name to Building or Eraser or something (she’s in the Kills) and has slipped into designer jeans, Fifth Hour Hero is slowly getting more spins on my record player. Past loyalties die hard. I’m liking FHH more and more. The Sainte Catherines: take the first two Small Brown Bike albums, toss in Lemmy of Motorhead’s basic bass sensibilities, rough it up in a cement mixer for some extra dizziness, and there you have it. “The International Badminton Championship: La P’ Tite Grise Vs. Jef” is one of the best-executed songs about confused sexuality I’ve come across in a long time. Immaculate packaging, to boot.
–Todd Taylor (1-2-3-4-Go!)
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FIXED IDEA:
Traditions of My Addictions: CD
Pretty much pure ska here. In other words, extremely lame. They could easily be the house band in any cheesy bar along the beach in Florida. I’m sure they are a hit with the geriatric scene.
–Toby Tober (Broken Bonez)
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FLATLINERS, THE:
Safe Side Suicide: CD
Hard call, this one is. While their lyrics aren’t exactly poetry, they name check in their thank you list some of the biggest hacks in modern punk, and it sounds like they tried very hard to mimic the production values of the first Minor Threat EP, I’ll be damned if I don’t keep coming back to this. Despite the aforementioned drawbacks (or, as I think back on the days of yore, maybe because of them), they’ve got that ‘80s hardcore sound down pat, and the fact that the tunes themselves are catchy don’t hurt matters much. Jeez, I feel like I just stepped out of a time machine or something. Thanks for helping me to feel sixteen and mad at the world again.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Slab-O-Wax)
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FALL-OUTS, THE:
Summertime: CD
…while a zippy-but-uncute slammer like “All In My Mind” provides a swift and effective refresher course on why we all liked this band in the ‘90s, and “Shortcut” yields an at least marginally serviceable mutation of Donovan’s take on Al Kooper’s “Season of the Witch,” and the album’s entire peculiar Mod Meat Puppets vibe is, if nothing else, un-completely-played-out, i can’t help but live in mortal fear that some bastard rock critic somewhere is going to make the joke that this album really oughtta be called There We Go And Other Misses. Ooooooops. BEST SONG: “All In My Mind” BEST SONG TITLE: “One Thought Too Much” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: “Staring at the Sun” is not the Angry Samoans song (but i wouldn’t mind if it was).
–Rev. Norb (Estrus)
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FASTIDOS, LOS:
Siempre Contra: CD
Italian skinheads playing punk with an occasional ska tune thrown in for good measure. Subjects addressed include resistance, revolution, animal rights, and such. While I can’t say this knocked my socks off, they were catchy enough and the songs weren’t about drinking and beating people up, and for that alone they get deserve nothing less than tons of respect. If it sounds like your bag, it’s recommended.
–Jimmy Alvarado (KOB)
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FALL OF THE BASTARDS:
Dusk of an Ancient Age: CD
By-the-numbers black metal, interesting at best and not very innovative. The band members’ names, particularly drummer Rudimentary Eli, cracked me up, though.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Intolerant Messiah)
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EXTERNAL MENACE:
The Process of Elimination: CD
Don’t know who Dr. Strange has picking out what to release for ‘em, but they’ve been batting quite a high average lately, and this is no exception. You get some relatively recent tracks (seven to eight years ago) from a UK band that started back in 1979 and are apparently still making the rounds. The songs are mid-tempo UK punk/hardcore circa 1982, with the occasional Clash-inspired reggae/punk track thrown in for good measure. Best song on here, hands down, is “Rude Awakening,” quite possibly the best tune that Joe and Mick never wrote. This is gonna get played lots around these parts.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Dr. Strange)
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EVAPORATORS, THEE:
Ripple Rock: CD
Oh, Canada! Oh, Nardwuar! Vancouver Canada’s Evaporators are back after a six year break from the last full length (I Gotta Rash) and it’s been way too long. Zany and catchy as hell. They are one of the those bands that you forget how much you really love them until you start humming along to the only band silly enough to release 8-tracks! A true guilty pleasure, but they are so much better than they should be. Nardwaur is brilliant or I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest too long. I’m going to France! –Wanda Sprag
–Guest Contributor (Alternative Tentacles)
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ENDLESS:
Decade of Obscurity: CD
I don’t know if this is supposed to be a discography of sorts since the cover references 1993-2003. If they only wrote and recorded six songs in that time span, that is pretty bad. If this is a greatest hits, it’s new to me. This is what the kids now call hardcore. The vocals are screamed and the guitars are metallic. Four originals, one Suicidal cover and two live cuts that should have been replaced with two originals because the sound quality is flat and sounds like it could have come from a W.A.S.P. concert. Not half bad. I’m debating if I’m going to put this in the trade in pile.
–Donofthedead (Da’ Core)
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EL BUZZARD:
Self-titled: CD
Sludgy, post-grunge stoner rock with screamed vocals. It’s been so long since I’ve heard anything like this that I actually found myself digging it quite a bit. Thumbs up.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.el-buzzard.com)
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DT’S, THE:
Hard Fixed: CD
The DT’s play soulful, female-fronted punk rock in the vein of The Bellrays and the Detroit Cobras. Plus, Dave Crider from the Mono Men is on guitar, so the songs have that extra edge that I was hoping for. As an added touch, they skipped out on having a bassist and stuck in keyboards that owe a lot more to the Sonics than they do to any kind of New Wave. Put it all together and you got yourself a solid ten songs. Prior to this CD, the only thing the DT’s put out was a little five song, three-inch CD. Two of the songs from the little EP made it onto the album. The rest is new stuff. All of it’s worth repeated listens.
–Sean Carswell (Estrus)
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DRIPS, THE:
Mexico: 7"
It’s a rare thing indeed when I go see a band almost cold, with only the slightest of expectations and recommendations, and I have to wipe the concrete dust off my jacket from getting blown through the back of the club by the first song and remaining there for the rest of the set. That was the case with The Drips when I caught them at the Doll Hut last year. Monstrously catchy (and not in easy ways that I’m well prepared for), anthemic (in the “we’re all sick and we’re all in this together” way: “More pills! More wine!”), headed by a spazz (and he’s in a much better known band. Dig a little and you’ll find out), armed with one of the most powerful drum punishers I’ve seen in ages. I can’t quite put my finger on what makes The Drips get my pulse all erratic and makes me listen to each song twice before I flip the record over. They’ve got the x-factor in spades. The charisma that although you’ve heard all the pieces scattered about, they glued that fucker tight and you find out that it’s got more missiles to deploy than you first thought possible. Much like how the GC5 updated street punk without betraying it or being a slave to it, The Drips take a shit-ton of OC punk and do a fine bit recreation, then decimation. My prediction: if the band doesn’t annihilate itself in the next year, they’ll be constantly drilling to your cranium, like those oil wells spread out through the residential neighborhoods of Huntington Beach. Mark it, dude. This one’s a bonafide punk rock master stroke.
–Todd Taylor (Hostage)
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EHLEUCHATISTAS:
On the Culture Industry: CD
I guess the new thing with failed emo bands is to ditch the singers and up the jazz influence exponentially. Singer or no, this rocks about as hard as the last Weather Report album.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.angurasound.com)
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DRESDEN 45:
Paradise Lost (Expanded): CD
Wow, here’s another one of those bands that time almost, unjustly, forgot. Last remember hearing these kids in the late ‘80s and was mightily impressed with their full-on thrash attack. At the time, things were starting to get a tad rehash, and a lot of groups were jumping ship to take a stab at metal superstardom, so when a band managed to shake things up a bit, you tended to take notice. This wrecking crew was such a band. After an LP and maybe a 7-inch or two, they were gone, and I heard nothing more of them until the day Todd popped this into my box. Wow, I had no idea they released much more than I thought they did. There’re a total of twenty tracks here spanning their entire recorded career and, aside from a moment of ill-advised rappin’, there’s nary a bad bit in the bunch. Fans of very early RKL or Final Conflict would be well advised to pick this up. Yeah, this is recommended.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Arclight)
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DR. PEDOPHILOUS:
Killer Klown: 10” EP
Decent enough peppy punk rock marred by attempts to sing in English. Include a lyric sheet with translations if you want to, but stick to your native tongue and you’ll sound that much more authentic.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Kill Yourself)
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DIVINE RIGHT OF MEANS:
Self-titled: CD
This dances on a razor’s edge between trash rock and AmRep skronk, lagging a bit when they lean toward the latter but shining bright when they pull out all the stops and raise a ruckus. Clip off four or five tracks of dead weight and this would be a stunner.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.doubleplusgoodrecords.com)
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DISTRACTION, THE:
…More Trouble at the V…: 12” EP
Man, I tried and tried to like the last Distraction full-length, and I sat on the fence with it for a long time, finally falling off, coming to the ultimate conclusion that it was a simpler Stitches. And, due to gross geographic proximity of the two bands (thirty miles, tops), I figured that that subdivision needed only one Stitches. This EP has got me doing some serious re-figuring. Gone are the “Is that Mike Lohrman singing?” vocals, replaced by none other than Le Shok and Neon King Kong’s Hot Rod Todd, who sounds like he’s huffing paint and slurring simultaneously. Also greatly whipping this thing into another shape are the keyboards, which roam through the recording like a fat boa constrictor, gently sliding in and out, squeezing and bulging unexpected bits and pieces to the front. I never had a problem with the Distraction’s string work, and it all comes into focus on this EP. The whole enterprise makes a hell of a lot more sense when it stands on its own two musical legs. Thumbs up, also to the 3-D cover (with Distraction-logo’d glasses) and the fact that this is a one-sided 12” EP makes it almost impossible for these guys to break even, so you know this thing’s from the heart and not just the wallet.
–Todd Taylor (TKO)
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DISKORDS, THE:
Blame It on the Kids: CD
I’ve been hearing a bit about the Diskords. The rumor mill says that one of their dads drives them to shows (they’re only fourteen) and fixes them dinner. That endears them to me. Heavy Ramones influence, especially on “Cretin Girl” and “Boppin’ at the Morgue,” mixed with heavy doses of the Heartbreakers. They haven’t really established their own sound, but it’s super catchy and done well. Plus, when I think about what I was doing my freshman year of high school, this just blows me away.
–Megan Pants (Vinyl Warning)
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DISILLUSIONED YOUTH:
Cent Ep’d: CDR-EP
Pretty funny joke band, with songs like about dad’s porn, being a loser for buying a laptop, and Dischord Records (“Twenty years of Dischord is 18 years too long!”). If this were a cereal, it’d be something like Fresh Prince O’s. A kinda funny idea.
–Maddy (self-released?)
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DIRTSHAKES:
Return to Boomsfeeldeliah!: CD
A compilation of singles by a good rock band. I wouldn’t turn the channel from KXLU if it was playing.
–Speedway Randy (Valve)
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DESCENDENTS, THE:
Cool to Be You: CD
I was one of those awkward kids in school. Punk rock gave me an identity that I have carried for over twenty years. When I first bought the Milo Goes to College LP, I felt instant validation. It connected to me then as it still does now. The line-ups have mutated, but the formula remains the same. A teaser EP, ‘Merican, came out first this year and blew me away. They’re one of the few bands from the early ‘80s that can still kick out jams. Anticipation was high after hearing that. Retodd reported to me that the full length is “fuckin’ good!” I was so excited. When I left Razorcake HQ to pick up review material, I popped the sucker in the CD changer in my car. I rarely ever do that. I started the car and turned my stereo up. I’m no typical punk rocker. I have to have a 200-watt stereo system with some booming subwoofers that cost me a pretty penny in my truck to play my punk rock. Ooh, ha! I’m in familiar territory here. That oh-so-familiar bass playing of Karl shakes out of the speakers. Milo’s voice provides me the comfort that things are going to be all right. Bill’s intricate lead drumming bang away in a positive heartbeat. Stephen continues on with a great guitar sound that is so sweet up front but will bite you in the ass if you aren’t paying attention. My highlight track has to be “Mass Nerder.” Changing the Germs’ lyrics of “We Must Bleed” to “We Must Read” is fucking classic! I hate to say it, but this is better than the last three albums combined. That is no small chump change. Those albums are great, but this one is so much better. Jimmy Alvarado and I are kinda the old goats of this cooperative. If he hates this, he needs a colonic.
–Donofthedead (Fat)
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DESCENDENTS, THE:
Cool to Be You: CD
The differences between The Descendents and ninety-five percent of pop punk? I sat and listened and listened and listened to this CD and it kept on getting better instead of stale. Little things hit me. As I’m wont to do with a CD that I really like, I talk to people about it. Here’s what’s come up in discussion. 1.) When they sing about love, it’s not boyfriend/ girlfriend. It’s wife, ex-wife. The stakes are higher and more grave, the emotions less polar. 2.) The guitar, as with Jughead of Screeching Weasel, up in the front, it sounds like frosting, fuzzy bunnies, and sunshine but underneath, it’s all sharpened blades sticking in deep, churning nuts and bolts. 3.) The Descendents are still consummate musical outsiders. Through the relative isolation of living in Colorado while Milo went off and got his Ph.D., they weren’t concerned with keeping up with all of the little punk rock ghettos that have formed. They lived life and were human beings with punk rock rooted inside. Then they decided to make an album. They don’t need the money. They needed the fuel that only creation can bring. I admire that. 4.) True pioneers don’t just have one trick up their sleeves. The best of the breed are the ultimate survivors. They overcame one of the largest obstacles: remaining relevant past their mid-to-late thirties in a genre of music that treats bands like Logan’s Run. 5.) Any band that lyrically includes Otis Redding, the Haymarket Riot, and the line “I’m gonna kick their asses in class/ Gonna get good grades!” will usually make it to my A list, anyhow. It’ll be impossible for this album to be kicked off my top ten for 2004.
–Todd Taylor (Fat)
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DIE STINKIN’:
HMFU: 7" EP
I liked their Smell Is in the Air CD and there’s enough solid, mid-tempo punkin’ going on here to keep these ears satisfied. While nothing here reaches the lofty heights of “Beer,” “Baby I Love Dope” comes pretty darn close.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Die Stinkin’)
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DEVENDRA BERNHART:
Rejoicing in the Hands: CD
Infinitely cool artwork, an impossible to decipher lyric sheet, and some achingly dull acoustic folk music. Get a job, hippie.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.younggodrecords.com)
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