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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
PARADISE ISLAND:
Get Up: CD EP
This EP is short – like
seven minutes short. In that sense, it’s more than three times better than a
male stereotype. In the sense of the music that’s on it, I’d prefer to hear
more. Erase Errata’s Jenny Hoyston put three highly interesting songs on this,
ranging from Black Dice noise to old roots and blues-inflected guitars, filled
with murmured vocals and sounding like the Young People have at least one
comrade in updating older musical styles. Sure, it requires an appreciation of
the noisier forms of indie (liking Erase Errata might make for a good starting
point), but there’s a fair bit here to like.
–Puckett (Dim Mak)
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PAPERBACKS, THE:
An Episode Of Sparrows: CD
The first song – all
gentle, lilting emo melodies (think Buffalo Tom without guts) and crooning –
has a chorus of “I suffer this like a dream.” Me too, dude, me too.
–Puckett (Pshaw!)
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ORPHANS, THE:
Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead: CD
Rock and roll is at a weird
place right now. It’s kind of disheartening to know that there are bands out
there that cite Led Zeppelin and Nirvana as major influences. I don’t get it.
Those bands sucked the first time, so why would I want to hear some hipster fop
in vintage jeans regurgitate some half-assed ripoff? I don’t know. All I know
is that this Orphans album will kick you in the dick and you’ll ask for
seconds. Rock and roll hasn’t sounded this vital in a long time. It kind of
sounds like an old Dangerhouse punk band like the Avengers spliced in with the
whoopass-o-rama of the Motards, but mostly it just sounds like the Orphans.
Blood, sweat, and barbecue vomit, all rolled up in one neat little package.
–Josh (Unity Squad)
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ONE REASON:
All Rivers Run South; All Roads Lead Home: CD
I picked this up only
because it’s on Plan-It-X, and they’re the label that introduced me to Against
Me! and This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb. One Reason is kinda what you hope for out of
this label – there’s a tinge of Woodie Guthrie, an attitude of Joe Hill, and
enough rock’n’roll to keep you interested. This band is wedged so well between
Hot Water Music and Against Me! that you’d expect No Idea to put out this
album, but that’s not to say it’s too derivative. One Reason definitely are
hashing out their own sound, and the female vocals on this are flat-out tough.
The high point is “Rest Stop,” a dazzling, intelligent song about stopping at
the Trail of Tears Rest Stop in Illinois (“do you really have to commemorate
500 years of oppression with a building full of human waste?”). The low point
is the Bruce Springsteen cover. In between the highs and lows is a lot of good
shit.
–Sean Carswell (Plan-It-X)
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ON THE MIGHT OF PRINCES:
Sirens: CD
It reminds me of what might
occur if Thursday and Cursive collaborated. If that sounds appealing, you
should stop reading now because this album is unimaginative, uninspiring, and
almost completely uninteresting. Stop. Start. Scream. Croon. Melody. Mosh.
Yawn. Go play drums on your chest and stare at your shoes some more. Find
something to yearn over and don’t come back until you’ve either fought your way
out of a paper bag or moved past the same stupid fucking trend that’s drowning
the creativity of all the other bands like you.
–Puckett (Revelation)
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OI POLLOI:
Carson?: 7"
What else could make my
punk life better than knowing that Oi Polloi has put out another release? I had
to hear about it from a friend in another country asking me to get him a copy.
He is better informed than I. Here are three anarcho-punk anthems that are sung
in their native Gaelic language. Apparently only one percent of the population
of Scotland still speak the language. That is a shame, looking from the
outside. The Gaelic language sounds forceful when used alongside punk. It also
helps that the band is intense and passionate. This band, to me, has always
been protesting and alerting many people to topics that should be addressed. I
have always appreciated this band for their lyrical content and the ferocity of
their music. From the translations of the lyrics, they are angry and speaking
out about the problems of Scotland that most people do not hear about. I, for
one, have heard nothing in the news presented by the North American media. But
the DIY network comes through again to make light of things that I wouldn’t
have learned through mainstream channels. If you liked the last record, Fuaim
Catha, this release is even
heavier. The production, across the board, is near perfection. As usual, I was
not disappointed. One of my all-time favorite long-running bands.
–Donofthedead (Nikt Nic Nie Wie)
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ODDBALLS:
Oddballs’ Shit Explosion ‘94-’99: CD
Please tell me this is some
kind of fucked up prank. More three-chord (if that many) trash rawk for fans of
whatever garage band is the most recent flavor of the week. I would say that
there’s nothing here, but that’s giving this godawful piece of shit far more
credit than it deserves.
–Puckett (Scene Police)
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NORTH OF AMERICA:
Brothers, Sisters: CD
It’s getting tough for me
to care whether I’ve described this or that emo band as embodying this, that,
or the other quality. It’s getting harder for me to care that so and so said
such and such about a record; usually they’re wrong and their comments mark
them as an idiot to boot. With that noted, this record – and the rest of the records
like it that I’ve reviewed lately – will likely define the sound of college
rock in the nothings. Before you react by arguing that I couldn’t possibly know
what I’m talking about, I’m well-versed in post-core, having listened to and
sold more of the seminal works in this vein. However, I would rather have
opened that vein up and let every last bit of creative blood drain out, but
that’s an impractical solution for such a geographically dispersed scene. Much
like R.E.M., New Order, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Depeche Mode created an
entire style of music which could be dismissed with two derisive words (which
could also be desperately held on to as a shred of identity by people who had
nothing else going for them besides fucked up haircuts and worse fashion sense
– much like most fans of emo, as it turns out), bands like North Of America
will in turn provide stupid fucking shit-talking assholes with ammunition to
ignore and deride otherwise good music just because it happens to be surrounded
by whatever the fuck this dissonant, angular noise is and other bands that
sound just like them. Someday, we’ll look back on this and it will all seem
funny. Until then, I’ll sell this, buy another six pack and listen to Gunmoll
while I wait for them to start playing mid-sized venues to bros of frat boys.
–Puckett (Level Plane)
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NO CASH:
Run Your Pockets: CD
Run-of-the-mill
anarcho-hardcore with a tad more pop in the tunes than is usual. A lot of the
song intros are drawn out considerably longer than is good for ‘em, too.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Morphius)
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NO BALANCE:
Lights On: CD
Poppy emo-punk about girls
and the usual subjects (you know… like, life. And stuff.) from Greece. There’s
nothing really noteworthy about this record – nothing hugely special, but it’s
melodic and for some inexplicable reason, I feel an odd sort of affection for
it. Maybe it’s because I can hear the sound of four people doing the only thing
they know how to do in the best way they can do it (which is sincere) in a form
which is all too frequently dominated by the latest bandwagoneers.
–Puckett (Librarian)
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NEW YORK VAULTS:
self-titled: CD-EP and Single CD
Between both of these CDs
you get six tracks of New York rock’n’roll that sounds like they could be the
lost tapes of the Dolls/Ace Frehley sessions. Some pretty good stuff, but there
are so many bands treading this same ground these days that, ultimately,
they’re about as unique as a band influenced by the Rolling Stones.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.thenyvaults.com)
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NEIL PERRY:
Lineage: 2 X CD
You’re probably asking
yourself the same question I did when I got this: how did the world ever get
along without a Neil Perry double CD? Sounds like their sweaters are chafing. -Potsi
–Guest Contributor (Level-Plane)
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NAILBITER:
Abused: CD
Another Discharge clone
band, this one inspired by their speed metal period.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Hardcore Holocaust)
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MYLES OF DESTRUCTION/ABIKU:
Split: 7"
There’s a blurry picture of
a bird on the cover. You figure it out. -Potsi
–Guest Contributor (Worldeater)
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MUTE THE SILENCE:
self-titled: 7"
Greek punk rock. Since it
traveled so far to get reviewed, I wish there were more positive things to say
about it. The intro sounds like Yanni. The name is as dumb as calling your band
Volumate the Noise. Silence is already mute. The rest sounds like
serious-minded NOFX mixed with Strung Out and Lagwagon with the vocals at a
higher register. They have to reel back the metal stylings and the drummer
knows monkey beats, but little else. I really wanted to give the Greeks a
chance, but this was painfully mediocre pop punk, like one in a legion that
were around in 1996. Greece: I like their baklava, but they can keep this band.
Sorry.
–Todd Taylor (www.mutethesilence.com)
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MUSTAPHAMOND:
Self-titled: 7"
This is textbook
Tourette’s-core. Six or seven seconds of light, happy-skipping lollipop music
suddenly has the wiggly blue organs ripped out of it by a screaming, bug-eyed
fiend with a scythe dripping with blood and clumps of blubber and then it falls
like a feather back into cuddly unicorns and dancing marshmallows for maybe
twenty seconds or so and then the smiles explode into a nightmare of stringy
cadavers flying through the sky, tangling in trees and after about a minute the
focus suddenly softens to the Snuggles bear giggling like a child in a pile of
fluffy clean laundry. Note to the band: they now have drugs for stuff like
this. I can only imagine that abrupt emotion eruptions like this must make for
awkward moments at the pottery wheel in your Advanced Pottery class. Or is it
all merely the simple joy of clicking the little button that switches between
the clean and dirty channels on your amps? (By the way, is Korn responsible for
this?) I don’t know if this is one-legged screamcore or just amped-up mawkish
emo, but if you’re fond of herky-jerky emotion bungee jumps, this bilge is for
you.
–aphid (Grey Sky)
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MRS. DOMINIC:
I Can’t Behave Myself: CD-EP
Above average, mid-tempo
punk that is too paint-by-numbers. The songs are good but they could have been
written by a million other bands. Nothing jumps out that sets them apart from
the pack.
–Donofthedead (Damn Good)
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MR. CALIFORNIA AND THE STATE POLICE:
Untitled: 7"
Dumb as a bucket of cold
pud, ineptly recorded, booger-eating-simple lo-fi synth-punk sprinkled with
little bits of Gibby Haynes, the Crucifucks, and plenty of whirling intestinal
synthesizer floowumps. Kinda funny, kinda stupid, totally charming.
–aphid (Armpit Toast)
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MOTORCYCLE PROM DATES, THE/THE SHUTUPS:
Split: CD
Prom Dates: pretty standard
rock/punk band. Terrible cover of the Ramones’ “Bop ‘til You Drop.” Shutups:
More of the same, although their cover of Motorhead’s “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.” was
better than the other band’s cover. While neither band is particularly lousy,
they aren’t exactly pee-in-the-pants exciting, either.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Motorcycle Prom Dates)
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MONSTER X:
Indoctrination: CD
I remember seeing the name
thrown around in the late ‘90s in zines. Never ever listened to them or bought
anything. Here is another discography that takes care of all of my shopping
needs. A mixture of power violence and grindcore that reminds me of Lack of
Interest. I guess I should be more excited, but right now the cookie monster
vocals are not doing it for me.
–Donofthedead (Hater of God)
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MINORITY BLUES BAND:
Grab the Fire Swinging in the Rain: CD
Rule number one: Japanese
punk rockers play their instruments better than American punk rockers. Rule
number two: everything Snuffy Smile records releases is fucking awesome. Rule
number three: well, it’s not so much a rule, but pick up this fucking album
already. If you like Leatherface, Hüsker Dü, and the Replacements, you won’t be
disappointed. And, yes, I realize that Leatherface, Hüsker Dü, and the
Replacements don’t have all that much in common with each other, but Minority
Blues Band has a lot in common with all three.
–Sean Carswell (Snuffy Smile)
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MINDS, THE:
Plastic Girls: CD
Equidistant from the Briefs
(using patented bounce technology) and the Epoxies (keyboards, but with a dude
singing), but on a triangle’s corner all by themselves, I’ve played Plastic
Girls upwards of fifty times
since it arrived in the mail. Instead of the sheen wearing off, and reaching
for Hit after Hit to get my Briefs fix, I
find myself getting addicted to the Minds. The twelve songs fit nicely
together, there’s an overwhelming TV Smith lock’n’load feel to all the songs
(they also cover the Adverts’ “My Place”) that give them substance, weight, and
blast where some of the more new wavey-inclined bands rely on lazier
look-at-me, I’m-touching-the-keys-and-looking-sexy isms. What helps tie it all
down is the fact that Cera Bella Palsy’s keyboard finds a way to wind through
every song, and not merely as a garnish, but as the circulatory system to many
of the tunes. Excellent stuff. Not as derivative as the first listen may lead
you to believe. Smash! Smash! Smash!
–Todd Taylor (Dirtnap)
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MIKE TOSCHI:
Mock Democracy: CD
Oh, dear lord, no!
Whispery, breathy vocals over repetitive guitar, sometimes with oboe! –
–Megan Pants (Global Seepej)
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MEZKLAH:
Spider Monkey: CD
Hoo doggie, my buddy
Donofthedead is gonna shit blue Twinkies when he hears this bad boy. Two –
count ‘em – two guys, one on vocals and one on guitar (with the help of a drum
machine), unleash one mutha of a mélange of hip hop, dub, ragamuffin, trance,
funk, Cuban son, psychedelia – hell, damn near every style that has made the
rounds through the underground, all served up with a healthy dose of punk rock
“love us, hate us, but you ain’t gonna ignore us” attitude. Mind you, they
ain’t mining the above musical styles by settling on one style for one song and
then another the next. Au contraire, these guys are not only smooshing all
these styles together into one raucous gumbo of sound on nearly EVERY TRACK,
they are making it work: soaring guitars layered on top of Cuban piano forms
fueled by the staccato of reggae, with some mighty fine, often bilingual,
lyrics served up inna dancehall style, all of it slathered over a drum ‘n’ bass
backbeat. This is some very creative, very heady stuff that works on a variety
of levels, which is a polite way of saying yes, the booty can be shook quite
nicely to it, but you just might find yourself thinking, too, if you don’t
watch out. This is easily my pick of the issue and, quite possibly, of 2003.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.mezklah.com)
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MDC:
Now More than Ever: CD
Man, you know you’re
getting old when MDC has a “greatest hits” package out. Saw this band many a
time back when I was young, bald and mad at the world (which means I’m somehow
in a different place now that I’m mad at the world, old and destined to go
bald), and while they always struck me as a little too uptight in the early
days, they were never dull to watch. Their records were always an event,
though, ‘cause not only did you get what at the time was some of the most
punishing and musically complex hardcore (seem to remember that their guitarist
was a major jazz hound, and it showed), you also got some heady reading in the
liner notes, with all kinds of information about how the US government was
keeping itself busy in other countries and how the police were here to protect
the elite’s assets from being defiled by the riff raff that most of us common
folks are, and recommended reading if you wanted to know more. Somewhere around
the late ‘80s, though, they kinda dropped offa the radar screen, and I lost
track of ‘em, although I did hear that some o’ the boys got pinched by the pigs
and were spending some time locked up and “on vacation,” as they call it in the
‘hood, and saw that Dave was still releasing product now and then with a
different lineup. So, this is the first time I’ve actually heard some o’ this
stuff and I’ve gotta say, some of the newer stuff sharing the, uh, grooves (do
CDs even HAVE grooves?) here with the early classics aren’t too shabby in their
own right. Many of the newer tunes show Dave’s wry sense of humor coming to the
forefront more often than in the early days, as evidenced in his sendoffs to
two of punk’s most reviled figures, Ronald Reagan and Skrewdriver’s Ian Stuart
(the title of the latter, “Nazis Shouldn’t Drive,” caused me to laugh out
loud). If you’re looking for the “best” of MDC, all’s you need is their first
album, the More Dead Cops LP (which compiles all their early EPs), and Smoke Signals (if two albums worth of MDC just ain’t enough). If
you’re more interested in catching up to where the band are these days
musically, this is the perfect place to start while waiting for the next
release to hit the shelves.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Beer City)
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