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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
GIANT ROBOTS, THE:
Too Young to Know Better…Too Hard to Care!: CD
The organ player drips with sexuality, the bass player’s mini dress leaves just enough to the imagination, and, apparently, there are a couple of guys in the band that I must’ve overlooked in the album artwork. The Giant Robots are a good-lookin’ foursome from Lausanne, Switzerland with the musical chops to make you forget…okay, you’re not going to forget how pretty they are, but they’re not getting by on looks alone. Too Young to Know Better… will make you think you’ve time warped back to Paris, circa 1966, and are attending an all-night, garage-pop party. The songs on the CD are conveniently labeled with a title and the style in which they are played. Track one, for instance, is called “Come on Back” and is played in the style of “garage jerk.” I don’t know what “feudecamp hip” is, but “Share My Love with You” is one of the standout tracks. The perfect soundtrack to your next ‘60s dance party.
–Josh Benke (Voodoo Rhythm, www.voodoorhythm.com)
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GHOULTOWN:
Bury Them Deep: CD
Oh, cute; it’s a scary cowboy-themed psychobilly band. The promo photos are the best part of this. They’re all wearing dusty leather vests and animal teeth necklaces and Rob Zombie cowboy hats and stuff, but also with eye makeup and Myspace hair. Poor guys: real cowboys would kick their asses, and real Hot Topic mall punks would laugh at them for dressing like their redneck uncle. Musically, it’s kinda rockabilly-inspired hard rock, rather nondescript, with songs about banditos and stagecoaches and train robberies and tombstones. The whole thing is so contrived, I bet in three years they’ll be playing stoner rock or pop punk.
–ben (Zoviet)
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GHOSTLIMB:
Self-titled: CD
Driving, relentless hardcore that has no problem getting just a little tech with their guitars. Musicianship and production quality are all top notch, and they get a good number of style points on the impeccable medieval theme of the album art, but the font style is kind of at the expense of being able to read the lyrics. But, then again, my eyes aren’t so good, and sometimes I like to pretend I don’t even know how to read.
–Daryl Gussin (Gunslap, jason@graforlock.com)
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FENWICK:
Totally OK: CD
Hailing from the hometown of Jack Kerouac, Fenwick are a three-piece punk rock band. They don’t do anything fancy, preferring to keep it simple and straight forward. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that, largely because of the singer’s lack of range, every song tends to sound exactly the same. If it was a single, I’d probably say it’s a pretty good, Muffs-style, aggressive melodic punk. As an eleven song full-length, it’s repetitive and boring.
–brian (My Little Rock Star, www.mylittlerockstar.com)
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EYES SET TO KILL:
When Silence Is Broken the Night Is Torn: CD
Male screamo vocals matched with female vocals reminiscent of Evanescene over metal riffage.
–Donofthedead (Self-released? No address)
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EVICTION PARTY:
Self-titled: Cassette
Twelve nice tracks from Halifax, NS; real nice ones. Rough around the edges poppy punk with a swell amount of jangle on the guitars and a few ca. 1966 Beatles-sounding licks, dual-gendered singing, and well-written songs for what sound like pretty young kids. Lyrics seem a little on the emo side, but not for emo’s sake, just cause that’s what they’re thinking about, kinda like before “emo” was a bad word.
–Cuss Baxter (www.myspace.com/disvictionparty)
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EVERYTHING FALLS APART:
Escape: 7”
You know how you slop something together because you need to eat, but don’t really care what it is? How, while you’re eating, you sometimes forget what you’re even eating because it’s just that unremarkable? That’s how EFA is for me. Decent enough hardcore that does the trick well enough, but I just end up forgetting that I’m even listening to anything.
–Megan Pants (Self-released)
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ELLEGARDEN:
Riot on the Grill: CD
Unfuckingbelievable. This band has sold like 700,000 copies of this record in Japan and it sounds like they could do the same here. Somewhere between a perfect synthesis of Blink 192 and like New Found Glory or some such nonsense. I totally did not expect this music to come out of these people, given the nature of what most Japanese punk I’ve come across sounds like. And the cover of this thing—which is a delightful full color gatefold cardboard deal; the Japanese really know paper. Some lyrics in English, some in Japanese. Not terrible if you like that sort of over-the-top, radio-ready emotional pop punk. Which, for the most part, is terrible altogether…but this isn’t that bad.
–Steveo (Denko Secca, www.denkosecca.com)
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DREADFUL CHILDREN:
Dot to Dot…: CD
Punk? Oi? New wave? Pop? I can’t really get into putting a label on this, but I can tell you that it is pretty damn cool. It’s not hard to tell that Dreadful Children hail from the same area and are friends with The Briefs. The two bands do have a similar sound, but there is something distinguishing here. The guitars are a little more garagey and there is a little less snot in the vocals. I found myself liking this more and more with each song that went by (“Hopefully” is one of the best songs I’ve heard all month!). I’d really like to see them play live now. Just a small hop over the border, boys!
–Ty Stranglehold (Street Anthem)
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DOWN AND OUTS:
Minneapolis: 7” EP
The title track is a nice bit of poppy punk. “Violence in the Streets” is a bit more oi-inflected with raspy vocals, single-note lead, and a chanty chorus. The winner here, though, is “Our Day Out,” a stunner in the Stiff Little Fingers mold. I’d be interested to hear what they’d manage to muster up for a full-length.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.ratpatrolrecs.com)
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DISCO FOR FERNS, A:
Arterial Spray and Puss: CD-R
I’m guessing they mean “Pus,” but I could be wrong so I didn’t slap a “[sic]” on there. Nearly unlistenable homemade grind; sounds like it might be okay if you could hear anything besides the vocals, but six minutes of yelling isn’t rock‘n’roll, and it isn’t music, and it isn’t yelling, it’s shouting.
–Cuss Baxter (OBZ)
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DIRTY NOVELS, THE:
Pack Your Pistols: CD
Cool band from the Southwest, coming on like the more recent Makers stuff, which I love. Some Gun Club style influence creeping in as well. Dug the first six tunes but the last four are killer: total glam punk chestnuts to finish out the record. Great stuff! Seems to sound better the more I listen to it. A band to watch, for sure, if you like glam punk.
–Mike Frame (self released, www.thedirtynovels.com)
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DIANE AND THE SHELL:
30,000 Feet Tarantella: CD
Slow, monotonous, repetitive, pretentious. Piano, guitar, xylophone, drums. I guess it’s some kind of jazz.
–Cuss Baxter (Australian Cattle)
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DESTRUCTORS 666 / RADICUS:
Split: CDEP
Radicus: They ain’t bad, but there’s a “rock” undercurrent that just don’t sit well with my tastes. Destructors 666: One rock-solid mid-tempo number, one that burns at a slower pace, and an unfortunate cover of “Kick out the Jams.” Given the number of Destructors-related EPs I’ve encountered over the past twelve months, I’m figuring they’re overdue for a full-length.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Rowdy Farrago)
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DENNIS:
Wasted Days, Follow Dreams: 7”
I desperately need a classification lesson for all things screamed. This is all soft, soft, kick drum, fast, back to slow, kick drum to fast, and sounds like they went to art school? So, what the hell does that make this? I’m not sure what it’s called out there, but I usually call it crap.
–Megan Pants (Spicy Soup)
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DEMON SEEDS, THE:
Have a Date with Death: CD
Three fresh-faced, mostly clean-shaven Bostonians (two of them from Crimson Ghost) and a cherub-cheeked twenty-something gal (Is she the Farfisa-ist or the model?) holding a giant plastic scythe, punch out thirteen (sigh) evenly toned, evenly spaced, evenly timed rehashed college-town surfabilly. Monotone and dreary, like Pleasantville before Reese Witherspoon.
–Jessica Thiringer (Necro-Tone)
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DEFECTORS, THE:
Bruised and Satisfied: CD
Based on all its ingredients—strong ‘60s garage tunes with a gloomy tinge, Farfisa organs, sound quality that doesn’t sound like utter shit—I should be lapping this up with a large spoon, but something I just can’t place my finger on is keeping me from doing so. Best I can figure is it’s missing just a smidge more oomph to push it over the edge. Gonna hafta listen to this one a while longer and see if it grows on me.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.badafro.dk)
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DEADNECK FURY:
Self-titled: CDEP
Solid, straight ahead hardcore that keeps the pace a-chuggin’ and the mood festive.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.deadneckfury.com)
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DC SNIPERS/ TAMPOFFS:
Split: 7”
The DC Snipers kick this off with “Baby Don’t Be So Violent,” which is about two hundred times catchier and more traditional sounding than their Missile Sunset CD. Which isn’t to say they’ve gone soft. The song absolutely rocks, but in more of a Dead Boys/ Real Kids sort of way. They follow with “Dirt Bag,” in much the same vein. Both tracks sound like they were recorded totally in the red, all bleary and compressed. The flip side finds The Tampoffs playing at top speed through two ultra-catchy songs, “Gentlemen” and “Lead,” both staples of their live show. I’ve seen the Tampoffs a few times, and always enjoyed them, but this recording doesn’t really capture the joy they display live.
–brian (Daggerman, www.myspace.com/daggermanrecords)
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DARK WATER TRANSIT:
Dawn of the Goblin: CD
I’ve never heard Dark Water Transit before, so I don’t really know what they sound like, but this album is a cover of the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack, originally written and performed by Italian masters Goblin. The Dark Water Transit guys got permission from Goblin to do this cover album and HOLY FUCK is it AMAZING! Faithful enough to the original versions and yet they add just enough to it to make this disc sound fresh and exciting. I really, really like this.
–ben (Let Em Talk, letemtalk.com)
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DAN PADILLA:
Self-titled: CD
You know what I like about us? We’re too damn good, too damn drunk, and too damn ugly to be popular. All of this will never be ruined by an influx of shitty sixteen-year-old kids or a full color exposé as the latest threat to America’s youth in USA Today. Only fat people with drinking problems want to be/ care about fat people with drinking problems! This shit is foolproof until we die or get committed! I’ve never seen Dan Padilla, the man or the band, but I know for a fact that it’s bands like this that make me happy to be a part of all of this in whatever ways I find myself and charged to keep at it despite the deepening debt and Fest AIDS, which is sure to strike again this year, as it does every year. Musically, it’s just about what you’d expect from the sum of its parts (dudes from Tiltwheel, Bloodbath & Beyond, and Altaira). Gritty and a little jangly, at times almost a little country/ bluesy, pop punk with a touch of early Jawbreaker, Leatherface, and probably Hüsker Dü. Little confession…don’t much care for all that much Hüsker Dü. Sorry. Bonus points for stealing from New Order and The Misfits on one album. You have serious fucking problems in your life if you don’t like the song “Chaparral Real” from this record. Problems that I will probably have to fix with a lead pipe if we should meet in a dark alley.
–Steveo (A.D.D.)
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CRUSTIES, THE:
Rat’s Revenge: CD
I gotta tell you, with a name like The Crusties, I was expecting a bunch of guys with lots of spikes on leathers and Conflict patches. Not even close. The Crusties here sound more like a straight up punk band circa the mid ‘80s. That is, until the horns kick in. Speaking of the horns, they’re not ska horns, or Rocket From The Crypt-sounding horns… I really don’t know what the deal is with the horns, but I do know that they just don’t work for me. They really take away from what could be interesting music. The music is punk, but the vocalist sounds almost like some bastard combination of some rockabilly singer and the guys in the Nobodys. The usual song topics are here: fashion punks, small towns, rednecks, and G.W. Bush. Not terrible, but, at the same time, it’s just not doing anything for me.
–Ty Stranglehold (Beer City)
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CRAP CORPS:
Self-titled: 7” EP
Being the total ninny I am, I listened to the first side of this on 33 1/3 instead of 45 and thought, “Man, these guys are pretty plodding for a hardcore band.” Now that I’ve got it on the right speed, what I’m hearing is no frills hardcore from an all-female band that sounds angry enough, but never quite manages to push things close enough to the edge to kick in a “wow” response.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Big Brown Shark)
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CONVERGE:
No Heroes: CD
Well, Converge is back with a new album, and frankly, it sounds just like all their other albums. I’m sure there are still lots of people in the world that still like this kinda metalcore screamy stuff, but honestly, I got tired of it about five years ago. If you like Converge, get this. It’s exactly what you’ll be expecting.
–ben (Epitaph)
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COLDBRINGER:
Lust and Ambition: 12”
My friend Mary plays drums for this dirty rock and roll band from Portland, OR. She was a rocker since the day I met her in Tempe, Arizona eight or nine years ago. It’s good to see she’s still rocking out! Coldbringer plays the raunchy style that still stays true to rock and roll. I could see these guys and the Triggers getting along great in the Pacific Northwest. Throw this alongside your Turbonegro, AC/DC, or whatever scummy, oozing, sounds you prefer coming out of your turntable.
–Buttertooth (Dead Ideas)
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