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Record Reviews1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 | 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| < Prev Section | Next Section >  RSS Feed
BROWN SUGAR:
Deportation: 7” EP
Sloppy, fly by the seat of your pants hardcore stuff. At times, they come dangerously close to sounding like early Gang Green, and the lyrics are almost as haiku-like in their simplicity: “wear a fuckin’ sweater/the sun’s turnin’ off/bundle up real good/Armageddon gets me off/2012 nobody will keep us from havin’ fun/party, party, party.” They, thankfully, don’t get silly with the speed, but still manage to pack quite a wallop.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Feral Kid)
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BROWN SUGAR:
Self-titled: Cassette
Packaged like a cassingle, this tape starts out sounding vaguely punky/poppy, sort of like a cross between Dinosaur Jr and the Doughboys or something. From there, the band plows straight ahead with some solid hardcore punk. Actually, this band sounds quite a bit like a less polished Paint It Black, another Rolling Stones song-named band. There must be something about taking your name from Mick ‘n’ Keith ‘n’ the boys that leads to gruff hardcore punk stylings.
–Mike Frame (Feral Kid)
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BROWN SUGAR:
Get Fuckin’ Mugged: Flexi 7"
138.6pt 0pt 0pt" class="MsoNormal">The “mid tempo hardcore punk from upstate New York” tag I’ve heard thrown around for these guys doesn’t come close to doing this band justice. The first track is pretty straight Minor Threat worship, but the vibe of the recording is a lot more rock’n’roll. The other two songs on the record mix the intensity of the early 2000s Rochester hardcore stuff I was way into as a kid with a totally reckless, irreverent attitude. The breakdown/bass work at the end of “Mind Funk” is totally out of place but sounds perfect in context, like if I Object had been on Goner Records and was also into ‘60s psych rock. I’m not sure if I totally get the flexi format right now, as they’re sort of cost prohibitive and the sound quality suffers, but the head noise in this recording sounds like another member, so I’ll forgive them this time. Also, the (clear) plastic is silk screened on one side, and the ink is layered to create a two sided image, a creative idea that at least shows that the band/label took the time and effort to try and make the packaging unique instead of just a gimmicky format.
–Ian Wise (Feral Kid)
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BROWN SUGAR:
... Sings of Birds and Racism: LP
Brown Sugar play mainly mid tempo hardcore punk that varies in tone and delivery. It’s not all thrash, thrash, thrash! Instead, the urgency is delivered in the noisy playing and the drawn out songs that build tension and never really let it go, choosing to hang on until the last notes of the final song, “I Wanna Be a Somali Pirate.” The vocals have a belligerence about them that recalls Darby Crash; how they growl and hold onto words. In fact, there’s an air of belligerence over this whole record. Sometimes, the songs sound like they’re near the point of collapsing in on themselves. Other times, they’re wound up and jittery. The addition of the saxophone and messing with the length of songs adds to the feeling of looseness and stretching the boundaries of hardcore punk in 2011/2012. I’m reminded of ‘80s hardcore—in the sense when bands used albums to mess with their overall sound—like sometimes amid all the speed and rage, they would throw in an acoustic number somewhere towards the end. Though Brown Sugar have yet to do that, they do things like slow it down, cut back on the distortion, and switch up the vocal style a smidge for a song like “Blow” that brings to mind mid-’80s DC hardcore like Gray Matter. “I Wanna Be a Somali Pirate” has a riff lifted from Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive.” This is the sort of album you can sit back and take in and hear new things with repeated listens. I’ve played this thing like ten times tonight, hearing more and more each time. Looking forward to hearing where these guys take their sound.
–Matt Average (Feral Kid, feralkidrecords.com / Feeble Mind, feeblexminds.blogspot.com)
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BROWN SUGAR:
Tropical Disease: 7”
Brown Sugar have been pretty busy in the past year or so, and I was surprised to see this coming out so quickly after their LP. It’s a bit of a departure from the LP, but I actually like the differences. There’s a little more Southern California sound on these songs than on their last few records. “La La Land” sounds a lot more like Gun Club than it does Minor Threat. It works because Brown Sugar are the kind of hardcore band that can pull off a specific style that’s not their own without turning it into a kitschy novelty track. The most impressing thing about this band, that’s become apparent over the course of several records, is that while they have a good overall aesthetic, they’re less concerned with creating a “sound” or a “mood,” and just write really good songs.
–Ian Wise (Fashionable Idiots, fashionableidiots.com)
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BROWN SUGAR / MAYDAY!:
Split: 7”
Brown Sugar a play sneering, selfish, masturbatory, ennui-driven hardcore. It makes me think of what might have happened if Die Kreuzen or Void went down in the basement and jammed after a three day bender. It’s good in an anti-hero kind of way. In the same way, Mayday! play ugly, anti-melodic punk with snippy female vocals. I can almost hear The B-52’s “Rock Lobster” buried in the mix of the second song “In It to Win It,” but without the slightest of pop sensibilities and some weird, dare I say, Fugaziesque guitar noodlings.
–Craven (Feral Kid)
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BROWNTROUT / DRUNKEN BOAT (PDX):
Split: 7"
Browntrout: I first heard
Browntrout on their split with Gleam Garden. I first heard Gleam Garden on
their split with Dan Padilla. I checked out Dan Padilla because of Tiltwheel.
So, in a way, I like Browntrout because I like Tiltwheel. So, if you like
Tiltwheel, you might like Browntrout. If you don’t like Tiltwheel, bummer for
you. Anyhow, Browntrout is a pop punk band from Japan with strong melodic
leanings. They have an upbeat sound that juxtaposes interestingly with their
downtrodden lyrics. Great stuff! Drunken Boat (PDX): I like just about
everything I’ve heard from this band, but the two tracks on here leave me
bummed. The instrumentation is kind of, well, I don’t play, but it lacks some
of the power and intricacy of some of their other material. I’d still rather
listen to this than some of the stuff I’m reviewing this time around, but I
hope that this isn’t the direction of things to come for this typically awesome
band.
–Vincent Battilana (Snuffy Smiles)
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BRUISERS, THE:
In the Pit: Live and Rare: CD
I don’t usually go for the skinhead thang much anymore. To be honest, it takes a pretty strong band to make me pay attention to the stuff nowadays. This sure made me take notice. This is some solid American bald boy music with an obvious early Blitz influence, as evinced in their top-notch cover of "Nation on Fire."
–Jimmy Alvarado (TKO, 4104 24th St. #103, San Francisco, CA 94114)
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BRUISES, THE:
Connected: CD
Two old clichés come
immediately to mind with this disc; one is wrong and one is right. The first is
that you cannot judge a book by its cover. I expected this to sound like Tegan
and Sara and that is exactly what I got. The cover summed it up perfectly. The
second is if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. This
looks and sounds just like a Tegan and Sara record; the songwriting is not as
strong but it is not bad overall.
–Mike Frame (Self-released)
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BRUISES, THE:
Never Be the Same: CD
It’s apparently official: “alternative” rock has replaced the mellow, doobie-friendly hippie-vibe singer/songwriter shit bands like the Eagles and their ilk foisted upon the world four decades ago. I guess, these days this slightly more sonically aggressive type of guitar-pop is, indeed, an alternative to the painful metal-rap wretchedness and faceless teen-pop twaddle saturating the modern music consciousness, but in the end it’s just as scrubbed clean of any potentially controversial edges as those other dominant genres and is perpetually putting on its cutesiest face just in case the majors come a-callin’ to strip mine an old format under the guise of fulfilling another set of antiquated dreams of superstardom. Here’s one more disc of would-be alt-rock hopefuls, squeaky clean and ready for their shot at the big time. In the end, I’m predicting they’ll at best be another obscure name on the soundtrack to an even obscurer teenybop flick with little more for their effort than a tale they can tell their grandchildren about the days when they were in the music biz. Long live (corporate) rock’n’roll.
–Jimmy Alvarado (The Bruises, thebruises.com)
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BRUNT OF IT:
Certain Uncertainty: CD
One of those groups that have all the requisite parts to classify them as “punk”—chanty choruses, loud guitars, occasional speedy tempos—and who mix in enough ska to be annoying, but are skimpy enough on originality to seem destined for perpetual “opening band” status.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.bruntofit.com)
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BRUSHFIELD SPOTS:
3: CD-R
I’ll be honest: my knowledge of what constitutes a good noise band is nil. If I wanted to be generous with the Brushfield Spots, I’d say this thing sounds like two late-night college radio stations playing ambient noise stuff at the same time while some kid puts a fork in an electric pencil sharpener. Since I’m not feeling particularly generous, I’ll just say it’s funny how they felt the need to put song titles to what is essentiallythe sound of two robots repeatedly farting on each other. Garbage.
–Keith Rosson (Brushfield Spots, myspace.com/thebrushfieldspots)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Not Fun: 7”
Canadian, punk-informed, hairy-voiced, Lemmy-lovin’ rock, matching the sensibilities and sounds of Minneapolis’s Midnight Evils. So, it’s not ironic. It’s not tedious. It’s not precious. They’ve got the good sense to shear off the solos, their songs are as sturdy as the buttons on a denim jacket, and they fly the punk and roll flag proudly. Not bad. Geek note: They appropriated the Volt Records label for the 45.
–Todd Taylor (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
The Pleasure Is All Thine: CD
Did you ever wonder what bands like Zeke or The Candy Snatchers would sound like if they weren’t awful bar rock bands? Well, now you don’t have to wonder anymore—you can just listen to this Brutal Knights record instead. Fast, loud, scummy rock with beautifully stupid lyrics, and not unintentionally stupid like Zeke—these are stupid on purpose! I guess the bottom line is whether or not you can stomach this kind of stuff at all. If you can, this record is completely awesome, but if you’re still nauseous from years and years of bad Motörhead plagiary, then the retarded lyrics might not be enough to make you like this.
–Josh (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
The Pleasure Is All Thine: CD
Ex-members of Teen Crud Combo here with a sound that brings to mind Wimpy from the Queers fronting Zeke. Fast and snotty with the requisite “shocking” sex references. I love the Queers, Early GG, and the Angry Samoans, but I am mostly burnt out on the boring “shock value” themes of bands still playing this stuff. Of course none of that would matter if the songs are good enough, as M.O.T.O. and Head continue to prove. Hell, I even dug the latest Jabbers disc but this just kind of sits there. If you still feel that songs about stuff that has been done to death are funny or you wanna offend easy targets like your Pat Robertson loving uncle, this is for you. Tesco Vee fans will love this and I guess you can decide from that whether this is for you or not.
–Mike Frame (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Feast of Shame: CD
Dunno why, but for some reason I thought this was some sorta metal band. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong, as they wield as their weapon a more straightforward hardcore sound tempered with a little trash rock (or vice-versa), resulting in a sound not too far removed from bands like Los Ass Draggers. The proceedings are fast‘n’sloppy and, at fourteen songs in eighteen minutes, blissfully to the point.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Feast of Shame: CD
Whoa, so this band totally rocks out? Straight forward, doesn’t hold back rock: check. Part sleazy/ part hilarious songs like “Teach Me Sex” and “We Have a Website”: CHECK. Yes, I think this band totally rocks out and I can’t recommend this enough, whether you like heavier stuff or not.
–Joe Evans III (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Life Ain’t Cool: 7”
Part of Toronto’s new wave of elite noise makers comes another record by this band after a couple of LPs and, I believe (I don’t feel like digging through my records to check), two prior 7”s. Saw this band once here in L.A. and once up in Toronto and have been quite entertained by both experiences. The band plays a trashy and raw style of punk that is laced with very tongue and cheek lyrics and rocks hard with the best of out there. This release shows the continued growth of the band with memorable and fun songs showcasing their weird sense of humor. Four fun tracks on this record that are gonna be fun hearing them live someday. There is a reason why they are plowing their own path and people are taking notice.
–Donofthedead (Riff Raff)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Living By Yourself: 12”
A super quick one from this
knucklehead bunch of punk misfits from Toronto. Ten songs of short and sweet
trashiness fly by in twelve minutes. This time around, the production is more
raw and sounds self-recorded. It adds an element of Nervous Breakdown Black Flag meets the Nihilistics. A good thing in
my book. They come across more like their live show. I have actually seen them
a couple of times and they are especially great on their home turf. I know when
I think of bands from Toronto, I think of this band in the same breath as
Fucked Up and Career Suicide. I have heard that there is a European tour
version of this 12” as a picture disc 7” with fewer songs. If anyone wants to
donate one to me, I would be forever grateful.
–Donofthedead (Deranged)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS:
Blown 2 Completion: LP
Brutal Knights are like the type of person who shows up to a party and says a lot of wild shit, a lot of things people are thinking but don’t have the balls to say. A lot of it is stupid and juvenile, but that’s the point, and when they leave the party dies. Quite a few bands try to have a humorous angle and come off sounding like a bunch of douchebags. These guys are actually funny. How can you not laugh at “I’ll S Your D” (raging song as well), “Sky Mall,” and “Bad Choice” (did they really fuck up on the transition from mid tempo to speedy at the end?)? Musically, they still sound like they could have been on Touch & Go in the early ‘80s. Some speedy songs mixed in with the mid tempos, so not everything becomes one big blur. “Summertime Coffee” is the oddest song of the twelve, with the drum machine and keyboard embellishments. But it works. If you liked these guys before, you’ll still like ‘em here, maybe more so. If you’re not acquainted, this is a good time as any.
–Matt Average (Deranged, derangedrecords.com)
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BRUTAL KNIGHTS/WESTERN DARK:
Split: 7”
Both bands play heavy rock’n’roll. It’s close, but the Brutal Knights win by a nose because their lyrics are way more retarded. Not to downplay the music, but the real reason you need this record is because at the end, you get to hear the singer of the Brutal Knights reading some of his lyrics on an answering machine, and those lyrics are even more retarded than the ones in this song. Classic. I think they’re my new favorite band.
–Josh (Classic Bar Music, no address)
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BRUTALLY FRANK:
She'll Bleed: 7"
The band and label names are just begging to be made fun of, but I’m nothing if not a professional. I think these guys were shooting for a Mummies sort of trash rock thing, but they blew it. The end result is dismal, uninspired swamp-boogie that would have been best left on the studio shelves.
–Keith Rosson (Wee Rock)
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BRYAN DUNAWAY:
No Aim At All: CD-R
Ah, a boy and his guitar. His acoustic guitar. I wanted to coin a new portmanteau word, ala Lewis Carroll, to signify the conjoining of folk and punk and all I came up with was “Folunk.” Pronounced “flunk.” Which is, coincidentally, the grade I would have to give Bryan Dunaway’s latest effort. Folk music and punk music are, in many ways, spiritually related, but as certain misshapen Appalachian hillfolk have demonstrated, it’s not always a good thing when relatives intermarry. After listening to No Aim At All, I’m not sure the folk-punk admixture thing works. Plus Mr. Dunaway thanks shmuck actor/bon vivant Corey Feldman in his liner notes – an untenable punk gaffe if there ever was one and one that undoubtedly guarantees Dunaway’s accrued “punk points” will take a serious hit. No amount of successive days wearing a Clash shirt can rectify that. I admire his gumption, his DIY work ethic, and his nicely folded up cuffs on his punk rock jeans; but this disc strikes me as musically tepid and lyrically not all that clever. Something you might hear in a coffee shop on open stage night. I don’t like coffee, I don’t like coffee shops, and I don’t like coffee shop punk. For fuck’s sake, whether it was Les Paul or Leo Fender who slapped the first one together, the electric guitar was invented for a reason. Wasn’t Terrible Ted Nugent who once said ”Anybody wants to get mellow you can turn around and get the fuck outta here!”?
–aphid (Street Trash)
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BRYAN LEWIS SAUNDERS:
Bed Bugs 1-3: LP: LP
I have a friend who I’ve been in a couple of bands with who is completely insane, and would go on rants out of nowhere. I always joked about recording him constantly and putting out an LP of him talking. If this is what it would turn into, I probably should have followed through. This record consists of stream-of-consciousness-style spoken word over found noise. The writing is awkward. The best way to describe the style and feeling is if you tried to imagine David Sedaris getting drunk and calling a suicide hotline. I really like this record even though I feel sort of dirty and voyeuristic when I listen to it. –Ian Wise (Private Leisure Industries, privateleisure.org)
–Ian Wise (Private Leisure Industries, privateleisure.org)
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BRYCE AUBREY:
Boom Bang City: CD
Lou Reed and Paul Westerberg couldn’t sing. Fortunately for them, they were two of rock’s best lyricists. Like Papa Lou and Uncle Paul, Bryce Aubrey also cannot sing. The clincher: he can’t write a good song either. Bummer.
–Ryan Leach (Self-released, www.bryceaubrey.com)
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