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Well, I think it's safe to say that your attention span is probably that of an amoeba if you are browsing tEh intOrwebz for bands and music reviews, so I'll keep it short for you: this is country music played by punks. From Gainesville, Florida. Two people from Whiskey & Co. also play in The Takers. And it's a great fucking record. Now go out and buy this. Thank you. You can now close your browser window.
(End transmission.)
But if you like to read more, be my guest. I was stoked when this album arrived here. Country music, punks, Florida, drinking songs, how could I go wrong? The answer is easy: if you like traditional music, this should be on your shopping list. The early 1970s saw the rise of a movement called "outlaw country", taken from a Waylon Jennings song. In retrospect it's kind of funny to think about Waylon Jennings or even Willie Nelson as outlaws, when there's people like Hank Williams III or even David Allen Coe taking things much, much further in every aspect. But hey, then again... the Sex Pistols were once called "punk", and look at them now. So there.
So in that sense, yes, The Takers are outlaws: the nice kind of outlaws, with "one hand on the bottle, one foot in the grave." They are punks. Their brand of country is PUNK without a doubt, even though it doesn't sound like it. Your dad might like it. What makes it punk is that they take a genre of music that's traditionally reactionary and conversative, even unabashedly racist and nationalist at times, and put it back where it belongs: in the hands of the people. There is no ambition for stardom, for radio play, for money and groupies, it's just about putting feelings in a song. It's about fucking up and losing, being honest about it, and still flipping the bird to the man and the bosses. In my book, this is much more punk than clean cut white middle class straight edge kids talking about a "crew" or whatever. This is real music by real people. This is a great record.
www.suburbanhomerecords.com
This is so awesome on so many levels...
"Be loud, be slow, as the march of celestial time."
This is a hard record to write about. Damn, it even is a hard record to listen to. But then again, what do you expect from a band that releases five self-titled records in ten years, and doesn't even have song titles? A fucking top ten radio hit?!
I am not too fond of the new wave of "drone" or "funeral doom", because let's face it: most the time it's nothing but completely talentless hippies who can't play good enough to keep beat releasing overpriced limited edition bullshit. Fortunately, Switchblade don't seem to be hippies. They're ex-punks. They didn't mellow out with age, they didn't try to come up with any "artistic statements", they did not "experiment with new frequencies", they just created record after record and got better and better. And totally unlike most of their peers in the world of slow music, Switchblade don't fuck around with bombastic arrangements. Everything about this record is so pure and simple it almost hurts.
Their fellow Swedes Abruptum have often been hailed as "the audial essence of pure black evil", and every second fat Black Metal chick believed it and bought their incredibly awful records to shock their parents just because some douchebag told them to. I can only imagine what Switchblade would do to them... just a notch above Sunn O))) when it comes to "beats", this band demands a lot from the listener. What might seem scary at first (or, as Jawbreaker said, "funny like a funeral") is in fact breathtakingly beautiful. Because... well, true beauty lies in darkness. Pain is not bad per se. All things must end. A black t-shirt is cooler than a white one. And so on and so fucking further, ad infinitum and ad nauseam. It's a useless task tyring to describe this music, or trying to convince you to buy this record - because it's either you do, or you don't. If you're straight edge, you probably won't like Bukwoski. If you think that Cradle of Filth is evil black metal, you can go get fucked. And that, my friends, is the point I am trying to make.
This album is one of the best and most intense records of the year. The album cover is aboslutely stellar. They're only a trio, but they make a shitload of noise. Turn off the lights, motherfucker.
www.switchblade.se
www.trustnoonerecordings.com
Fuck you. I hate this record.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you? The temperature has dropped, it gets dark way too soon, it's cold like my beer should be, and I'd usually listen to Darkthrone at this time of the year. Or Winter. Or Bathory. But oh no, the fucking Spits have nothing better to do than release a new record. Fuck you. I want to be miserable, hate the world, and not leave the apartment. I certainly don't want to sit on my couch with a big grin and tap my feet because this album is SO AMAZING. I hate the Spits for recording this, and I hate Recess for putting this out.
That said, it's a textbook example of a punk rock record. Ten songs in less than 16 minutes, dumb as shit and smart at the same time, and it even sounds like shit. If I'd go to a record store and the person behind the counter would tell me that it's some long lost proto punk band from let's say 1979, I'd believe them, buy the record, and tell all my friends about it to make me seem cooler than I actually am. (Of course, I would bust my ass trying to look up their early EPs on the internet, and not find anything, but this is how us music nerds usually spend our evenings.)
While I was typing these three paragraphs, I have listened to this record twice. It's only 16 minutes. And since it sounds even cooler if you pitch it up a notch, it might have been only 12 minutes. Faster is better.
www.thespits.com
www.recessrecords.com
GO! just has to be the textbook definition of a hardcore band name. Unbroken, Poison Idea, Urban Waste, or Sick Of It All ain't too bad either when it comes to band names, but GO! always have had a very special place in my punk rock heart: fucking shit up, but always remaining a firecracker of positivity, sarcasm, and smartness. They recently got back together, released two new 7"s, and eventually Mike Bullshit and me ended up exchanging a few e-mails...
GO! has only been a band for 3 years originally, then you broke up, got back together 15 years later, and broke up again. What happened in the meantime? And does this mean you will play reunion shows in 2023 again?
Oh, it's been even weirder than that. We were actually only together like a year and a half, then did the US tour in 1990, came back, recorded Why Suffer?, played our second "last show" (the first was in January 1990), and then I went to go hitchhike around the country, settling in Texas, while Aaron went to university. We then did the Euro tour in 1991, came back and recorded There Is No Man, and then I think broke up again.Then we did some shows in mid 1992, then again in mid 1994. We were then totally out of touch until late 2005, when I contacted Aaron and we decided to make music again. We did some shows in mid 2006 and recorded Re-active, and the some shows in California in 2007 and recorded What We Build Together. And then we broke up again in January 2008, but... you never know. To be more specific, in 2006 and 2007 we were together for a total of 9 days, played 8 shows and recorded 2 EPs.
Despite being from NY and playing hardcore, GO! never seemed to be down with the NYHC scene... no, scratch this. I would say GO! was more punk than the bands that played CBGBs matinees, right? In retrospect, I guess it was more ABC-No-Rio and Born Against than let's say Agnostic Front, would that be a good analogy?
Well, we never were a tough guy band, but lots of bands weren't - y'know, Bad Trip, Life's Blood, SFA (which I was in earlier), Underdog, Gorilla Biscuits, Krakdown - good bands, not macho assholes. And then yeah, Born Against and Citizens Arrest and Rorschach came along and we were happily in that ABC thing. But I always thought of us as 100% hardcore. Punk and hardcore were very seperate things in NYC back then. Lots of "drunk punks" and "squatter punks", and we weren't quite in that scene. But we never played CBGBs either, and the Anthrax in CT never wanted us for some reason. But we played with Krakdown, SOIA, Uppercut, and Burn, [and] our first show was with Absolution and some others, an animal rights benefit at the Pyramid - thankfully the only show where I played bass and sang. Absolution were astounding to watch. But then again, I went to just about every hardcore matinee at CBGB's in 1985 and 1986, give or take, and on and off through 1989. I loved CB's! And I saw Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law and such, easily 8-10 times each. They were awesome shows. But I was [just] this little 16 year old geek doing my fanzine, Bullshit Monthly.
From an outsider's perspective, I always thought that not only the New York hardcore and punk scenes were quite separated, but also the CB/ABC scenes. GO! always had a very strong anti-violence stance, anti-racist, pro-gay, all things that were not, well... "popular" among the likes of Cro-Mags or Warzone. Was it widely known that you are gay? How and when did you come out?
I actually came out very publicly: on the inside cover of Bullshit Monthly #21 it said, "Proud to be gay-owned and operated." So, it was out there really quickly, maybe towards the end of '89. I remem-ber at the first GO! show mentioned above dedicating [the song] 'Section 28' to "my gay friends." Ouch. But that's where I was at that point in time. I guess maybe at this point it was both CB's and ABC happening, plus the Reconstruction Records store. Maybe the big SxE shows at the Pyramid weren't really going on anymore. I had actually missed that whole part of the scene, although I loved Straight Ahead and some others. There's a Straight Ahead video from 1988 on YouTube and you can see me - I come in maybe half-way. I've got my beard, which is unfortunate. Anyway, by 1989, I had been in the scene on and off for like 5 years and everyone knew me through the fanzine, so it really wasn't much of a problem. If people didn't talk to me or whatever, it didn't really bother me. And no one ever kicked my ass or anything. In that way I was probably the best person to come out, since I wasn't as much at risk. GO! never played at CB's, and I wasn't out when I played there with SFA - but at some point after I had been gone from SFA and came back, there was a show scheduled with the Bad Brains and I think we all decided better that I didn't do it and leave the band, which really was for the best. We probably didn't play too many shows with absolute bonehead bands. And I certainly wasn't out in 1985-86 in the pit at Cro-Mags and AF shows. I was just this skinny dweeb.
How and why and did GO! break up? I only know you released an (ego.) 7" afterwards, but I always had the impression it was pretty much under the radar, and all of a sudden you seemed to have disappeared from "the scene", only to turn up again in some hippie community, with Bullshit Monthly one sheeters full of Abba and La Bouche reviews...
GO! broke up so many times some people can boast at having been at 3 or 4 GO! "last shows." But we pretty much broke up as a steady band (for the fourth time, I think) in late 1991, after the European tour and recording There is No Man. Why? We had always planned to. The thought was to play great music before we moved on with our lives, yet split before we started making lousy music, like so many other bands had done. Then I did (ego.) and we did some shows in the summer of 1994, released the Existence compilation in 1995 (which Aaron compiled with Don Fury, and Frank from Epistrophy in Germany put out), but then we were totally out of communication until 2005. At that point I found Aaron's phone number and just gave him a call. We got together for a weekend with our spouses and at some point I suggested writing and performing again. And there we were. Believe it or not, I had no idea that every other band was reuniting as well. That was a complete surprise. (ego.) was kind of a side project that released two 7" EPs, but also played maybe 7 or 8 shows in the NYC and surrounding area, and even did a limited US tour in 1994 with Sticks & Stones. Our car broke down in California somewhere so we stopped. At some point [the] Stick & Stones van caught on fire, so maybe it’s better that we split off from them. And yeah, I lived at East Wind Community in Missouri for almost 3 years. It was great. I loved it, and part of me definitely misses it. I learned so much about people, about life, about business, and computers, also having the opportunity to work in the ranch or on the farm for like an hour a week (or however much I wanted) was very special. How often do you get that chance? I met some very special people (and some real assholes), learned a whole lot about nature and the natural pace of life, and grew up. I went from being a complete vegetarian to eating meat every so often. But only really stupid animals, like cows, sheep, chickens. Never anything intelligent, like pigs. Fuck, what an incredible time in my life. Now with work, the mortgage, my husband, our two dogs and such, I of course couldn't go back to that. But maybe for a visit at some point. And yeah, I did CB for a number of years: Current Bullshit, starting when I lived in Germany and continuing into Missouri and later when I moved to California. It was based more on personal observations of the world around me, less so on music. It made me open my eyes, look around, pay attention to things. What a great mental exercise. And it kept me in touch with many people.
How old are you now? I am asking this because I am 35 myself, and whether or not we like to admit it, hardcore is a youth movement. So how does it feel to be a part of this in 2008? What do your friends, family, peers think about it? Also, since you mentioned your husband, here's something I've been thinking about... when I interviewed Martin Sorrendeguy of Los Crudos and Limp Wrist, he said that the "gay part" of him always felt more attracted to disco and hip hop, and that he found himself struggling to balance the hardcore vs the non-hardcore side of him. I don't think that this has to do anything with sexual pre-ferences, because I share similar experiences...
When all is said and done, what it comes down to for me is music and energy and community - and for that age doesn't matter. There were always at least some people of all ages at shows in the 80's and early 90's, and they were as much a part of the scene as anyone else. I am turning 40 this year, but I still live my life in a way I feel is positive, still love hardcore music, still want to play it and record more. I don't really go to shows much, but that's often a time factor and the fact that I don't know that many people. And there are so many people I'm in communication with now who I knew back in 1990. Labels, distros, fans, zine editors, promoters. They're still around, I'm still around, and then there's always a new crop of kids coming into the scene. It's a good mix. I definitely felt it at ABC-No-Rio when we played there in 2006.
The hardcore and gay thing I can totally relate to. It is the straddling of two very different worlds... I guess another analogy for me is being gay and Jewish. I turned away from Judaism at a very young age because I couldn't reconcile the two (well, and yeah, being an athiest didn't help matters). But when I moved to the Bay Area, I found a synagogue which was about 90% gay and realized I didn't need to choose. Life isn't black or white, one way or the other. People are fluid. Things don't always have to be the same. They can be different. Now a lot of times I'll just say to non-hardcore friends "I'm in a band", and every so often I'll give them the URL to our website or MySpace page and they'll check it out. But I preface it with something like "I know it's probably music you won't like, and that's ok." There's no right or wrong. My parents have every record and every interview and every issue of Bullshit Monthly. They're very supportive. They probably feel better that we're not rehearsing in the basement anymore. They'd be on the second floor and the mirrors would be shaking. Sigh, "back in the day." But again, it's not your age - it's your life, the decisions you make every day.
What are the lyrics for "That rare 7" EP" that were not printed?
It's just a list of names of bands who have produced rare records: Poison Idea, SSD, Germs, Straight Ahead, Youth of Today, and so on. Loved doing that song! It was a lot of fun. So much of that record I would've done a little differently: this a little faster, and that a little slower, and this with background vocals, and that with louder vocals and on and on. Doing Reactive after so many years apart, it has it's strong points and its weak points.
Did anyone notice that the logo still says NYHC, but that the contact address is in San Jose?
Yeah, I do get the occasional question about that. Originally, this all came up because there was another band named GO! who wanted to use the name, but we were first. I said ok, like a complete idiot, since this was a couple of years before we even conceived of getting back together. And I said if we did ever release or rerelease anything we would called ourselves GO! NYHC... And then when we got back together it made sense anyway, even though I think that other band isn't around anymore. Because really, half of us still live in NY, and even so, we're the same band. We're playing the same songs. We have the same attitude, and the same connection to all our friends there. Are we not NYHC anymore? I'd say we still are, and I think we always will be.
100% backed. GO! = NYHC, period. Their two latest records What We Build Together and Reactive (plus other random stuff) are still available from www.designbymike.com/go. The latest news is that GO! will be playing yet another reunion show on October 10th at ABC-No-Rio in NYC with Huasipungo and some other bands.
This is one of the coolest flyers I have seen all year, and it looks like a pretty rad show. Update your calendars.
Hitch is one of the most underrated bands in Europe ever. They have been around for 15 years now, and that's a a lot longer than your crappy band will ever be playing - that, and Hitch have the dedication necessary for pulling it all off. But let me give you an example: let's say three kids start a band. 99% of them just can not rock tight enough with even the most sophisticated studio tricks and five million guitar tracks. They want instant gratification instead. They want a record, they want a tour, they want to be all the rage on every "cool" messageboard. That's boring. Because even the most "punk" bands are conservative beyond belief. Instant crowd pleaser: Negative Approach cover song. Secret recipe for five minutes of fame: super limited colored vinyl. Style maybe, substance no.
And this is exactly what makes Hitch more punk than most punk bands, regardless of the musical style. They just play whatever feels natural. And it sounds great! Of course this kind of greatness isn't everybody's definition of "great", but sure enough it rocks my boat. Clair Obscur combines the sexyness of Girls Against Boys, the post rock tightness of Quicksand, a little bit of Steve Albini worship, the rock urgency of Drive Like Jehu, and of course it sounds like Fugazi every now and then. And seriously, I don't care whether or not you will dig this. Because Hitch have been around when you were still swimming in daddy's nutsack, and Hitch will still be a force to be reckoned with when you finally get what's up and start looking for their records on Ebay. In the meantime, I will blast Clair Obscur at full volume - because it's one hell of an album. Because it makes me happy. Because it fucking rocks. Thanks, Hitch.
www.hitch.be
www.vlasvegas.be
In a time when every Vice Magazine reading asshole thinks it's hip and cool to wear cock rock band t-shirts for the sake of some misunderstood irony, it's time to raise the flag of hate again. Metal always was, still is, and will forever be the greatest fucking musical genre on earth ever. Period. I mean it.
So, dear fellow headbangers, put on your sleeveless denim jackets, ride your battle horse into glory, turn the fucking volume all the way up and have a look at some of the greatest moments in art history with GLW/DRK...
W.A.S.P. - Animal 12"
All right, everybody - never ever disrespect W.A.S.P.! I mean it. You might shrug it off as just my opinion, but trying to argue with me that W.A.S.P. is not one of the greatest bands of all time might result in a massacre. What's not to love about them? Blackie Lawless even replaced Johnny Thunders in the fucking New York Dolls (for a few days only, but still...) This is way cooler than your lame hardcore band will ever be, no doubt. And any band that has a debut single like Animal just flat out rules. Period.
But let's take a look at the cover, shall we? One thing that immediately catches your attention is the lettering that was used for the title. It's exactly the same font as on the cover of NWA's Straight Outta Compton, and if you ask me, this is cooler than Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer together. I also love the fact that the title says "F**k Like A Beast". That's like flipping the bird to the moral majority. "You're not gonna let us print the word fuck on our own cover, you posers? Well, we're gonna use the picture of a man in tights instead, and we're gonna put a bloody sawblade on his private parts. That's how heavy we are, Tipper Gore!" The band logo is a wonderful example of heavy metal typography: it looks like four pieces of metal with screws. And fuck it, who cares about tracking and letter spacing? This piece of modern art was created years before desktop publishing software became widely available, so the sawblade between two letters and painfully varying spaces are a-ok.
(On a side note, does it really say "mum" on his belly, written in blood? How metal would that be?)
Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac
What we have here is one of the most underrated albums ever. It's basically their demo pressed on vinyl, and that was when bands still did demos with 9 songs and spread them all over the world on tape, instead of recording one lame track and putting it on MySpace. Exciter was a speed metal trio from Canada, with a drummer who also handled the vocal duties - a concept that was later utilized by Snuff and Satanic Surfers, but none of these bands were even remotely metal (despite the word "satanic" in one name).
The cover sums up the title perfectly. Just look at the man's arm! He's got a heart tattoo with a banner around it that actually reads "metal". You just have to be a true heavy metal maniac to get some sweet ink like this. Talk about being down for life! Even though my initial assumption was that the person in the picture is someone who auditioned for the Village People, the credits on the back cover tell us that this is the arm of someone called the "East Side Slasher". No matter how you look at it, it's awesome. I would kill to hang around with someone called East Side Slasher. "Hey East Side Slasher, want another beer?" But maybe the East Side Slasher really did audition for the Village People. It would explain a lot: (a) his semi-gay leather biker bar outfit, and (b) the act of violence he commits to the Marshall amp. After all, he cuts a pussy into that amp. An act of retaliation maybe? The Village People were never known to be as heterosexual as let's say the 2 Live Crew, so who knows...
Pokolgép - Pokoli Színjáték
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow metalheads, and now... the most amazing metal cover of all time. Ever.
Even though I don't know shit about Pokolgép (which means "hell machine", or more loosely translated just some random piece of explosive device), I just had to pick this up at the flea market. It was super cheap, I had seen Pokolgép tapes all over the place when I was on holidays in Hungary as a kid, and nothing screams m-e-t-a-l! like the cover artwork. Come on, just look at the logo! Chains and metal, just what a true headbanger at heart needs... and don't forget the reflections. This was done in 1987 with Eastern European crayons, and Adobe has not been able to come up with a Photoshop filter like this until now. Pure genius.
But let's check out the little details that add to the overall greatness of this masterpiece...
1. The monster-robot (or whatever the fuck this is supposed to be) is apparently holding a baseball bat, which is way ahead of it's time. It's almost prophetic: bands like Biohazard or Madball were doing this years later.
2. The rings! Four of 'em! Two skulls, one happy devil with a Rolling Stones tongue (pop-cultural cross references, anyone?), and a sad devil. That's like Yin and Yang in a heavy metal kind of way. To make the whole imagery even more metal, one skull has not two but three rows of teeth, and the sad devil even has four. Really, count them. Can you get any heavier? Maybe this is some kind of social criticism that I don't get, but please keep in mind that Hungary offers some of the best and cheapest dental services on the face of this earth.
3. I love the robot's helmet. It has (a) two horns (to make it look more diabolical), (b) it says 666 (even more evil!), (c) it looks a bit like the Motörhead war pig logo (another reference), and (d) the helmet is either cracked and shattered from battling other demons, or the artist was going for a bio-mechanic look, trying to add veins. I don't know what's cooler.
4. I can't stop to sing the praise of this amazing artist. His name is Giorgio Soós. Does he have any books of his artwork available? When's his next solo exhibition? Seriously, this guy was a true visionary. Everybody rips of Shepard Fairey these days, or Pushed, or even me - but let me enlighten you. I am sure you haven't noticed until now. Take a close look at the robot's face. See? It's fucking MF Doom's metal mask! More than a decade ago! (And Sido ripped off that shit even later.)
Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday For The Deceiver
Holy fuck, now this is an all-time classic, both musically and visually. In case you didn't know (which would make you a wimp and a poser), Jason Newsted played bass on this album, before he was chosen to replace Cliff Burton in the band that should have broken up after ...And Justice For All. But historical details aside, what rules about this album (apart from the über-metal riff-o-rama, of course!) is the wonderful front cover artwork.
It's one hell of a epic battle scene: Scuzzlebutt from South Park versus the funny little devil from Maiden's Number Of The Beast cover! This is heavier than Rocky versus Mr T, or Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader, and perhaps even Jack Bauer versus everyone. I have a few minor complaints about the cover, though. Scuzzlebut (a) is green instead of brown, (b) doesn't have Patrick Duffy for a leg, and (c) there's no piece of celery for his right hand. But I can see past the last mistake, because random vegetables are just not as evil as reptile claws. And could you rip out somebody's eye with celery? Probably not, unless you are Jack Bauer. Or maybe these two cuties are just playing, and Scuzzlebutt played a little bit too rough? We'll never know. Maybe the devil just didn't like the wicker baskets Scuzzlebutt was weaving, which would make him the deceiver. About time his doomsday is here! Boo! As an extra added bonus, I'm sure it hasn't slipped past your experienced art critic eye that this battle of epic proportions takes place on the corner of Flotsam and Jetsam Street or Avenue or something or other.
(Reading the lyrics to the title track, I actually found out that it's not Scuzzlebutt, but another fine gentleman called Flotzilla. He even had his own EP after this album. Wow, cool.)
"Next year things won't be so bad / I know you're sick of being sad / I'm skipping my own funeral."
Dear Virgins, thank you for a kick ass record! Thank you for restoring my faith in punk rock, which definitely is not the simplest of things to do in 2009. I don't know you as people, but if the ten songs on Miscarriage say anything about you, then I'd like to shake your hands and share a drink. Or seven.
But anyway, this is supposed to be a record review, and not a letter of fandom - even though I pretty much became a fan boy the moment I popped in this CD. The roaring guitars in the first 15 seconds of "Another's Gun" were enough to get me hooked and keep my glued to the stereo, in all their as-if-Frankie-Stubbs-was-playing-Rites-Of-Spring- songs glory. (Note to self: Should I ever finish my magnum opus, the Comprehensive Guide to Punk Rock for Complete Dummies, I will make sure to include a lengthy chapter about what will referred to as the "fuck yeah factor" by future generations.)
So yes, the Virgins rule. Their band name in connection with the album title is probably more punk than your entire lame record collection. And it's so fucking easy to see why: these dudes are angry. Like, super pissed off for a reason. And this, dear message board hero, is because they have a reason for all that rage. This world is a shit hole, and once mom and dad stop putting money in your pocket, this shit will really hit the fan like fucking napalm. There is a giant difference between their anger and your anger. Let me explain.
It's cool if you're 20 and feel alienated. Everybody does. But what the fuck are you angry about? What do you rebel against? The price of soy milk if you're vegan? Your parents? The bombardment of Gaza (pro or con), if you're book smart enough because of your political science college classes? Yeah, right. But this is exactly why your crappy band sucks so much... you have nothing to scream about, apart from being stabbed in the back by another PC punk douchebag maybe. But this is just the cartoon version of being angry, pretty much like Donald Duck squeaking his head off. In other words: it gets boring pretty soon when you're older than three.
The Virgins, on the other hand, boy... they do what every great punk band does: they are mad at the world, they write songs about it, but - and this is the main difference - they do something about it, even if it's just writing songs to make their own miserable lives a little bit better. These songs have substance, they breathe, they are alive with emotion. They are about what the thousands of songs that saved thousands of lives are about: the human experience. And if punk is not about that, it's about nothing at all.
Dear Virgins, thank you!
www.kissofdeathrecords.com
Owww, I gotta be careful here. These dudes might not even sport pubic hair, but they seem kinda mean.
"You little rat stabbed us in the back / You're walking around talking shit / Did you think you'd get away with it? / You can never come back here you scum / So stay the fuck out!"
I double checked the insert more than once, but it really seems as if this record came out in 2009. That's 24 years after Ray Cappo first complained about his lack of sleep or something on the record Can't Close My Eyes. Twenty-fucking-four years! (Looking at the photos of the band members, their parents were probably having intercourse around that time.)
So, well... I guess this is supposed to be hardcore. It just leaves me wondering whether this version of "hardcore" refers to the subgenre of punk, or some kind of pornography. I see very little (if any) punk content here, and considering the graphic nature of the artwork and the record title, well... your guess is good as mine.
"Say it to my fucking face instead of talking shit about me and my friends / Say it to my fucking face instead if you dare."
I'm absolutely amazed by these lyrical gems, especially how beautiful the words "face" and "fuck" go together. Let's have a closer look at the cover: the gorilla on the left side is pounding his chest while getting a tittie man hug by the gentleman behind him. The singer (on the right side) is handing him some archaic phallic symbol (almost shaped like a banana, so even the gorilla can get the point) and teaches him how to open his mouth for fellatio. To make an already wonderful picture even more perfect, the back of the gorilla's t-shirt says Mouthpiece. One can only wonder what this refers to. Maybe it's got something to do with the words "face" and "fuck", I'm not sure.
"Say it to my fucking face if you dare / I'll be waiting for you right here."
Now hold on second... "right here" is not a very exact geographical description, and to be honest, I'm not really into that kind of smut. I like to have a beer or seven every now and then, which is something you don't seem to like, and your music is very fucking awful. No, thanks.
www.njwrecords.com
Hey kid, I know it's hard to believe, but there actually was a time when pop punk meant something entirely different than today. If you have no clue what I am talking about, please leave this blog immediately, because you really need to do your homework. I don't expect you to even move your white middle class ass to a record store (which is a shame it itself!), but please at least check out gems like Chrimpshrine, Pegboy, Screeching Weasel, Sleeper (later known as Serpico), Fifteen, and The Queers on the internet - and this list if far from being complete. They were all punk bands, but they played what they thought were pop songs; not the other way around.
(Now let me get one thing out of the way: I noticed that this blog seems to be full of references to old music. "Old" in a punk rock sense; because a record that was released 15 years ago is "old" in the context of a music genre that's only roughly as old as I am. I don't mean to brag and boast about being "old school", because I know I'm not. In fact, I was probably toilet trained when the first Clash album came out. So there.)
Monikers is a pop punk band in the truest sense of the word. They're punks. Their music is poppy. And this record seems to be a leftover from a time long gone. Maybe this is why it's so much fun to listen to.
Wake Up is the kind of record that could have come out in 1992, which was a good year for music: Jawbreaker released Bivouac, Samiam released Billy, Leatherface released Mush - can it get any better? And hey, I didn't even mention A Blaze In The Northern Sky! All these records were sloppy and catchy at the same time, which is something I really miss in 2008. Most music these days is just too perfect, too polished, and too predictable - which reminds of the fact that I am supposed to be DJing in a good week from now, and they were asking for "indie rock". What the fuck do I know about indie rock?! And why should I care? Maybe I am hopelessly stuck in the past, who knows. But my idea of indie rock is all about the bands I mentioned, and I don't mind dissing radio rock I haven't even heard of yet. But what was I trying to say again? And what was the name of that one SNFU song? Oh yeah, "Grunt, groan, rant and rave". There we go.
To make it short, the Monikers remind me a lot of Jawbreaker in the pre-major label phase. They remind me of the Lemonheads circa Hate Your Friends. And I am very much aware that this will probably only appeal to a very small group of people, but the musical taste of the majority can be filed under "shit" anyway.
(Oh, one dude from Discount plays in Monikers. I am still looking for a vinyl copy of their Crash Diagnostic album... anyone? The world was definitely a better place before Alison Mosshart became "VV".
www.kissofdeathrecords.com
It's only the second day of the new year, my --th birthday is still weeks away, and I feel like a jaded old man. I spent the better part of this morning cleaning up my office space, throwing out a ton of shit, and flipping through stacks of old yellowed fanzines. Oh, the memories. HeartattaCk actually meant something at some point, there were still kick ass compilation albums with unreleased songs and lengthy booklets, kids made mixtapes and not online MP3-blogs, and everything seemed much more honest and simple. All the time, the Serious Geniuses were blasting in the background over and over again, and I couldn't help but think how awesome they are.
Stolen riffs, yes. Talent, yes. New all time favorite record, probably no. But this is the nature of this disc: it doesn't get you all pumped up to go out and skate, it doesn't depress you, and it sure as hell doesn't scream in your face - it's just there. You Can Steal The Riffs is like your best friends: you don't have to call them once a week to know they'll always be there for you. Sure, it's sometimes boring having them around, sometimes they even annoy you, sometime you don't want to see them for months, but you always find yourself coming back to the half forgotten inside jokes and the nostalgia.
If You Can Steal The Riffs had been released 15 years ago on let's say Crank! or Jade Tree, (a) reviewers would have compared it to Jawbreaker, Braid, or even Lifetime (when they were still boring and out of tune), (b) it'd be out of print by now and being sold on Ebay for half a fortune, (c) a song or two would have ended up on the soundtrack for TV shows like My So-Called Life, and (d) you would still shake your fist of the younger kids for not remembering the classics.
But hey, it's 2009 already, and I can only recommend getting your wrinkled hands on this record, playing it to death for a week, and then coming back half a year later. Fuck nostalgia. The good old times are right here and right now.
www.seriousgeniuses.com
www.kissofdeathrecords.com
Well, I think it's safe to say that your attention span is probably that of an amoeba if you are browsing tEh intOrwebz for bands and music reviews, so I'll keep it short for you: this is country music played by punks. From Gainesville, Florida. Two people from Whiskey & Co. also play in The Takers. And it's a great fucking record. Now go out and buy this. Thank you. You can now close your browser window.
