Monikers - Wake Up

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