Dirty Tactics - It Is What It Is

Don't you love it when you discover new bands and immediately come up with associations, whether you want it or not? Well, I know I do.

The title of this album reminds me of one of my all time favorite skateboard videos, and the band is from Philadelphia, so how could I not think of the Boss? (And no, I have never seen that movie, and I don't intend to. The idea of Tom Hanks as a gay lawyer sounds as appealing to me as a porn version of Forrest Gump. Thanks, but no thanks. No homophobia intended, but Tom Hanks?! I mean... come on!)

I don't know anything about Dirty Tactics' sexual orientations, but I can feel that they are no lawyers. They're punks. And they seem to be very fucking proud of it. Their music is fast, catchy, and melodic. Nothing that you haven't heard before, but that's the nature of punk rock. (And I am glad it is!) I am not particularly stoked about this record, it's not something I would recommend to everyone, but it makes me happy to know that it simply exists. It's a good record. It's fun to listen to. (LOUD!!!) I hear some One Man Army in a few of the songs, especially when it comes to the vocals, some Pinhead Gunpowder, some Crimpshrine. And even though it will never be an all time fave, it takes me back to a time and a place when things were simpler. It makes me dig out long forgotten seven inches. It makes me happy for the better part of an hour. So, once again in the words of the Boss: "Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?"

www.say-10.com

The Riot Before - Fists Buried In Pockets

"All we loved we cannot hold for long / The waves that collide they double in size / Are perceived from the pier by four adjusted eyes / That had widened in time in the darkness of night / But the energy augmented soon must subside / It was gone in that moment we tried to hold tight."

All right, everybody knows that I am a sucker for catchy punk rock with a folk/country twist. Enter The Riot Before, and I'm a happy camper. Fists Buried In Pockets isn't the kind of record that sets new standards when it comes to originality and innovation, but if I was looking for these things in the music I listen to, I'd have dropped out of punk rock long ago. Even though the band name, the album title, and even the cover image would suggest something angry, The Riot Before are more about making it through another day in a miserable life than throwing rocks through bank windows and instigating revolution - which, if you ask me, is at least as valid a topic to write about.

The Riot Before are from Richmond, VA. That would have been my second guess right after Gainesville, FL. Does that give you an idea about how they sound? Yeah right, pretty much like the early Against Me! material with hints of the other big A's like Avail, Ann Beretta, and American Steel. If this doesn't sound like a fucking wet dream, you should go read Pitchfork Media and jerk off to your Japanther records.

"So I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry dad, I really want you to be proud / Don't want to disappoint you all, don't want to let you down."

Dear people in The Riot Before, Fists Buried In Pockets is an album you can be very fucking proud of.

www.say-10.com