C'mon and Cheer Me Up!

Plague Vendor - 'Free to Eat'

2014-05-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

Despite considering myself one of those people who doesn't really like the direction that Epitaph has been going in the last decade or so, I actually like a lot of their current roster. The Menzingers, Off With Their Heads, Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion, The Lawrence Arms, Social Distortion, Motion City Soundtrack, and even Weezer to an extent. And now I can add Plague Vendor to that list.

I don't even really know how I ended up at Epitaph's webstore, but somehow I found myself browsing their site and I saw the Plague Vendor LP/shirt bundle and it made me angry. Leaving vowels out of a band name as a trend already kind of annoys me, but it annoys me even more when a band regularly spells their name with vowels intact but leaves out the vowels on their merch. Plague Vendor's shirt did just that. Yet it still compelled me to check them out.

I'm glad I did.

Remember in the early 2000's when all those garage rock bands like The Strokes, and The White Stripes were gaining prominence? Plague Vendor sounds kind of like that, if there was a more surf/garage feel to the music. I guess in a way, they're more like The Hives than the Strokes or White Stripes, if The Hives had more of an American proto-punk swagger. Free to Eat, the band's debut album, has ten tracks and only runs for about 18 minutes. There are surfy guitars, a thumping bass and pounding drums, but the real star of the album is probably the howling vocals of front-man Brandon Blaine. Even on a studio recording, he carries an intense energy that comes off like it's a live performance. Too bad the only time the band is coming near me soon is on the Warped Tour. I'm sure it'll be great exposure for the band, but I'll wait until they do their own tour to catch them.

You can stream the whole album via YouTube below, or buy it through Amazon here.

Antarctigo Vespucci - 'Soulmate Stuff'

2014-04-17T22:38:00.003-04:00

My initial reaction to Antarctigo Vespucci was "Holy crap. This is exactly the collaboration between artists that I never knew I needed." Given that Antarctigo Vespucci is made up of dear friends / punk celebrities Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock, I'm sure plenty of people had that exact same thought.

Soulmate Stuff, the debut mini-LP (or is it just an EP? I can never tell), bridges the gap between the indie melodies of Fake Problems' Real Ghosts Caught on Tape and the summery fuzz of Bomb the Music Industry!'s Vacation. Not that the gap between those two albums was really that large, and if you think that there's a whole lot of difference between those records you really should listen to Soulmate Stuff and hear how wrong you are for yourself.

"100 Years" is a nice, slow opener. Given that it's just an acoustic guitar and Farren, it could easily be mistaken for a new Fake Problems song (or at least a demo). "Sometimes" has more of a kick to it, and it also has that "Fake Problems" feel to it- not a complaint at all, seeing as how it's been far too long since Fakey P has put out a new album, but upon first listen it was kind of confusing as to why this wasn't just marketed as a new Fake Problems album produced by Rosenstock. Maybe that's how it originally came to be. Or maybe I'm just dumb. It's still an amazing song though.

The sequence of "I'm Giving Up on U2", "Guest List Spots", and "Don't Die in Yr Hometown" make up the real meat of Soulmate Stuff. "I'm Giving Up on U2" is huge, turning the fun to 11, and demands to be shouted loudly from a car with the windows down. Or at least I imagine that would be the ideal way to listen to the song... I don't drive. "Guest List Spots" finds the perfect balance of a Fake Problems chord progression and a Bomb the Music Industry! vocal melody and even tosses Laura Stevenson on backing vocals for good measure. It's also notable for being the only song here that really features Jeff singing lead (for half a verse). Meanwhile, "Don't Die in Yr Hometown" could have easily fit on Vacation. In fact, if it wasn't for Farren's vocals, I'd say that it was pulled directly from that album.

The momentum built up during those three songs takes a brief break during "100 Years 2: 200 Years", a variation of the opening track as the title suggests, before coming back for one final banger. Soulmate Stuff ends on the high note that is "Bang!", featuring guest guitars from former Fake Problems guitarist Casey Lee, and a chorus so big that lives up to its title.

If there are any downsides to Soulmate Stuff, it would be that these seven songs barely fill up 20 minutes. It doesn't seem like Farren and Rosenstock's friendship is going to end any time soon, so I'm sure that there will be more material by Antarctigo Vespucci in the future, but for now it just feels like there's not enough. Even if it was just like three or four more songs. I'm greedy.

In summation: This album rules and it arrived just in time for the changing of the seasons. Stop wasting your time and just download it already.

http://quoteunquoterecords.com/qur072.htm

Top 5 Side One, Track Ones

2014-04-08T20:22:00.000-04:00

Keeping it simple tonight, mostly due to my creativity being dead thanks to some massive writer's block. But also because it's been way too long since I've watched High Fidelity and this kind of thing has been on my mind lately.

Here are five of my favorite opening tracks.

05. The Dopamines - "You'd Make a Good Horsecop" - Expext the Worst
The only thing keeping me from ranking this song higher is because I love the entire album just as much as this one song.

04. Daytrader - "Kill My Compass" - Last Days of Rome EP
Whenever I hear this song, I want to start shouting along even though I can't sing very well (and I especially can't sing like Tym). Out of all the songs I've ever set as an alarm, this is the only one that I've used for longer than a month.

03. Against Me! - "T.S.R." - As the Eternal Cowboy
"T.S.R." lays down the groundwork for what Against Me! had become in the short period in between Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy, both lyrically and musically. It's also fun as hell at their shows to go crazy when the song explodes.

02. Off With Their Heads - "I Am You" - From the Bottom
"I Am You" kind of encapsulates everything I love about Off With Their Heads' ability to write songs about being miserable while also wanting a catchy chorus to sing. A wonderful introduction to what the band is all about.

01. Rise Against - "State of the Union" - Siren Song of the Counter Culture
I spent the first half of my senior year of high school listening to almost nothing but Siren Song of the Counter-Culture, and every morning as I started my half hour commute on the train this was the song that would wake me up and help me get through the day. Even now I can listen to this song and it'll put me right back into my 17 year old mindset.

XX. The Offspring - "Disclaimer"
This isn't really a song, but it is a hilarious way to begin an album.

The Ataris - So Long, Astoria 10th Anniversary Tour at Irving Plaza, NYC (March 30, 2014)

2014-04-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

Despite being billed as a '10 year anniversary' tour, The Ataris So Long, Astoria 10th Anniversary tour actually marks eleven years since the album's release. To make up for that, Kris Roe was able to recruit former members guitarist John Collura, bassist Mike Davenport, and drummer Chris Knapp (aka, the band's lineup when the album was recorded) to join him in celebrating So Long, Astoria on the road. On March 30 the band stopped at Irving Plaza in NYC for the final night of the tour with Authority Zero, Drag the River, Gasoline Heart, and Donald Spence providing opening support.

Donald Spence is probably best known as the vocalist of Versus the World (the current project of Mike Davenport) opened things up with a solo set. I wish I could tell you how lovely his soulful singing voice was, but I missed out on his performance (thanks, MTA). Luckily for me, Spence made several other appearances throughout the night. I happened to enter the venue not too long after Brooklyn's Gasoline Heart had started. The punk 'n' roll (that's the commonly accepted term, right?) act had a nice energy throughout the half hour that I caught, with a Replacement-influence swagger and presence not unlike similar minded bands like AM Taxi and Architects.

Alt-country act Drag the River came out next and set a very different tone. Composed of Jon Snodgrass and Chad Price (aka, the only two constant members of the band), the duo had a very different energy from that of Gasoline Heart. Authority Zero's rhythm section backed the twosome up during their set to give a more "full" feeling, while still keeping their laid-back vibes. A majority of the crowd didn't seem too impressed, with lots of chatter filling the room during the songs, but not enough to distract from the performance once you got close enough to the stage. To balance out Drag the River's mellow set, Authority Zero came out swinging hard. Without much of a warning, the band immediately launched into a very heavy set list, favoring short and fast songs with plenty of opportunities for the crowd to sing "woah".

By the time Authority Zero finished up, it was already 10:20, and the stage looked nowhere near ready for The Ataris to come out. Generally this wouldn't be a problem, but it's not a particularly ideal situation to be in on a Sunday night when you work a 9-5 Monday to Friday job, as was the case for most in attendance. But all that restlessness meant nothing once the houselights went down at 10:45 and the Ataris transported an entire room full of people back to 2003. It may have been years since this lineup of the band has played together, but they played as if they had never dissolved.

As with most full album shows, the setlist stuck to the order of the songs on So Long, Astoria, only slightly deviating by switching "All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know" and "The Boys of Summer". Roe, Davenport, and even Donald Spence (who was playing third guitar on stage with the band) would occasionally make remarks or tell anecdotes in between songs to the audience- such as how "My Reply" was intended to be the album's second single until out of nowhere radio stations started playing "The Boys of Summer", kind of forcing the band to just go with it- but for the most part the night was dedicated to the songs of So Long, Astoria and nothing more.

By the time the band finished their set, it was 11:35, which didn't leave the band much time to let the audience build up much of a chant for the encore. Roe returned to the stage within a matter of minutes, said he'd play a couple of old songs, and launched into a solo, electric performance of fan-favorite "San Dimas High School Football Rules". Roe then introduced current Ataris bassist Bryan Nelson to the stage, followed by former drummer Rob Felicetti, and the trio launched into a faithful cover of the Misfits' "Skulls". Roe and Felicetti joked about being on TMZ together (in case you forgot, they had a bit of a public feud not too long ago) and it looked as if they've made amends since the last time they shared the stage together.

Once the So Long, Astoria line up regrouped on stage, John Collura had some parting words for the crowd: "We ARE The Ataris". Whether he meant that perhaps there was a future with this lineup or that he was just caught up in the moment of the tour wasn't clear (although the latter was more likely), it was a great sentiment to end the night on, and the band finished with "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone", a fitting closer considering a re-recorded version appeared as a hidden track on So Long, Astoria.

Aside from ending way too late for a Sunday night show, the final night of the So Long, Astoria 10th Anniversary tour was a very satisfying experience for everyone in attendance. The album may be over a decade old at this point, but seeing the band play these old songs still made them seem fresh. No one knows for sure when The Graveyard of the Atlantic will be released, but at least The Ataris will always have the legacy of So Long, Astoria.

I've gotten lazy.

2014-03-27T18:26:00.002-04:00

I've been in a funk lately and I think a lot of it has to do with not writing about music as much as I once did. I've gotten so wrapped up in working and writing for DyingScene that I've just ignored this blog for almost a year.

I'm going to change that. I think writing album reviews on my own terms could be good for me.

Stay tuned for at least one update a week for now.

Journey into the Cloud

2013-06-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

So a few weeks back, my computer just stopped working one night. I can't really explain how it happened- it was beginning to move really slowly, so I decided to restart it before I ran out to grab a quick dinner at McDonald's. When I came back home, I was greeting by a computer that was simply turned off. I thought that maybe I had accidentally hit "shut down" instead of "restart", so I pressed the power button and sat down to enjoy my incredibly greasy meal. To my surprise, the computer did not respond to the power being turned on. That's when I thought that maybe I just hadn't pushed the button hard enough, so I tried again. Still nothing. This was when I started to get concerned. I tried a different power source, as well as trying a different plug to see if anything would work but to no avail.

I hopped on to the family desktop to see if I could look up any possible solutions to my problem. Not being a very technical person outside of knowing out to hook up a multitude of USB ports and cleaning dust out of the fan, I didn't understand a single thing that I read. I went back to my room, tried it once more, and decided that I would just have to deal with the fact that my computer was not going to turn on anymore. From my understanding of what I had read it was possible to recover the stuff on my hard drive... I would just need the assistance of someone smarter than me. But I kept calm because most of my files (college papers I was proud of, album reviews, photos, etc) were either backed up online or on my external hard drive, and all of my music was still on my iPod. The computer was four years old and I had been looking for a replacement anyhow- so I thought that in the long run this could be a blessing in disguise.

So I went on with my life- I bought an iPod dock, busted out my old DVD player to watch things (rewatching the first season of The Simpsons reminded me of how much I love that show) while I browsed on my tiny little netbook that would freeze up if I had more than two tabs open. Things seemed like they would be looking up.

Then tragedy struck two days later. I got home from work, and threw my hoodie onto the floor because that's the sort of thing I do sometimes. A few hours later I went to work out, and I looked for my iPod so I could blast something heavy to get me pumped. That's when I discovered that my iPod, which was in my hoodie pocket, was not working. Over the last five years I've dropped my iPod on the concrete and the damage was minimal except for a few scratches, but when I toss it on the carpeted floor while blanketed in a cotton hoodie, that's when the serious damage occurs. Awesome.

Needless to say, I was devastated. I've spent the last few years building up a nice collection of music ranging from stuff I would listen to consistently, to rare b-sides that were fun to show off to other collectors, to bootlegs of shows that I had attended (or wish I had attended). I could deal with all that stuff not being backed up on my external because I had it on my iPod, but now my iPod was broken and all that stuff was gone (unless, you know, I figure out how to recover stuff from my computer's hard drive without breaking anything). I didn't know what else to do, so I just laid down and tried not to touch anything else so that I wouldn't break it. Luckily I still had a decent amount of music saved on my phone (all the stuff that I listened to on a regular basis, and maybe one or two things that I needed to review for DyingScene), and my girlfriend was nice enough to lend me her iPod. Hope was not all lost.

Flashforward to last weekend. I spent a good deal considering my options for a new computer and I finally decided that I would go with a Chromebook. I had considered it before when my desktop was still alive, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the jump into cloud computing when I still had 70-80GB of music. However, with my iPod no longer working I had nothing tying me down to something with a lot of storage space. I decided that it would be a fun experiment to try out a paid Spotify account and see if it would ever be necessary for me to go back to needing another 160GB iPod. Then I remembered Google Play Music- the app on my phone has been telling me to sign up for the last few weeks before June 30 and now that I'm using a Google-powered computer it only makes sense to go with their services.

I still haven't signed up because I want to sign up as close to June 30th as I can so that I can get the $8 a month deal that they're offering, but also be able to milk my free 30-day trial for as long as I can. I'll probably sign up tomorrow though, because I've got the next few days off and I've been hankering to listen to some Fucked Up and Lucero (two artists that, sadly, did not get saved on my phone when everything of mine died). I'm going to document my experiences jumping directly into streaming based services after spending so much time avoiding them. Right now I'm feeling slightly optimistic. I can't wait to see how I feel at the end of the month!

Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros - The Best of Ian Rubbish EP

2013-05-02T18:15:00.003-04:00

Ian Rubbish is a fictional British punk rocker portrayed by Fred Armisen. Created for a single, pre-recorded sketch for an episode of Saturday Night Live, the character takes a lot of influence from other British punk frontmen, notably Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer. The skit was filmed in a faux-documentary style, exploring the "history of punk" and the Ian Rubbish segment specifically focused on Rubbish's fondness and adoration for the late Margaret Thatcher. Throughout the five minute sketch, there are clips of the fictional band playing some of their most "well known" songs, including the very Pistols-esque "C*nt in a Crown" (an obvious nod to "God Save the Queen"). And that's where this EP comes into play.

Featuring four cuts from the History of Punk sketch (the aforementioned "C*nt in a Crown" was cut from the final track list), The Best of Ian Rubbish consists of full versions of Armisen's take on the '77 Punk style. Tracks like "Hey Policeman!" and "Living in the Gutter" recall The Sex Pistols and The Clash almost perfectly. In fact, if you played them for someone who wasn't familiar with punk rock at all, you could probably convince them that Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros was a real band.

It's the other two tracks on The Best of Ian Rubbish where the humorous parts of the sketch come through in the music. Structurally speaking, "Maggie Thatcher" is still perfectly executed homage to the first wave of British punk rock, although the lyrical approach consist of praise for the former Prime Minister- something that was completely unheard of in the punk scene. The EP's final track, "Sweet Iron Lady", breaks the flow of the '77 punk feel by being a slow, but still electric, ballad. The lyrics point out some of Thatcher's controversial decisions, while still humorously praising her.

The Best of Ian Rubbish is a fantastic, albeit quite short, listen. Armisen really captured the feel of that early punk sound while also churning out some chuckle worthy songs (I'm sure if I had been alive to actually know a thing or two about Thatcher, instead of just reading about her on the Internet, I would have found it to be funnier). It's definitely still worth checking out, and it can be downloaded for free right here.

And in case you missed the History of Punk sketch that this evolved from, here it is:

Word is that Armisen performed as Rubbish opening for Vampire Weekend recently. Perhaps he's considering making a movie based on the character? (A movie in the vein of This Is Spinal Tap about a punk band would be very welcome).

Dan Webb and the Spiders / Irish Handcuffs - Split

2013-03-01T02:19:00.001-05:00

Dan Webb and the Spiders are a punk band from Massachusetts that evolved out of a one man band. Irish Handcuffs are a punk band from Germany that formed out of a love for Jawbreaker and (presumably) Smoke or Fire. Despite hailing from different continents, the two bands have teamed up together to display their song-writing talents in the form of a split EP. The result is a four track rush of snotty, yet melodious, punk rock.

Dan Webb and the Spiders start the split with “Quiet Houses”, showing that the band hasn’t lost its touch when it comes to their brand of garage-y punk rock. Webb’s vocals are slightly reminiscent of a young Lars Frederiksen, but don’t let that comparison pigeon-hole the band in any way as a Rancid-wannabe. “Quiet Houses” is full of aggressive musicianship, and a chorus that begs to be shouted along with. The lead guitar screeches through the song’s final moments, but it never sounds jarring. “Last Straw”, the Spiders’ other contribution to the split, is a bit of a catchier number, with less in-your-face instrumentals, and more reserved vocals. Webb’s vocals adopt more of a Shevchuk scratch to them, and it suits the song’s melodic approach, not unlike how the actual Shevchuk’s vocals suited LaGrecia. Much like its companion, “Last Straw” is full of vocal harmonies and is sure to be a fun sing-along.

Irish Handcuffs don’t miss a beat to keep the energy flow up high. The young band contributes two gruff, yet melodic punk rock tunes that pick up right where they left off with 2012’s stubbs. EP. “Derail” is upbeat, and the guitar work sounds almost like it could have been a song that got lost during the stubbs. sessions. As catchy as the chorus is though, it’s “Sunday’s Ghosts” where Irish Handcuffs really shine, with the four piece outfit really bringing their A-game to the three and a half minute track. The instruments conjure up a dark and gloomy atmosphere, and the raw emotion in the vocals delivers the band’s best studio performance to date. It’s almost bizarre to think that this is only Irish Handcuffs’ second studio release, as it plays as if the band has been around for a few years.

The best kinds of splits are the ones that showcase the talents of all the bands involved without one stealing the thunder away from the other; everyone gives it their all to show what they’re made of but holding back just enough so that the listener wants more. Dan Webb and the Spiders and Irish Handcuffs have accomplished exactly that with this split. Melodic punk rock has seen a lot of faces come and go over the years, and this split helps to cement that both Dan Webb and the Spiders and Irish Handcuffs are here to stay.

PS: Irish Handcuffs released a video for "Derail", which you can watch right here.

The Bronx - The Bronx IV

2013-02-28T16:53:00.001-05:00

(This review was originally published on DyingScene)

Well… The Bronx is back. After they’ve spent the better part of the last five years parading around as Mariachi El Bronx, the LA-based punk band has released their fourth self-titled studio album (although it’s their sixth if you count the mariachi albums). Since the band never really went anywhere, it wouldn’t really be fair to consider The Bronx IV to be a “return-to-form” album, although after the five year absence that’s almost exactly what the album sounds like. On The Bronx IV, the band returns to their punk rock roots, delivering twelve songs bursting full of energy and heavy riffs.

Musically speaking The Bronx IV plays similarly to the rest of the band’s punk rock-oriented catalogue- particularly the more modern hard rock sounds that the band has been developing since 2006’s The Bronx II. Whereas most bands like to experiment with their sounds and shift things up four albums in, it seems as if the members of The Bronx have gotten all of their experimental wants and needs out of their systems with Mariachi El Bronx, because The Bronx IV contains very little trace of new elements. Instead, The Bronx offers up a collection of fun and vicious songs that tighten up the loud and dirty rock and roll sounds of 2008’s The Bronx III. These are songs that sound equally amazing whether you’re speeding down a highway or taking shots of whiskey at your local dive bar.

Amidst the blaring guitars and pounding drums, lead vocalist Matt Caughthran lets out his most vicious screams in years. Caughthran roars his way through tracks like “The Unholy Hand” (in which he demands “Are you the Anti-Christ or The Holy Ghost? Do you wanna die or just go real close?”) and “Under the Rabbit” (Caughthran’s delivery of “This is the best life my money could buy!” sends shivers). The rest of the band rips furiously through the album perfectly, but with The Bronx it’s always Caughthran’s vocals that sell each song and the band keeps to the tradition with this album.

Even with all this power coursing through its veins, The Bronx IV takes the occasional moment to slow things down. “Torches” and “Life Less Ordinary” wind up being some of the slowest songs that the band has ever written, but even with the lack of the band’s usual in-your-face aggression, the band more than makes up for it with a sharp sense of melody (particularly the former, which isn’t even all that slow). Caughthran’s impressive vocal range is probably best showcased in these songs, as The Bronx is primarily an outlet for Caughthran to release his screams, so when softens to the level of singing entire songs, it’s something that the listener is going to pay attention to. Granted, there’s lots of singing on the band’s mariachi albums, but there’s a reason why those albums were released under the Mariachi El Bronx moniker.

If there are any faults with The Bronx IV, it’s that the album returns too much to form, and some songs just get buried into the album. Individually the songs are all great sounding, but it’s hard to remember a song like “Too Many Devils” when it’s sandwiched between the far superior “Youth Wasted” and “Pilot Light”. The same could be said for “Valley Heat”, which unfortunately finds itself wedged into the tight space between the heavy-hitting “Ribcage” and the aforementioned “Life Less Ordinary”. Not that these are bad songs, but they’re missing a certain something that gives them an edge to stick out among the rest. A tad bit more diversification in tempo wouldn’t have hurt anything.

The Bronx IV is not necessarily a comeback album, because the band never actually went anywhere. But it’s been so long since this incarnation of the band has been heard from that The Bronx IV may as well be the first big comeback of the year. Five years is a pretty long time to make fans wait, but The Bronx IV was well worth it. That said; hopefully we won’t have to wait until 2018 before the release of The Bronx V.

Besides the A-Side: 7 Albums with a Better Second Half

2013-01-25T14:33:00.002-05:00

We all know those albums that are really good from beginning to finish. Every single song is wonderful and that’s that. Then we have the albums where most of the best tracks are clumped together at the very beginning of an album, making it easier to listen to all of your favorite songs since they’re all strung together. But what about those times when a band puts all of the best songs on the second half? It might not happen as often, but I can assure you that it does. It took some time and consideration, but here are 7 albums in which the second half winds up being a stronger set of songs than what can be heard on the first half.

07. The Horrible Crowes – Elsie

I want to go on record and say that I actually enjoy pretty much the entirety of Elsie. With few exceptions, the entire album is a great example of how to do a side project right: rarely do the songs sound like they were leftover Gaslight Anthem demos, but there’s still enough familiarity in the feel of the album that fans wouldn’t be turned off by it. That said, Elsie’s second half (beginning with “Ladykiller”) is a lot more solid than its first half. Both “Behold the Hurricane” and “Go Tell Everybody” are great, but if there were any tracks on Elsie that sounded like Gaslight Anthem leftovers, it would be these two songs. And then there’s “Cherry Blossoms”, which is just boring (seriously, the two songs it’s sandwiched between are both longer, but it still managed to feel like the longest track on the album because of how slow it is). The second half is what truly makes The Horrible Crowes a worthwhile project. Sure the first half has its experimentation in “Sugar” and “I Witnessed a Crime”, but the six songs that make up back half of Elsie excel in trying out new instrumentation and compositions for Brian Fallon’s familiar rasp to sing over, playing with a range of tempos from the upbeat “Crush” to the aggressive “Mary Ann”, the laid-back “Black Betty and the Moon” and the slow “Blood Loss”. The whole album is gold, but the second half is really where it kicks into gear as far as being a side project.

06. Bomb the Music Industry! – Scrambles

I love the first three Bomb the Music Industry! releases. There’s something about the chaotic nature of those albums that just got lost when the band recorded Get Warmer with a full band lineup. Scrambles, despite being another “full band” recording, contained more of those chaotic and messy elements that made me love the band in the first place. The first half of Scrambles is promising, combining elements of both the old frantic BTMI! and new piano-driven BTMI!. Then comes the 1-2-3-4-5 punch of “Gang of Four Meets the Stooges (But Boring)”, “9/11 Fever!!!”, “(Shut) Up the Punx!!!”, “Can I Pay My Rent In Fun?” and “Saddr Weirddr” and creates one of the best string of songs on any of the band’s albums. As soon as it begins, I’m on for the ride until “Sort of Like Being Pumped” starts (not that it’s a bad song, but I can survive if I don’t finish that track).

05. Against Me! – Reinventing Axl Rose

Okay, so the first half of this album contains “Pints of Guinness Help Make You Strong” and “We Laugh at Danger (And Break All the Rules)”, two of Against Me!’s best songs and staples in the band’s live set to this very day. But you know what it doesn’t have? “Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious…”, “Reinventing Axl Rose”, “Baby, I’m an Anarchist”, and “Walking Is Still Honest”. I have a tendency to give Reinventing Axl Rose less credit than the rest of the band’s discography for the fact that its back half is mostly made up of re-recorded songs from Crime As Forgiven By… and The Acoustic EP, but regardless of which versions of the songs you’re listening to, they’re still the cream of the crop from that era. And they’re all (mostly) on the second half of Reinventing Axl Rose.

04. The Replacements – Let It Be

Let It Be, like Elsie, is actually a pretty solid album throughout. But when it comes down to it, I much prefer the second half of the album. As soon as the first notes of “Unsatisfied” begin, Let It Be kicks off into not only some of the best songs that The ‘Mats ever wrote, but also some of the strongest vocal performances that front-man Paul Westerberg ever gave. There’s a real pain and sadness in his voice throughout “Unsatisfied” and “Answering Machine”, and even “Seen Your Video” (which is mostly instrumental) contains Westerberg’s rough shout. “Sixteen Blue” also marks one of the band’s first “ballad”-esque songs which they perfected on their next album, Tim. Now if only the band had swapped “Androgynous” and “Gary’s Got a Boner”, things would be perfect.

03. Weezer – Pinkerton

“Tired of Sex” is one of the best opening songs ever, and “Across the Sea” might be the perfect creepy love/lust song, but everything else that Weezer’s magnum opus has to offer in its first five songs pale in comparison to the next five songs. I don’t think I really have to say much because I don’t think there’s anyone who would disagree with me on that.

02. Descendents – I Don’t Want to Grow Up

Although there were hints of it on Milo Goes to College, the mature songwriting of the Descendents didn’t really blossom fully until their second album. The album starts with some fairly playful and immature songs like “Descendents”, and “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”, but as the album progresses the album begins to sober up and the songs get more serious. It’s not until the final third of the album when the band’s maturity hits its stride, but once it does it churns out five solid songs all in a row. “Silly Girl” and “In Love This Way” are still relatively light-hearted love songs, but it’s hard to believe that they’re on the same album as a track like “Pervert” from the first half. Then comes the heavy-hearted “Christmas Vacation”, “Good Good Things” and “Ace”, which are among some of the saddest songs in the band’s entire discography. For a band that didn’t want to grow up, they sure did with these songs.

01. Screeching Weasel – My Brain Hurts

Ben Weasel is a confusing man that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, but I do understand that his lyricism on Screeching Weasel’s third album, My Brain Hurts, is some of the best that punk rock had to offer in the early 90’s. Although there are plenty of examples of strong lyrics throughout the album, the truly great songs don’t really start showing up until “Cindy’s on Methadone”, a tragic and sarcastic tale of trading one addiction for another. Followed by introspective “The Science of Myth” (which was inspired by Dr. Frank of the Mr. T Experience turning his thesis paper into a song), the bitter “What We Hate”, and the tongue-in-cheek “Teenage Freakshow”, the rest of the album keeps going with great songs until it’s over. Technically, since this streak of songs begins with track 6, that makes this an album with the latter two-thirds being better than the first third, but that’s just a ridiculous idea for a list.

Cheap Girls - My Roaring 20's (Acoustic)

2013-01-23T12:10:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago Cheap Girls and Quote Unquote Records released an acoustic version of Cheap Girls' second album, My Roaring 20's. Unlike the acoustic version of Find Me a Drink Home (the debut Cheap Girls album), which was essentially just singer Ian Graham singing with an acoustic guitar, My Roaring 20's has more of a full arrangement feel to it. There are multiple guitars layered throughout the song, and all the additional instruments that were in the original versions of the songs (like that accordion part in "Sunnyside") (at least I'm pretty sure it's an accordion) are still present.

Structurally, My Roaring 20's (Acoustic) isn't a whole lot different than My Roaring 20's. The songs are played at a slightly slower speed to accommodate the fully fleshed out ring of the acoustic instruments, but they haven't gone under any huge compositional changes as some songs do when they make the shift from electric to acoustic. It might sound lazy, but Cheap Girls is the kind of band that writes songs that sound good when played with acoustic guitars. Graham's vocals have a quiet quality to them, and I've met people who feel that his singing style doesn't always mesh well with the band's more explosive sounding songs (not me, but when I saw the band open for The Gaslight Anthem back in November everyone in the group that I was with felt that way). But put that same singing voice over more laid-back versions of the same songs, and it's just perfection.

I suppose the true success of My Roaring 20's (Acoustic) really comes from whether or not fans like having the drums and electric guitars stripped away. To me, the songs on My Roaring 20's just sound like they were written to be played on an acoustic guitar: the soft tones of the guitars blended with Graham's vocals help to bring out their sadness. I'm curious to see if the band will ever release an acoustic version of Giant Orange. The songs on that one feel more structured for electric instruments (for the most part anyhow), and I think an acoustic take on those songs would be interesting.

But I digress. My Roaring 20's (Acoustic) is a solid release by fantastic band. You can "pick up" (download) a copy of it over at Quote Unquote Records. By the by, right as this album was released, bassist/vocalist Ian Graham went in for knee surgery and any and all donations or proceeds for the album go toward paying his medical bills. So if you've got a couple of bucks that you can afford to part with, I recommend helping him out.

Cheap Girls - My Roaring 20's (Acoustic)

Album Review: Lasorda - Lasorda

2013-01-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

Lasorda is a supergroup that includes members of The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, fun., The Honorary Title, and Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band. But instead of using their established names to create something that the kids will eat up, they take this opportunity to experiment with new sounds- winding up with something different than from what the band's members are typically known for.

Remember when Farewell Continental formed and some press releases and/or reviews of their sound claimed that they were a more shoegaze-y version of Motion City Soundtrack with dual male-female vocals? I never really understood that, mostly because Farewell Continental never really came off as shoegaze to me. I mean, I admit that I don't really listen to a whole lot of shoegaze- but Farewell Continental really just sounded like Motion City Soundtrack with more of a 90's indie feel and a female co-vocalist. Well, Lasorda is kind of like Farewell Continental- except that Lasorda actually fits into my idea of what shoegaze sounds like (though, again, I don't listen to shoegaze so there's a strong possibility that I am way off here).

The songs are mostly even-paced, and even the more energetic of the songs on their debut album are pretty mellow. The guitars and keys have a tendency to drone on for awhile, the drums are simple and provide a sturdy structure for each song. At times Lasorda's music sounds like really dark 80's pop music- the kind of dark-sounding pop music that could fit on the Drive soundtrack. Well, maybe not as electronically distorted as that, but almost.

Lead vocalist Suzannah Johannes has a voice that suits the low-key tone of the music perfectly, singing calmly throughout most of the tracks, although she can also pick up the pace alongside the music when it's required. Johannes also provides provides a pleasant surprise for anyone expecting Get Up Kids front-man Matt Pryor to do a majority of the singing- despite being the biggest name in the band (his involvement is the entire reason I had even discovered them), Pryor really only sings lead on a single song, while the rest of his vocals, when they do appear, are limited to backups and harmonies. Considering that the man already fronts three bands and has his own solo project, it's nice to know that he's humble enough to start yet another band and not want to take the spotlight. In fact, he probably only sings those handful of times so that the Get Up Kids fans aren't left wondering if he's really playing on the album or not.

In summary, Lasorda's album is weird, but that doesn't mean it's unlistenable. Quite the opposite actually. Don't go into it thinking you know what to expect just because you know who is in the band, because chances are pretty high that you'll be wrong. These guys achieve where Farewell Continental kind of fell flat.

Lasorda is available in both vinyl or digital formats.

Albums I'm Looking Forward to Hearing in 2013

2013-01-05T12:40:00.005-05:00

Last year, for the first time ever, I made a list of albums that I was anticipating for the coming musical year. And wouldn't you know it, five of the items on my Anticipated of 2012 list happened to find their way onto my Favorites of 2012 list. So I decided to do it again this year.

Here are eleven albums that I'm looking forward to hearing in 2013, and one that I'm unsure of:

11. Saves the Day – TBA
Details on Saves the Day’s eighth studio album are scarce right now (I don’t think they even have a working title yet) but last year’s Pledge Music Project revealed a demo of their song “Ain’t No Kinda Love”, proving that they are working toward something new. Daybreak only took a few years to come out, so the fact that they’re already working on new material is exciting.

10. Alkaline Trio – TBA
Alkaline Trio has been done recording their album since the end of last October, so it’s only a matter of time before it comes out. The as-of-now untitled album was produced by none other than Bill Stevenson (Descendents) and features Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms) doing backing vocals on some tracks (or maybe all of them, I don’t know). No word on how it will sound, but if it continues at all in the same vein as This Addiction I’ll be a happy camper.

09. Junior Battles – TBA
A lot of these albums sure are speculation, aren’t they? Junior Battles is one of the best pop punk bands out there today, combining properties and elements of bands like Latterman, Green Day, and even Fall Out Boy. Right before Fest last year the band released a two song EP previewing what their new material would sound like. Here’s to hoping that the full length will sound just like the EP.

08. Night Birds – TBA
Much like how Junior Battles are one of the best pop punk bands out there today, Night Birds tear it up as one of the best modern punk bands. Armed with a sound that is accurately described as “Adolescents meets Dead Kennedys”, Night Birds sound like they would fit in perfectly in 1980’s LA. They’ve made several announcements via Facebook that they will be putting out both a full length and a 7-inch single in 2013, and even though it remains untitled for now, I can guarantee that the album will crack my Top 10 of 2013.

07. Direct Hit! – TBA
This one is more speculation than anything else, but it’s been a few years and Direct Hit! is rumored to start recording a new album this year. Last year saw them release at least three splits (with Hold Tight!, The Haverchucks, and Braver), all three of which saw the band heading in a new, more vicious direction. It’s become apparent that Nick Woods and company have been listening to a lot of Mean Jeans lately- not that it’s a bad thing. Anything that Direct Hit! puts out is guaranteed to be a high octane thrillride, and if they manage to capture that sound while combining it with the spacey pop punk attitude of Mean Jeans I’m all for it.

06. Coheed and Cambria – The Afterman: Descension
Finally something on my list with a title! Coheed and Cambria surprised me last year with The Afterman: Ascension. I had lost interest in the band at some point between the releases of No World for Tomorrow and Year of the Black Rainbow, but The Afterman toned things down a bit to where the songs weren’t getting high off their own story telling. The only thing that kept Ascension off my 2012 list was because it didn’t really feel like it was a “complete” album. I enjoyed it a lot, but it just felt like it was missing a crucial something. I’m hoping that this sense of being “incomplete” is just due to the fact that it Ascension is incomplete… and that the release of Descension will fix that.

05. Pure Love – Anthems
Pure Love is the new project from former Gallows front-man Frank Carter. The band’s goal is to sing about more positive things than Carter did with his previous band. They’re loud, not very punk, and incredibly anthemic (hence the album title, one would suppose). Anthems was supposed to come out last year but then for some reason it never did. However, it’s been rescheduled for a February release, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it will be released for real this time.

04. Broadway Calls – Comfort / Distraction
I know I just gave all my pop punk praise to Junior Battles, but I honestly believe that Broadway Calls could be the next Green Day if they want to be. They’ve certainly got the song writing chops to write catchy songs about girls and they can do it without sounding like a boy band or by having stupid haircuts. They recently took a bit of a stumble when their line-up had to be shifted, and 2011’s Toxic Kids EP saw them trying to work back into their groove a little bit. Last year’s Vision Quest split with Mixtapes was a wonderful return-to-form and reignited my hope for them.

03. Bad Religion – True North
Have you heard “Fuck You” and “True North” yet? Despite that True North is going to be Bad Religion’s sixteenth album, it already sounds more like their third or fourth album. Bad Religion is one of the few bands that doesn’t get too much hate for recording albums that generally sound the same, but True North is gearing up to be one of those rare times when a band is praised for recording an album that sounds like something that’s already been done before.

02. Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
It dawned on me recently that I’ve been an Against Me! fan for almost ten years now. It was summer 2003, I was away at camp, and my friend Sabina played “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” for me and I fell in love with it. Here we are in 2013 and I’ve stuck with the band through everything. With maybe one or two exceptions, all of the band’s new songs have been pretty solid, and I’d be pumped for this even if the album wasn't a concept album about Laura’s struggles with gender dysphoria and her experience transitioning- but knowing the extremely personal nature of the album does add to the excitement.

01. Streetlight Manifesto – The Hands That Thieve / Toh Kay – The Hand That Thieves
This album was going to top everyone’s Best of 2012 lists, but then at the last second (literally) it was announced that it wasn’t ready to come out because fuck the fans, right? Allegedly the band has finished recording the album, and the mastering process has begun, but until this album is in my hands I’m not sure what to believe. Should it come out this year though, I (along with many other fans) will be an extremely happy and satisfied customer. Additionally, I have included the solo version of the album in this spot because they were scheduled to come out at the same time and I assume that this is still the case.

SECRET ENTRY:
XX. The Ataris – The Graveyard of the Atlantic
This album has been in the works since at least 2008, while the release dates have been coming and going since at least 2009. Essentially, it has become the Chinese Democracy of pop punk. The songs that have been released so far sound pretty good (kind of like a more grand version of So Long, Astoria), but it’s taking so long that I’m not sure if we’ll ever get to hear the whole album. At the very least, there will always be the All Souls Day / The Graveyard of the Atlantic single that came out in 2010.

Top 16 Albums of 2012

2012-12-31T04:13:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again. Time for me to write in length about the albums that came out this year that I loved for no one to read.

This year was incredibly frustrating at first when making this list. Partly because for awhile I felt like there were a bunch of albums that I liked but none that really made a huge impact on me. But also because I wound up making two lists, one for this here blog (which was also shared with the Pop Punk / Rock / Alternative / Emo blog), and one for DyingScene. There's a lot of overlap on the two lists (both in albums and my write ups), but the DyingScene one only goes to ten entries, while this one goes to sixteen. My DyingScene list also covers more of the punk albums that I liked from this year, while this list expands outward a bit more.

Anywho, here's my list of my sixteen favorite albums of 2012:

16. Masked Intruder – Masked Intruder

What a fine pop punk album this is! Masked Intruder is one of the few bands with a gimmick that translates really well into the studio recordings. My biggest problem with this album (re: my only problem with this album) is that five of the thirteen tracks had already been previously released, four of which were released earlier just this year on the First Offense EP and the band’s split with The Turkletons. Despite that, this is still a fantastic bubblegum pop infused with punk album. Not many pop punk bands can get away with putting this much emphasis on the pop element and still be widely accepted in punk circles, but these boys are on to something.

15. Aspiga – Every Last Piece

From the harsh snarls to the fast musicianship to the heart-on-sleeve self deprecation, these guys remind me a lot of Jawbreaker and early(ish) Saves the Day. As I said in my review: “Think 24 Hour Revenge Therapy meets Through Being Cool.” In other words: really good. Every Last Piece is a little on the short side, to the point that I think this might technically be an EP, but isn’t being straight to the point what punk is all about?

14. Hostage Calm – Please Remain Calm

You know those bands that you always read or hear about but you just never remember to check out? Hostage Calm was one of those bands for me. But from the moment I put on Please Remain Calm I became hooked. Their blending of 60’s orchestral pop, 70’s rock anthem verses, and lyrical themes of modern day despair and uncertainty was so weird and off-putting to me at first that I just had to keep listening. Next thing I knew, I was listening to the album every day for three weeks straight.

13. Cheap Girls – Giant Orange

Apathetic college rock makes its return! Ironically, Giant Orange is probably the band’s most energetic album yet, as well as their best. Ian Graham’s vocals still have that kind of bored tone to them, but he’s never sounded better than he does on this album (I think I once described the band as having an unmatched apathetic energy). Laura Jane Grace’s production on the album helps it to sound slick, but still appropriate for a band of their pedigree.

12. The Sidekicks – Awkward Breeds

The Sidekicks have pretty much dropped all pretenses of being a punk band. But you know what? If that means that we get to have an album like Awkward Breeds because of it, then there’s no reason to be upset. It’s like a mix of Pinkerton, Third Eye Blind, and New Miserable Experience for a new generation.

11. The Evens – The Odds

Arguably more aggressive than the band’s first two albums, The Odds finds The Evens proving that punk rockers can slow down with dignity and grace. Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina play off each other incredibly well, from MacKaye’s Fugazi-esque chops showing off on his baritone guitar and Farina’s oddball drumming style. As vocalists both members also shine, although Farina’s vocal performance in particular stands out. Maybe I just never listened to The Evens or Get Evens as much as I thought I had, but her voice sounds more powerful than ever all throughout The Odds.

10. Various Artists - The Thing That Ate Larry Livermore

Quick, name some bands that immediately come to mind when you think of pop punk in 2012? If you didn’t list any of the bands that appear on this comp, you’re wrong. Handpicked by Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore, the compilation collects 15 of the best modern pop punk bands (and Night Birds) from across North America. To make things even better, each song was written exclusively for this comp, making it the only place you can get these songs (at least until any of the bands put together a rarities collection).

09. Classics of Love – Classics of Love

These days it seems like less and less high school kids talk about Operation Ivy. Do kids still go through their ska-punk phase, or is that not a thing anymore? Either way, it doesn’t matter because Jesse Michaels (and his backing band Hard Girls) just released the best album of his career so far. Classics of Love is a rapid, hard-hitting punk album bordering on the lines of classic hardcore. And there’s kind of some ska on it, but not really.

08. Matt Pryor - May Day

Matt Pryor released his solo debut, Confidence Man, back in 2008. In the four years between then and now, Matt has clearly gone through a lot that has angered him. Musically, May Day is on par with Confidence Man, although in terms of lyrical subject Pryor takes a much darker approach. He’s no longer singing about having his heartbroken emotionally by girls, but Pryor hasn’t been this bitter and angry since the early days of The Get Up Kids. Yeah, that’s how good it is.

07. Brendan Kelly & The Wandering Birds – I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever

I love this whole “frontman going solo” thing that’s been happening in punk, but sometimes it gets a little boring when it’s just a guy and an acoustic guitar. I mean, I love seeing it live, but only so much can be done with that set up in a studio recording. So when a solo project takes on a full band sound, even if the songs will only ever be performed with an acoustic guitar, I think it’s really cool because then it creates something special and new. Just like Dave Hause and Dan Andriano before him, Brendan Kelly has created a collection of songs packed with full band recordings that may never be performed live exactly as they sound on the album. His various singing styles also give I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever even more of a full band feel to it, which is pretty rad to me.

06. The Dopamines – Vices

The Dopamines have done it again. Clocking in at 21 minutes, Vices tones down from the slick sounds of production of 2010’s Expect the Worst, and it comes off as sounding like a much more proper follow up to the band’s self titled debut. Either way, The Dopamines have still crafted an excellent album for those who miss the pop punk of the early 1990’s.

05. The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

The punk influences in The Gaslight Anthem’s music have all but vanished since their inception, but in spite of that the band is (oddly) still widely accepted by the punk community. Handwritten is the band’s heaviest album to date (Sink or Swim is their loudest but it’s not really “heavy”… there’s a difference). The guitars are crunchier, the songs aren’t always fixated around 50’s nostalgia, and Maria is nowhere to be found, but at its core Handwritten is still a Gaslight Anthem album.

04. Green Day – ¡Uno! / ¡Dos! / ¡Tré!

After spending the better part of the last decade trying out rock operas and “mature” sounds, Green Day has finally taken things down a notch. Picking up from where they left off with 2000’s Warning, Green Day’s trilogy takes multiple steps back from the over scale grandness of 21^st Century Breakdown, resulting in a massive collection of old and new sounds. Between the three discs, ¡Uno! and ¡Tré! are the more “typical” Green Day-sounding albums, taking the huge riffs of the bands rock operas and applying them to 3-minute power pop tunes. ¡Dos! experiments with more straight forward garage riffs more commonly associated with Foxboro Hot Tubs. Of course not every track is a winner (“Oh Love” is big and dumb; “Nightlife” tries its hand at combining dirty rock with rapped verses and loses; “The Forgotten” is another boring, string-laden ballad), but when you’ve got thirty-seven tracks to choose from the few duds aren’t really going to distract much.

03. Teenage Bottlerocket – Freak Out!

Sometimes bands never need to change their sound. Teenage Bottlerocket is one of those bands. Freak Out!, the band’s fifth full length album, follows the exact same formula that the band has been using since their inception. Given that it’s been three years since They Came From the Shadows was released, it would’ve been nice to have 14 entirely new songs instead of 12 new songs and two being recycled from last year’s Mutilate Me EP. But beggars can’t be choosers, right? And when the songs are this good, it doesn’t really matter.

02. Mixtapes – Even on the Worst Nights

There’s absolutely no reason for me to actually like Mixtapes. In fact, I think I should hate them. They’re obnoxious, one of the vocalists sounds like a second-rate Fat Mike, and they just generally talk a lot of shit both in their lyrics and on their social media presence. Yet they’ve still put together one of the finest pop punk albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Even on the Worst Nights bridges the gap between the two factions of pop punk by featuring guest spots by both Grath Madden (The Steinways, House Boat) and Dan “Soupy” Campbell (The Wonder Years). Not that I expect to see Dear Landlord and The Story So Far on a bill together anytime soon, but if Mixtapes continues on this path that could very well be a reality one day.

01. The Menzingers – On the Impossible Past

What Handwritten lacks in nostalgic songs about a blue-collar lifestyle, On the Impossible Past makes up for in numbers. Perhaps it’s my secret desire to want to be old enough to feel nostalgic, or perhaps it’s because I recently started living a blue-collar lifestyle, but there’s something about The Menzingers’ third disc that kept me listening all year long.

I also have a list of EPs coming soon. Ish. Let's see if I can get it up within a week.

Thanks for reading!

Review: blink-182 - Dogs Eating Dogs

2012-12-18T19:03:00.001-05:00

This review was also published on DyingScene.

Sometimes the worst people to listen to in regards to a band’s sound are the band members themselves. They’re just too involved and close to the music that they lack the necessary objectivity to accurately describe the music. This rings incredibly true in the case of Dogs Eating Dogs, the newest EP from long-running (and newly independent) pop punk act blink-182. In the time leading up to the EP’s release, drummer Travis Barker stated that the material present would be “100 times better than Neighborhoods”, helping to build up hype concerning the trio’s new music. When added to the fact that the band recently severed ties with Interscope Records and would be releasing the EP independently, Dogs Eating Dogs had the elements of a comeback story written all over it.

Of course, then you have to remember that this is the reformed blink-182 here.

For the most part, the EP is an extension of where Neighborhoods left off. The EP does find the band treading into new and unexplored territory for the band… but not necessarily new and unexplored territory for the band members, which leads to a few pros and cons. The unnecessarily long song introductions and the reverb-cranked-to-11 vocals of Angels and Airwaves are present in more than half the songs, which is a drag for anyone who isn’t also a fan of the spacey/proggy outfit. The aggressive guitars of +44 do squeeze their way into the title track, which is a welcome surprise; although it takes backseat the synth-y and hip hop elements of the rest of the EP.

Much like Neighborhoods, guitarist Tom Delonge sings lead over Mark Hoppus on most of the EP. While this may have been a conscious decision made by the band, it’s not necessarily the best decision, as Dogs Eating Dogs winds up sounding essentially like a collection of the more upbeat Angels and Airwaves songs (e.g., “Everything’s Magic”, “Secret Crowds”) than anything else. Based on the direction of songs from Neighborhoods, this really shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, just as it’s unsurprising that the tracks that feature more Hoppus are the stronger songs.

Whereas “When I Was Young” and “Disaster” showcase what the band can do when it relegates Hoppus to harmonies and background vocals in the chorus, “Dogs Eating Dogs” and Boxing Day” show that the two vocalists can still share the spotlight without overpowering each other. The title track is, as previously mentioned, musically similar to +44’s “When Your Heart Stops Beating”, with Hoppus taking the verses and Delonge on chorus duty. It’s one of the more straightforward rock songs that the band has written in a long time (rivaling last year’s “Hearts All Gone”). “Boxing Day” takes the exact opposite approach of “Dogs Eating Dogs”, going for the somber, acoustic approach. It’s not quite a ballad in the vein of “I Miss You”, but it cuts it close.

The EP’s final song, “Pretty Little Girl”, is a perfect example of why just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. As you may or may not know, Travis Barker recently released a collaboration EP with rapper Yelawolf. This friendship eventually led to a blink-182 collaboration with Yelawolf. After the end of the second chorus, Yelawolf enters the song unannounced, raps briefly, and exits just as quickly. It’s puzzling as to why it was included, and the only reason one can really think of is the rapper’s friendship with Barker. Yelawolf’s contributions are just as weird as Green Day’s collaboration with Lady Cobra on their song “Nightlife”, although Green Day at least had a theme going on (even if it wasn’t a particularly successful one), this one is just jarring and out of place.

People will undoubtedly enjoy eating Dogs Eating Dogs. Hell, after a few listens I think it even began to grow on me. But on the whole it remains to be just another blink-182 release. Some of the choruses are really strong and catchy, but the over-layered production make some of the songs feel like leftover Angels and Airwaves songs that Tom brought to Mark and Travis to rework (particularly "Pretty Little Girl"). Maybe Dogs Eating Dogs is better than Neighborhoods, but only around 5x better… possibly 10x, but it’s certainly not at the point of being 100x better. It’s most definitely an appropriate follow up to the band’s last album, continuing the new sounds and themes that the trio has developed since reforming. So there is that... for better or for worse.

Album Review: Ramshackle Glory - Live the Dream

2012-12-11T23:58:00.002-05:00

[This review comes from my buddy Charlie. He's out in the desert right now, but when he has the time he tries to keep his writing from getting rusty. He goes by ChuckBS on Reddit.]

Do you remember Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains? I have a lot of vivid memories of listening to them, their music was exactly what I needed, it was despondent and nihilistic and damn poetic. It was my jam for any time I had to go out in public for a good six months, and then Pat the Bunny went to rehab and I wrote it off, still despondent and nihilistic and accepting that at that was that and that music I connect to never lasts that long. Or so I thought.

Ramshackle Glory is Pat the Bunny’s new band, and their first album Live the Dream, is a perfect transition from Johnny Hobo and later Wingnut Dishwashers Union. It’s more melancholy than Johnny Hobo, a bit slower and lacking the drug fueled energy that the past bands had. That’s’ mostly because he seems to have kicked the habit. In a lot of ways it’s more mature. His lyrics still talk about drugs and drinking, but there’s almost a kind of hope in his words. Pat the Bunny sounds like he’s gotten over a hump, only to see that he’s still the same guy, just trying or something different. OK, that may be me projecting, but I think that’s why I really like this album. When I got into Johnny Hobo and the Wingnut Dishwashers Union I really connected to that music. What Pat the Bunny was singing made a lot of sense, or if not I could just relate quite a bit to his feelings. This album manages to do that again. I mean to say that it’s hitting that same level, just that I’m a few years old (and so is Pat the Bunny) and that level is slightly different. He’s not singing about passing out in ditches and missing all his friends who moved a way, he’s singing about wanting freedom from his addictions and missing friends that died. I guess the easy way to put it is you can hear the fact that he’s been through rehab in his lyrics, and that’s not a bad thing.

Tracks like Bitter Old Man and We’re All Compost in Training are pretty stand out tracks for me, but I’d say there isn’t a bad song on the album. If anything, More About Alcoholism is a little jarring to follow First Song in terms of the sound and speed of the music, but it works as a song in its own right and with the album as whole.

Live the Dream is definitely worth a listen, especially I you’re a fan of Pat the Bunny’s past work or a somewhat jaded dude who’s learning to cope with the world.

Think it sounds good? Check it out!

Album Review: Green Day - ¡Tré!

2012-12-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

When Green Day first announced their trio of albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong made some comments regarding the sound of each individual disc. ¡Uno!, he said, was more or less ‘classic’ Green Day, and he wasn’t lying, provided that he considers Green Day circa 1997-2000 as ‘classic’. Armstrong’s garage-rock-by-way-of-Foxboro Hot Tubs description of ¡Dos! was dead-on, even if the album felt a little too same-y all the way through. And when it came to ¡Tré!, the third and final album of the trilogy, Armstrong said it would be a “mixed bag of reflective songs and some of the most epic arrangements”.

As it turns out, with three exceptions, that’s not really the case with ¡Tré!. A more accurate way of putting it would be “leftovers and scraps that really didn’t fit the themes of albums 1 and 2”. A lot of the songs aren’t necessarily bad, but there’s almost no way that a majority of the album would appeal to anyone who isn’t already a Green Day fan. Songs like “X-Kid”, “Sex, Drugs & Violence”, and “99 Revolutions” fit into that mold of ‘classic’ Green Day songs that Uno was allegedly full of (in fact, they probably would have been better for that album than songs like “Kill the DJ” or “Oh Love”). Tracks like “8^th Avenue Serenade” and “Drama Queen” follow the trend of light experimentation of albums like nimrod or Warning (the former utilizes an odd opening riff that’s usually reserved for the weird indie-punk bands of Quote Unquote Records, and the latter is a soft acoustic ditty that doesn’t quite reach ballad-levels of sappy). Most of the remaining tracks, “Missing You”, “Little Boy Named Train”, “Amanda”, and “Walk Away” aren’t awful songs, but there’s nothing that makes them stand out either, making ¡Tré! complacent with being an album that’s specifically for the fans and for no one else.

The instances in which ¡Tré! does break out into the promised “epic arrangements” are far and few in between, and they reach varying degrees of success. Closing track “The Forgotten” is the mandatory piano-driven ballad that was bound to make an appearance at some point during the band’s trilogy. Utilizing an array of stringed orchestral instruments, “The Forgotten” becomes the next song in the long line of sappy songs that include “Good Riddance”, “Macy’s Day Parade”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, and “21 Guns”; and much like each preceding song, “The Forgotten” is sure to take one step further than the previous one. The one positive thing that can be taken away from “The Forgotten” is that the political heavy-handedness of “21 Guns” has been downplayed. It’s nothing huge, but it’s a welcome step.

“Dirty Rotten Bastards” is probably the most interesting track on the album due to its all-over-the-place nature. Following in the spiritual footsteps of “Jesus of Suburbia”, and “Homecoming” off of American Idiot, and “American Eulogy” from 21^st Century Breakdown, “Dirty Rotten Bastards” is a six and a half minute suite composed of smaller bits and pieces stitched together. Unlike the three aforementioned songs, there absolutely no real rhyme or reason to explain how this song came to be, and in its urgency it kind of forgets to give itself meaning. But if there’s any ambition to truly be found on ¡Tré!, a good portion of it is found right here. What starts off as an obnoxious chant over a drumbeat slowly builds into a straight ahead rock tune before exploding into a frantic mess by the end.

Perhaps the best and most successful of the “epic arrangements” songs on the album is the first track, “Brutal Love”. Starting slow with an appegiated guitar, “Brutal Love” quickly becomes an ode not just to heartache and love, but to 60’s pop and old doo wop crooners. While the lyrics are nothing to write home about, the real star of the song is Armstrong’s vocal ability. The song may not be very punk at all, but he’s never sounded this good, and out of all 37 tracks across three albums, this is where his voice shines the most. As disappointing as it is that most of the album settles for that standard late 90’s Green Day fare and plays like a bunch of b-sides to ¡Uno!, it helps to make “Brutal Love” stand out above the rest. Plus, too many crooning songs in this style would make for a boring album.

These three songs as the exceptions, ¡Tré! is without a doubt an album made for the fans, and it has no drive to turn over any new ones: the songs are stupidly happy being the way they are. And this is how a Green Day should sound, instead of stumbling over its ambition. What ¡Tré! lacks in diversity (where ¡Uno! shined), and definitely lacks in cohesiveness (like ¡Dos!), it makes up for with simplicity. This is the album that helps to put the other two in perspective. Even though it might have seemed logical for Green Day to just release a single album like this one, instead of a massive collection of new songs, ¡Tré! wouldn’t have been possible to follow up 21^st Century Breakdown on its own- it just wouldn’t have made any sense. But after being put into the context of following two albums with a bit of variety and different styles of songs? Sure, why the hell not! ¡Tré! is rewarding for the faithful and longtime listeners; not so much for anyone else.

¡Tré! comes out December 11, 2012. You can listen to the stream right here. You can also buy it on CD or vinyl .

Album Review: The Evens - The Odds

2012-12-06T22:09:00.001-05:00

Six years. That's how long it's been since The Evens released their last album, Get Evens. On the surface, the songs on the band's third album, The Odds, don't sound too far off from the songs on the first two albums. Sweet melodies, laid-back tempos set by both the drums and baritone guitars, and soft singing provided by both Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina. But when you really dig in to the core of the songs, there are a lot of structural and compositional differences. The Odds finds The Evens experimenting with new sounds, darker tones, and just general loudness. Not that this is a heavy-hitting album in the vein of Minor Threat, but both Ian and Amy raise their voices more on The Odds than they ever did before.

During several moments on the album, there are tracks that play almost like stripped down Fugazi tunes. The guitar playing is intricate, and the two vocalists trade off between each other between verses and chorus, not unlike the way MacKaye would do with Guy Picciotto in Fugazi. Even with that factored in, there's never a moment when it feels like you could be listening to Steady Diet of Nothing instead of this album; it's just The Evens finding a way to expand their sound while still staying stripped down to their two person line up. Among the best of these tracks are "Wanted Criminals", "Warble Factor", and the instrumental "Wonder Why".

The band keeps with their slower, more mellow sound that they've established with their first two albums as well. "I Do Myself" and "Competing with the Till" are more in line with their usual fare, although the latter incorporates the usage of jarring sounds (with what sounds like a horn of some sort), giving it weird, almost experimental jazz feel- a very common Dischord Records touch.

Perhaps it's just the six year gap between albums and a hazy memory, but Farina's vocals on The Odds far exceeds her previous performances. Her vocals have become incredibly powerful and when she takes the lead (such as on "Warble Factor", and "Broken Finger"), the strength of her voice is awe-inspiring.

Compared to the new Bad Brains album, Into the Future, and its desire to hold on to the past, it's an interesting look as to how differently 80's hardcore icons have grown up. While the music on The Odds is clearly still rooted in the established sound of 2005's The Evens, and 2006's Get Evens, Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina have branched out and tried new things, and the end result is an album that utilizes elements that are almost the opposite of what the band has done before. The Odds is by far the most appropriate title for this album.

Buy It!

Album Review: Bad Brains - Into the Future

2012-12-05T13:35:00.000-05:00

I was late to the Bad Brains camp. I started listening to 80's hardcore in high school, but I didn't get around to really checking out Bad Brains until my third year of college- something I've always regretted. But even after I had discovered the band, I could never really get the feel for anything other than Bad Brains and Rock for Light. It's a stylistic thing; kudos to the band for branching out and adding more variety to their sound, but for me I was fine with the band playing at breakneck speeds before crashing into a 6 minute reggae wall. I mention this because Into the Future, the band's ninth studio album and first since 2007's Build a Nation, was touted by a handful of publications as a 'return-to-form' of sorts. However, being largely unfamiliar with a majority of the band's work, I mistook that to think that this new album would find the band rocking out like they did in the early 80's. I was wrong, as Into the Future combines elements of rock, punk, metal, funk, and reggae. In other words, it's a Bad Brains album.

Not being a fan of albums such as I Against I or Quickness, I have no frame of reference to readily compare the new album to... although I imagine that it's this amalgamation of styles which is how I Against I gained its legendary status. The album divides up nicely between aggressive punk (Yes I, Suck Cess, Come Down), the heavier tunes (Into the Future, Popcorn, Earnest Love, Fun) and the dub instrumentals (RubADub Love, Maybe a Joyful Noise, and the MCA-dedicated MCA Dub). From my understanding, this is what a majority of post-Rock for Light Bad Brains albums sound like.

There's a certain level of irony in calling your album Into the Future when the music has been done before, by your very band nonetheless. I'm not knocking it; clearly Bad Brains have locked themselves into a groove that works well for them. Fans of Bad Brains and their post-ROIR output will most likely enjoy this, but anyone hoping for anything slightly more futuristic may want to look elsewhere.

Show Review: The Gaslight Anthem - Live at Terminal 5 (Nov 28 - Nov 30)

2012-12-04T05:03:00.002-05:00

On the nights of November 28, November 29, and November 30, The Gaslight Anthem played three back-to-back-to-back shows at Terminal 5 in NYC. Touring in support their fourth studio album, Handwritten, the band sold out all three nights incredibly quick. (Side note: when the band initially announced their tour dates, they were only scheduled to play on Nov 28 and Nov 29, but due to high demand they added the third date not too long afterward). The band tapped singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan to open for them on all three nights, while also selecting Laura Stevenson and the Cans, Cheap Girls, and The Static Jacks to play on the 28th, 29th, and 30th respectively.

Terminal 5 is a weird venue. In terms of size it's a wonderful place for bands the caliber of The Gaslight Anthem to play. The stage is large enough to fit five people comfortably, there's a standing area for people to crowd around, but there is also the back bar area for older fans and parents who had to bring their 16 year old. Additionally there are two levels full of General Admission standing and seated areas. In writing, it sounds perfect. However, since the main performing area is essentially a large cylinder, the acoustics have to be spot on, lest the entire place shake along to the drums while the rest of the band gets lost in the pounding. Luckily this wasn't a huge problem during any of the three nights, save for one instance. Most complaints about Terminal 5 tend to concern the bathroom attendant standing there while you release all that $8 beer. This sort of thing may be common for some crowds, but it's not really something a punk rocker expects to ever run into at a show (admittedly, the ties that The Gaslight Anthem's music has to the punk rock scene are tenuous at best these days, but punks still do make up a good portion of their fanbase). But on the bright side, the bathrooms also had candy to take. Who doesn't like free candy?

Matthew Ryan started off all three nights at exactly 8pm, quietly introducing himself and breaking out into songs. Not only was it clear on each night that the audience wasn't familiar with Mr. Ryan, but it was also painfully clear who was interested in becoming familiar with his work, and who just didn't care. During his set each night there was plenty of chatter coming from everywhere that wasn't directly in front of the stage to the point of where it was distracting to anyone trying to pay attention. Ryan was a trooper though, playing through his songs without any hesitation or concern for the lack of fans in the crowd. On the second night there were some folk complaining that it didn't make sense why a solo acoustic act would open up for The Gaslight Anthem although anyone who has ever seen or heard Brian Fallon perform solo with an acoustic guitar could draw the connection immediately.

The second act drew almost the same reactions that Matthew Ryan received on each night. Laura Stevenson and the Cans received an unfortunate lukewarm response, with just as much chatter occurring as during Ryan's set. It was a shame because the band performed wonderfully, even treating the crowd to a few new songs all of which were fast and upbeat and a welcome addition to the band's back catalog. Night two's set with Cheap Girls featured less talking, if only because the band plays a louder brand of rock music. That didn't stop hecklers making terrible comments in between songs, nor did it stop said hecklers from getting dirty looks from fans of the band. Arguably the greatest moment of the set was when Jeff Rosenstock (of Bomb the Music Industry! fame) jumped up onto stage during Hey Hey, I'm Worn Out to join the band on vocals. Unfortunately this was a wasted moment and the majority of the crowd remained unfazed as they had no idea what was going on before their very eyes. The Static Jacks on night three probably had the best reception of all the opening acts, although whoever was in charge of the sound that night was way off their game, as there was not a safe place in the house to stay clear of the vibrations caused by the drums. All three of the bands used their (approximate) half hour sets to their full potential, regardless of whether the audience wanted to acknowledge it or not.

The wait time in between the second band and The Gaslight Anthem on each night was minimal, giving the band more time for their set as well as giving the crowd more bang for their buck. Rather than kicking off each set with a fast number, the band opted to start things up with "Mae", slowly building up the energy before busting out into a faster number (all of which were from the band's 2008 break out album, The '59 Sound). From there, the band plowed through all of their crowd favorites including, but not limited to: Miles Davis and the Cool, Angry Johnny and the Radio, The Diamond Church Street Choir, 45, Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts, and The Patient Ferris Wheel. Although all three nights heavily featured songs from The '59 Sound and Handwritten, the band still found ways to keep the sets varied. During night one, the band had played almost the entirety of their second album, and the only time they played new track Keepsake. Night two featured a brand new song titled Halloween, as well as performances of Wooderson, Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis? and Howl. The final night saw the band adding Drive and The Navesink Banks as their token Sink or Swim-era songs. For complete set lists of each nights, refer to here (Nov 28), here (Nov 29), and here (Nov 30).

The band was spot on all three nights. Often times songs were extended either due to a solo or the band taking a longer pause than usual to allow for the crowd to cheer and/or sing the upcoming chorus. Frontman Brian Fallon made small talk in between songs, interacting with the crowd several times; from letting everyone know that the shows were being filmed for a future DVD release, to pointing out that drummer Benny Horowitz was wearing a Brooklyn Nets shirt, commenting on how quickly the team has adjusted to their new home, to having a casual one-on-one conversation with a rather tall audience member on nights one and two. Perhaps one of the most memorable incidents was on the first night, when the band was playing "Blue Dahlia" (one of the bonus tracks on Handwritten). Right before the chorus the band stopped playing to address the scuffle (aka, a fight between drunken crowd members) that was occurring with a well-inflected "we've got all the time in the world to wait for you to mature". The crowd cheered, and the band picked up the song right from where they left off.

If there were any disappointments at all during any of the three nights (other than the bathroom attendant listening to you go to the bathroom), the glaring problem was coming to terms with the realization that The Gaslight Anthem isn't just for aging and jaded punks anymore, and some of their new audience, to be blunt, sucks. The crowd was full of all types of people, which is fine, but there's always a problem when a group of people think that moshing equates solely to shoving their elbows into everyone surrounding them (additionally, it's a problem when said group thinks that it's an appropriate time to try to mosh during The Gaslight Anthem). This isn't the band's fault at all, but it was very unsettling to realize that there were a handful of rude and pig-headed folk among the crowd (as evidenced by the aforementioned attempts to "mosh", but also during the first night when Fallon asked that people not grope female crowd surfers and was met with a "shut up and play some damn songs!". Or as evidenced by the amount of talking each night during the first song of the encore, which was Fallon and Matthew Ryan playing I Can't Steal You; a song written by Ryan, and one that Fallon expressed a great admiration for.

Crummy new fans aside, there was nothing disappointing during those three nights in regards to the band's performances. Averaging 24-25 songs a night, the band played with an energy that always managed to light up the room (except for when they played a slow song, of course). It's amazing to see how far this band has come in such a short amount of time, and as long as this momentum continues there's nowhere for the band to go but up.

The Gaslight Anthem, you're more than welcome to play another three nights in a row in NYC anytime.

Album Review: forgetters - forgetters (LP)

2012-11-27T15:59:00.000-05:00

Given that forgetters is made up of former members of both Jawbreaker and Against Me!, it would be easy to think that this album would be the essential punk album of not just 2012, but the entire century (thus far).

Sometimes our expectations aren't always met.

That's not to say that forgetters, the second self titled release from the Brooklyn trio (following a self-titled EP released in 2010) is an awful album, because it's not. Actually, it's pretty good: it's mellow, it's noisy, it's heavy, and it's sweet. Think more like a continuation of Jets to Brazil, minus the piano (mostly). With production and bass duties handled by J. Robbins (of Jawbox fame, although he also produced albums by Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, and Against Me!), the album almost playsgoing to see the band live during that era).
Blake Schwarzenbach's vocals bounce back and forth between his familiar rasp and a newer, deeper singing style. The album begins with the newer style, and honestly I was kind of worried at first because of how familiar it was, but by the time track two, "Lie Artist" kicks in, everything seems more at home.

If I've got any complaints about forgetters, it's that the album runs on for a little too long. At least half the songs on the album find their way into 5+ minute territory, and while some of those songs are the best on the album ("I'm Not Immune" and "Die By Your Own Hand" in particular), as a whole the album is a lot to take in at once. I had the same problem with Jets to Brazil's albums though, so that one might just be me.

forgetters may be far from being the punk album everyone was secretly hoping that it was going to be, but before you go around telling everyone, take some time and give it a listen. Even if only listened to in three or four song increments, the album holds together really well. Highly recommended for anyone who prefers latter-day Jawbreaker (or Jets to Brazil), and anything in the post-1990 Dischord catalog.

Album Review: Strike Twelve - Moonshine

2012-11-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

This review was originally published on DyingScene.

Moonshine is the sophomore effort coming from the Golden State’s Strike Twelve. If you’re unfamiliar with them, Strike Twelve is a melodic skate punk band hailing Southern California. In other words, you know it’s going to be good. The songs average at around two and a half minutes in length, the guitars are aggressive a la Pennywise and the bass lays down an incredibly thick foundation in the vein of early Rise Against. Unlike those bands, however, Strike Twelve takes it easy on the politics for most of the duration on Moonshine, instead focusing their efforts on having a grand old time and personal reflections.

The album starts off on a heavy-handed note of self deprecation between the two opening tracks. From Toilet’s declaration of always finding a way to spoil anything beautiful, and The Long Tail’s refrain of “we can’t admit we’re just pieces of shit reaching out for something that we’ll never get”, Moonshine starts off as a very depressing album. Luckily things pick up with the third track, “The Beer Pong Song”, an ode to one of the biggest sports in the world of beer drinking. From there on the album is a mixed bag of fun party tunes (“San Francisco”, “No Means No”, “All-a-Riot”) and more serious and introspective tunes (“Unglued”, “Washed Away”, “The List”). The album never leans too heavily in one direction, and that helps to keep things fresh… although forty-five minutes does run on for a little long for the skate punk genre and cutting two or three tracks to save for a follow up EP or B-sides to singles wouldn’t have hurt Moonshine in the slightest.

In terms of musicianship, Moonshine is just as strong and diverse as the song-writing. Sure, a lot of the sounds are familiar (there are bound to be comparisons to almost any band from the 1990’s Epitaph roster), but the members of Strike Twelve are all talented enough to make the sounds of yester-decade work for them today in the modern age. The bass work on Moonshine is particularly impressive; many tracks taking full advantage of its powerful and deep voice (so to speak) – a staple of the heyday of melodic punk bands. That’s not to take away from the rest of the band: the guitars chug their way through verses and blare out solos at all the appropriate moments, and the drums set a steady framework in which the rest of the band can do their thing. Vocalist Matty T keeps the band grounded firmly in the genre with a voice that is reminiscent of Jim Lindberg, albeit of a slightly softer timbre.

In this day and age when every other punk frontman is ditching his band for an acoustic guitar, and Epitaph is signing bands that look like they piss neon glo sticks, it’s extremely comforting that Strike Twelve exists and that they have recorded Moonshine. It is bands and albums like these that helping keep punk rock alive and well; no schticks, no gimmicks, no haircuts, just good old fashioned songs about beer, insecurity, and persistent telemarketers.

Album Review: Aspiga - Every Last Piece

2012-11-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

This review was originally published on DyingScene.

Aspiga is a three piece pop punk act hailing from New Jersey, whose only goal is to make people feel things. Running at only a mere seven tracks long, Every Last Piece (now out on Paper + Plastick Records), the band’s third studio album, takes a risky move by trimming off extraneous fat and aims right at the aural equivalent of a gut of the listener.

Every Last Piece is filled with self-loathing and aggressive riffing that would any 90’s punk rocker smile. Frontman Kevin Day’s vocals have a way of both snarling their way across the album, while also taking the time to find themselves deep in though. The first half of the album lashes out immediately and relentlessly: from the opening refrain of “Don’t you forget- because I won’t” in “Save Your Spit” to the repeated phrasing “I’ve discovered I hate myself” for a solid minute in “Welcome to the Sympathy Party”. Toward the end of the album, Day shows off his Schwarzenbach-ism’s, dropping lines of wisdom such as “I say what I don’t mean, it keeps me from feeling anything” or the introspective “So I dig until I find every last piece of me” in the album’s final two tracks, “On the Defensive“, and “The Excavation” respectively.

Musically the album finds itself somewhere along the lines of taking 24 Hour Revenge Therapy and injecting it with the energy of Through Being Cool. From the fast striking tracks that kick off the album, to the mellow paced middle, and the intricate instrumental work that closes things out, Every Last Piece finds the perfect balance between taking influence from what came before while never sounding exactly like its predecessors.

Aspiga is not your run-of-the-mill modern pop punk band, but rather the band is a dying breed in the pop punk realm, drowning in the waves of chugged breakdowns and gang vocal choruses about how much best friends are better than girlfriends. However, instead of simply laying down and accepting defeat, Aspiga churned out Every Last Piece, a filler-free and heavy hitting album that runs short on the playtime, but long on the impression it will leave on listeners.

Album Review: Hostage Calm - Please Remain Calm

2012-11-14T15:12:00.000-05:00

Hostage Calm is one of those bands that I never got around to checking out simply because I had never heard their name until recently. Looking back on their discography, particularly their self-titled album from 2010, it's weird that I overlooked them. But I digress, better late than never, right?

I first heard of Hostage Calm while doing a shift for DyingScene. They had just premiered a then-new song "Don't Die on Me Now" and it was said to show up on their then-upcoming (now newest) studio album Please Remain Calm. I listened to it, thought it sounded okay for a live video, and then promptly forgot about it. And now I've been listening to Please Remain Calm almost non-stop for about three weeks.

In spite of the almost Black Flag homage and street punk font style on the front cover, Hostage Calm plays a much more (dare I say it?) calm approach to punk rock. Anyone who heard their self titled album would know that, but alas I am not one of those people. The songs are composed to incorporate various stringed instruments in addition to the standard rock set up, the the harmonies that are used are seldom used by punk bands that aren't the Smoking Popes. The lyrical themes reflect the unease and concerns of growing up in these tough economical times to which any jaded youth can relate, punk rocker or not.

Due to its use of some very non-punk elements, Please Remain Calm was kind of off-putting at first. The layered vocals on Patriot sound like one of the forgotten b-sides to Weezer's Songs from the Black Hole, and The "M" Word utilizes a full 60's pop orchestral backing track to the point that you might question if Phil Spector secretly produced it. Don't get me wrong, this album is damn good- just know that if you're expecting working class punk rock (or even gruff, jaded PBR-soaked punk rock), you'll be in for a disappointment. Much like how Streetlight Manifesto has taken influences from outside of ska and turned their music into a sound that is wholly them, Hostage Calm has done for the same for punk.

Definitely worth checking out.

RIYL: Smoking Popes, Cheap Girls, Pinkerton-era Weezer

Oh yeah, the whole thing is available to stream or purchase on Bandcamp right here.

Album Review: Green Day - ¡Dos!

2012-11-13T18:36:00.003-05:00

¡Dos! is Green Day’s tenth studio album as well as the sequel to September’s ¡Uno!. As everyone knows, doing a sequel can be a risky move. There's the potential to be vastly superior to the original (Evil Dead II, T-2: Judgment Day, The Empire Strikes Back), but there's a bigger chance that it'll wind up being a major disappointment (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Matrix: Reloaded, The Lost World, Blues Brothers 2000, Babe: Pig in the City). ¡Dos! is a bit of a mixed bag, so it’s a good thing for Green Day that the concept of being a direct continuation of the previous installment doesn’t necessarily apply when it comes to sequel albums (unless you’re a hip-hop artist or Meatloaf).

Whereas ¡Uno! was essentially the power-pop album that Green Day probably would have recorded if they hadn’t lost the master-tapes to the now lost Cigarettes and Valentines, ¡Dos! has been described by the band in press releases as essentially the second Foxboro Hot Tubs album. In fact, one of the songs (“Fuck Time”) was even initially debuted as a Foxboro Hot Tubs song. Describing the album as a follow-up to 2008’s Stop, Drop and Roll isn’t too far off from being accurate- although since the material is being released under the “Green Day” name, the Bay Area trio does let their Green Day roots bleed through the songs’ composition more than they would have had it been released officially by the Hot Tubs. On ¡Uno!, many riffs and chord progressions sounded like them came from the band’s pre-2004 catalogue- with ¡Dos! the songs have a more distinctively American Idiot / 21^st Century Breakdown flavor. That’s not to mean that all the songs are 5 minutes in length and begin with a slow piano segment before transforming into loud arena anthems (because they aren’t), but it’s not completely out of the question to listen to some songs and think that it sounds familiar. The chord progression in “Makeout Party” could almost be a warped version of 2009’s “East Jesus Nowhere”, while “Wild One” could very well be a revamped song that was discarded during the American Idiot sessions (not only the sound of the song, but also the lyrical references to giving up on Jesus lend to that feeling of angst and despair).

With that in mind, it’s also important to remember that it was established with the release of ¡Uno! that Green Day has dropped the “rock opera” concept that was ever-so-prevalent on American Idiot and 21^st Century Breakdown. ¡Dos! continues to take it easy on the high-level concepts and socio-political imagery in the lyrics, instead opting to focus on “fun party songs” for most of the album’s duration. Tracks like “Fuck Time”, “Makeout Party”, “Lady Cobra”, “Nightlife” and “Wow! That’s Loud” are all good old fashioned rock and roll songs about drugs, partying, and sexual attraction (or just sex). They’re sure to garner some criticism for the perceived lyrical simplicity, particularly “Fuck Time”, but has loud rock music about partying ever been known for deep and introspective lyrics? Though to be fair, “oh baby, baby it’s fuck time / you know I really wanna make you mine” does sound pretty dumb after the third or fourth time hearing it in the same sitting. “Nightlife” is the standout track out of all of them, not because it’s necessarily the best song on the album, but because it’s the only song on the album that really finds the band exploring new territory. The song is a tad slower than most other songs on the album, with a lead guitar line that is very James Bond-eque, and features guest vocals contributed by Lady Cobra, of The Mystic Knights of the Cobra, who raps her verses. The barriers between the various subgenres of rock and rap have been crossed many times before (from the Aerosmith/Run DMC and Anthrax/Public Enemy collaborations to very hip-hop influenced attitude of NYHC to *shudder* nu-metal), but it’s a line that Green Day has never crossed before. It’s not the best track that they’ve ever recorded, but kudos to them for still trying something new.

It should be noted that ¡Dos! is more than just party anthems. The album begins with the acoustic 67-second “See You Tonight”. It’s kind of a filler track, but it does add some cohesiveness to the album’s feel. First single “Stray Heart” is a pretty standard Green Day song, with a bouncy bass and simple melody, and “Ashley” is akin to one of the band’s faster songs from the nimrod.-era. [Note: It's kind of embarrassing that the phrase “could care less” makes an appearance on “Ashley”.] The album’s closing track, “Amy”, is a tune dedicated to the late Amy Winehouse. It seems a little out of place to think that Green Day would write a song for her, but considering Winehouse’s well-known party persona, it’s almost fitting that an album full of party songs would end on a somber note. In a way, it’s symbolic of the effects of too much partying.

With less diversity present in the songs ¡Dos! isn’t really as exciting as ¡Uno!, although the themes of partying and sex stay consistent enough that ¡Dos! actually winds up being the more cohesive of the two albums. For better or for worse, ¡Dos! also sounds like a more logical follow-up to the band’s post-Warning output, albeit with less lyrical heaviness and without the cast of metaphorical characters. ¡Dos! is a decent album to throw on at a big party (or a great album at a Green Day-fan gathering), but it’s best to hide it when the punks come over to play.