Category Archives for Punk

Nepotism – “Black Sheep”

(Photo Credit: bandcamp)

Grade: A-

Key Track: “New American Drugs”

Nepotism are a very eclectic group from South Carolina, taking the best parts out of 90’s punk, modern rock, metal and more, to make a distinct alt-metal sound. The five track EP jumps all around, making sure each song is unique, nearly all of which are successful. What makes Nepotism immediately attractive is the catchy quality of their music. While a lot of louder guitar-based alternative bands aim for discord and noise, Nepotism look for harmonies and memorable rhythms within volume.

The album’s stand out is “New American Drugs,” the most punk-influenced of the five songs. The song has a speedy and relentless central guitar rhythm, that’s equal parts funky, catchy and angry. It wouldn’t sound out of place on your favorite 90’s throwback radio station, but that doesn’t mean it sounds old. Closer “Nobody Knows” is another great track, in the same vein. It’s ferocious and non-stop, but still comfortably accessible. The song is nuzzled in rock radio – fit for radio, but not fit for all of radio’s audience.

“In Disguise” might be the only weak song on the EP. It is the EP’s slow song (hesitate to call it a ‘ballad’) and although it’s a completely successful song in it’s own right, it sounds a little too close to 311’s “Amber,” in many ways. It also suffers from being placed too early on the EP. As the second song, it kills the momentum brought up from strong opener “Let It Out.” All that said, those criticisms are easy to ignore, and I found myself humming on the second listen.

Nepotism are like many alt-rock bands today, taking their inspirations from eclectic groups and genres. This EP shows hints of Incubus, Tool, the Stone Roses and many 90’s alt-rock bands. While those bands all created molds and became victims of their own product, bands like Nepotism are using the molds made by everyone from 311 to Green River and turning them on their heads. “Black Sheep” is five songs that are definitely recorded by the same band, but really don’t sound alike. And that makes for a pretty unique release.

The album can be streamed and downloaded here.

If you like this, try: Pissed Jeans’ “Honeys.” Not really all that related, but there were certain moments where I was reminded of the post-rock band’s excellent (and equally diverse) new LP.

-By Andrew McNally

Modern Baseball – “You’re Gonna Miss It All”

(Photo Credit: bandcamp)

Grade: A-

Key Tracks: “Fine, Great” “Your Graduation”

Coming in at 12 tracks over only 30 minutes, Modern Baseball’s new LP might seem like a no frills, no punches blast of energy. But it really isn’t – the band takes their time on their new album. Their previous LP, “Sports,” was already one of the better albums of the whole 4th wave emo/pop-punk movement going on right now, but “You’re Gonna Miss It All” goes far beyond it. This album has a lot of depth and clarity, cementing itself directly in between emo and pop-punk, taking the best parts of both.

The album’s opener, “Fine, Great” starts acoustic. And although it builds into an electric chorus, it states the album’s tone – emotion over energy. Sure, later tracks like “Broken Cash Machine” and “Charlie Black” up the volume and energy, but only as the band sees fit. The band switches from big choruses to slower, acoustic rhythms at the drop of a hat, but does it seamlessly. The almost contradictory natures of the songs adds a complete, succinctness to the album. Where many bands in this movement have stuck to their sound (and done it well!), Modern Baseball have gone beyond themselves and expanded into foreign territories.

“Tryin’ hard / Not to look like I’m tryin’ that hard / Failing miserably at everything including that” opens the song “Two Good Things.” There’s a lot to be said about the vocals and lyrics on the album. The lyrics on the album are appropriately honest – as poetic as the Front Bottoms, and less hazy. The band seems to have the nailed the whole ‘realistic devastation’ that is common among emo bands today. And the vocals – refreshingly – are very clear, thanks to some clean production. While bands like Dads and TWIABPAIANLATD have even more devastating lyrics, they’re often lost in the more guttural vocals.

The album encompasses both pop-punk and emo at it’s finest. It’s simple but devastating, and sounds made by some average people just sitting around, encompassed by unexplainable (or totally explainable) emotions. Personally, I have been heavily into the 4th wave emo thing happening, and while I’ve been fond of Modern Baseball, I hadn’t loved them like I do Dads, the Menzingers, or Snowing. This album will definitely change that. Let “You’re Gonna Miss It All” become a forefront in the genre. The album can build you up and knock you down in exactly 30 minutes, and it’s both diverse and coherent. The album’s only real fault is that so many of the songs end so soon – there’s only one song over three minutes. And “I want more” isn’t so much a fault of the band as it is the listener. Modern Baseball have moved themselves into the forefront of a very packed genre.

If you like this, try: You Blew It!’s new record, “Keep Doing What You’re Doing,” almost as good as this one.

-By Andrew McNally

together PANGEA – “Badillac”

(Photo Credit: stereogum)

Grade: B+

Key Tracks: “Offer” “Depress”

together PANGEA’s previous full-length, “Living Dummy,” released when the band was still known simply as PANGEA, is an album I’ve listened to more times than I can count. It’s cohesive, fun, loud, silly and has low-key production – everything you want from a garage rock album. And every song is unique enough to make a perfect listen. On “Badillac,” the band – with a new name and on a new label – aim to diversify their music, while keeping a cohesiveness. “Badillac” isn’t as good as “Living Dummy,” but it still hits that goal.

The first song on “Badillac,” called “Alive,” sounds ripped out of rock radio instead of a California garage. It’s almost a mission statement – that the band is branching out and expanding their sound. The production is upped, although the vocals are still beautifully unintelligible sometimes. The songs are, at times, louder than ever before, or softer. More acoustic elements are incorporated, as is straight rock songwriting. The band explores their own sound, ending with a collection of songs that are more diverse, while still cohesive. The songs on “Badillac” don’t feel as related as they did on “Living Dummy,” but they don’t try to. The band set out to make more well-rounded songs, and they’ve done just that.

From a lyrical standpoint, “Badillac” is not as strong as “Living Dummy.” I’ll never forget the latter half of the first verse of “Make Me Feel Weeeird”: “Let’s talk about you now / What kind of guy is he? / You say he hates fags / Well I think he’d like me / Get bent / Get bent.” I’ve always loved the bluntness of the verse, but the lyrics are vaguer this time around. Simpler song titles – “Why,” “Alive,” “River,” “Offer” – symbolize this. The songs on “Badillac” are not as instantly memorable as before because of it. Not entirely, of course. “Badillac,” “Offer” and “Cat Man” still grab pretty quickly. But the album’s one major disappointment is the move towards more conventional lyrics.

Still, “Badillac” is a great release and will hopefully propel the band onto a bigger stage. It’s fun and it’s easy to revisit many times – all of their music is. together PANGEA are making their own thing out of garage rock, going beyond all limitations without losing the spirit. They’ve made a new identity and sound, while still resembling the old PANGEA. Hopefully they’ll keep the trend up – this could be their year.

-By Andrew McNally

Against Me! – “Transgender Dysphoria Blues”

(Photo Credit: consequenceofsound)

Grade: A-

Key Tracks: “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” “Drinking With the Jocks”

In a small number of scattered homes throughout America, there are sexist Nazi punks who have to wake up every morning and draw over their Against Me! tattoos with sharpies. There is a truly despicable branch of people known as Nazi punks, who love any political punk band and can wrongfully relate the band’s liberal politics to their own hateful ones. Nazi punks have been taken on before – notably here and here – but “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” is an indirect strike. Against Me!s first five albums were sharply political and tackled political issues more directly than almost any other band. But this is their first album since singer Tom Gabel came out as transgender and announced she would be living as Laura Jane Grace. And as one of the first successful transgender singers, and certainly the most famous one in the punk community – this becomes an incredibly important album.

Grace’s transition is addressed in the majority of the album’s songs. The two opening tracks, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” and “True Trans Soul Rebel” are the most direct. “You want them to see you like they every other girl / They just see a faggot” she sings on the title track. The album perfectly balances the line between heart and anger; each song is a lesson, an attempt to teach shitheads that don’t understand the transgender life. It borders on a shock lesson – “I want to piss on the walls of your house / I want to cut those brass rings off your fat fucking fingers” she sings on the closer, “Black Me Out.” “Drinking With the Jocks” is a pounding track about recognizing differences, and “Unconditional Love” is a brutal, self-deprecating song about loving someone with identification issues. Tracks 5 and 6 are likely to go down as two of the best titles of the year – “Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ” and “FUCKMYLIFE666.” It’s shocking, even for them, but it’s necessary.

Unfortunately, some of the songs don’t hold up simply on a musical standpoint. While all good on their own, some of them blend together a little too much. The album’s middle sags under songs that have the energy of classic Against Me!, but don’t have the unique songwriting. This might be reflective of a band that has kind of fallen apart. Since “White Crosses” in 2010, two members of the band quit. Famous punk drummer Atom Willard was brought on for percussion work, and Grace just handled bass herself (except NoFX’s Fat Mike, who shows up on two tracks). Still, Gabel’s voice was always very strong, and that hasn’t changed through the transition. Grace’s vocals are strong and have a wide range.

When “White Crosses” came out, it was preceded by an exceptionally boring single, “I Was A Teenage Anarchist.” It felt like a coda; the statement of maturity felt like the band giving up. But they’re recharged on “Transgender.” They have a renewed energy and a new MO. They’re hitting territories never hit by a punk band before. This might not go down in history like the band wants it to, simply because it doesn’t have their most memorable songs, but it should still serve as an incredibly important work and stamps an intense start to 2014. Grace is nothing less than a hero, and “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” acts as a proud, invasive, angry, heartful and necessary mess.

-By Andrew McNally

Black Flag – “What The…”

(Photo Credit: Pitchfork)

Grade: D+

Key tracks: “My Heart’s Pumping” “The Chase”

Do you remember Metallica’s “St. Anger” album? Of course you do, it’s unforgettable. If their career was a cup of fine Italian coffee, “St. Anger” was the small bit of unfiltered grounds at the bottom that you accidentally swallowed. And for a while, it’s what you remembered about that otherwise great cup. “What The…” is the “St. Anger” of 2013 – a long-awaited album that has all the elements of the original band, but is just remarkably bad and with a cover so grotesquely stupid that it actually drives down the quality. People waited six years for “St. Anger,” and it sounded like it was recorded inside a trashcan. While the production is better on “What The…,” people that have been waiting for twenty-eight years deserve something better than this.

Much like those in “Some Kind of Monster,” the documentary that accompanied “St. Anger,” public troubles with the band have hurt their image recently. Guitarist Greg Ginn is the only original member left. Two of the other original members are currently touring as FLAG, also playing Black Flag’s music (having lost a court battle to use the name). It’s a mess. Famous skateboarder and early 2000’s video-game star Mike Vallely is currently in the band, and singer Ron Reyes, who sings lead in every song on this album, is no longer a member despite this album just coming out yesterday. It’s really a mess.

It’s got all the components of a Black Flag album – the only two songs over three minutes are the second and last songs. Every song is fast and heavy; urgent as always. It’s really coincidental that I always pick two key tracks, though, because there’s only two stand-outs: opener “My Heart is Pounding” and “The Chase,” which sits exactly in the middle. These two songs are the only two that really capture the band’s original hardcore sound. “The Chase” really captures the power chord brutality that made early Black Flag so great. Otherwise, I’d skip the other twenty songs. They’re all practically identical, and they’re okay at best.

Not to be mean or anything, but it’s probably not a bad thing that Vallely replaced Reyes, because Reyes voice just isn’t that good. Obviously, hardcore punk isn’t demanding a sultry, smooth lounge voice, but Reyes’ vocals just aren’t very powerful, and eventually it kind of drowns into the music. And the music itself is a weird tempo – it isn’t hardcore, but it’s faster than what I’d describe as “mid-tempo.” It’s almost like they’re restraining themselves, or are attempting to do an imitation of what they used to be. Although it sounds much more like the former, some of the song titles suggest the latter: “Get Out Of My Way” and “Go Away,” “This Is Hell” and “To Hell And Back,” “Slow Your Ass Down,” “It’s Not My Time To Go-go,” “Wallow in Despair” and the painful “Give Me All Your Dough.”

And then there’s the cover. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ album “Mosquito” was going to get two year-end awards: Most Disappointing Album, and Worst Cover. But man, we should’ve seen this coming. It looks like a school assignment that was made in ten minutes by some 14 year-old who paused his Call of Duty game when he remembered he had to do it. (That said: it’s still an undecided competition). With a cover like that, you really expect the album to be atrocious. It’s not atrocious, it’s just not very good. There’s plenty of worse albums, and plenty of more boring and unoriginal hardcore punk releases. This just shouldn’t be labeled as Black Flag, both thematically and factually.

If you like this, try: Any other Black Flag album. This is already the asterisk on their career.

-By Andrew McNally

(GIMME GIMME GIMME / I NEED SOME MORE / GIMME GIMME GIMME / DON’T ASK WHAT FOR 1 2 3 4)

Future of the Left – “how to stop your brain in an accident”

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Grade: B+

Key Tracks: “bread, cheese, bow and arrow” “donny of the decks”

Some bands take a few albums to really find their groove. FotL’s first two albums – “Curses” and “Travel With Myself and Another” – are great releases, but they seem tame compared to 2012’s “the plot against common sense.” That album, another one of my 10 favorites*, has an unfiltered and relentless energy, sparked by production that’s both rough and loud. Very, very loud. The band’s post-hardcore is very metrical, a meter that sometimes is too fast to function. But this album is different. Their fourth album takes the tempo down, resulting in a more balanced release.

Now, that deserves an explanation. FotL has been one of the angriest bands in all of music. mclusky was an angry band, and when they broke up, some members formed the even angrier Future of the Left. Their music is satirical and politically-charged, taking on everyone from low-level British politicians to the queen herself. 2012’s “failed olympic bid” investigated the consequences of British athletes failing to qualify for their own Olympics. By saying their new album is a little slowed down, I’m not trying to imply they’ve softened. Now that they’re an independent band, they can be as motivated as they went. Their titles alone conjure a Dead Kennedys type shock reaction – “she gets passed around at parties,” “things to say to friendly policemen,” and, fittingly, “how to spot a record company.” The anger, the yelling, the satire, even bits of talking are all included and as strong as they always have been.

They’ve only slowed down musically. Opening track “bread, cheese, bow and arrow” starts off with a rhythm slower than all but one from “plot against.” But it’s a menacing riff, one that calls back to the beginning of “Arming Eritrea.” Slower and longer songs give the band some extra room to flesh out their ideas, which only brings out the anger more. A handful of songs are still blisteringly fast, but it’s more mixed this time around. The final song, “why aren’t i going to hell?” even has – gasp – an acoustic guitar. The synthesizer, oddly enough, has been downplayed (much to the chagrin of mclusky fans), but it is still a more varied listen than what we’ve come to expect.

I’ve had the pleasure to see this band three times (once in ’07, twice in ’12, the second of which was the tour with Andrew Jackson Jihad) and they’ve put on easily three of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I bought a shirt last time, that guitarist Jimmy Watkins accidentally spilled a beer on almost instantly. I’ve never been able to stop emphasizing my love for this band. “how to stop your brain in an accident” isn’t as instantly memorable as their previous album, but it showcases what the band is about just as well. And this batch of fourteen songs are like their old ones – probably best appreciated live. Don’t expect to hear for a few days.

If you like this, try: Maybe because I’ve been listening to it a lot later, but Jay Reatard’s “Blood Visions.” Miss you, Jay.

* – I’ve mentioned about 6 of my 10 favorite albums lately. It’s just coincidence, honestly, I try to keep my “10 favorite” down to 20 and not 100.

The Perms – “The Aberdeen EP”

(Photo Credit: Youtube)

Grade: B+

There’s a very comforting sound the the music of the Perms, and there’s good reason for it. The group’s powerpop/pop-punk sound sounds ripped straight from the peak of blink-182, without sounding like a rehashing. The band has been around since 1998, a product of the era instead of a regrettable throwback. With dual male singers, the band nails the late-90’s pop-punk sound, as they have been doing for years.

At four songs and only 11 minutes or so, this is only a small sampling size. But the four songs properly convey the sense of urgency in the genre. Rousing guitar opens “It’s Mania” before being matched with a “whoa-oh” vocal harmony in a predictably catchy number. “Aberdeen,” the only song over three minutes, is a bit slower and a little less catchy. It benefits from some sneering vocals, making a little less of an attempt to harmonize. “The Parent Thing” is the biggest throwback on the EP, sounding straight out of 2003 with the almost-too-catchy pop guitar and clear vocals. Finally, “Walk Away” focus a little more on the rock than the pop, with the vocals sharing a rhythm with guitar.

This EP has a very clean sound – everything sounds well-produced. Each of the four songs sound ready for the radio, catchy but with a nice helping of energy and fuzzy guitar. Pop-punk may be a genre filled with a number of mediocre and/or blindly nostalgic bands, but the Perms are a band that actually lived through it. They’ve made an original sound for themselves in a field full of unoriginal bands.

-By Andrew McNally

Andrew Jackson Jihad – “Live at the Crescent Ballroom”

(Photo credit: bandcamp.com)

Grade: A-

Key Tracks: “Gift of the Magi 2: Return of Magi,” “People II 2: Still Peoplin'”

I normally wouldn’t take the time to review a live album – they’re not designed to grab any new fans. But I happened to see Andrew Jackson Jihad on this tour. Not this show, as it was recorded on their last night, in Phoenix. But I saw them at Europa in Brooklyn, days after Hurricane Sandy. The show was originally scheduled for Manhattan, but the southern portion of the borough was still without power. It was kind of an emotional time, and one that the band mentions numerous times on the album as the tour’s “dark days.” We were late to the show because public transport was a mess. We missed the opening bits of the appropriately-timed “Hurricane Waves,” from opening act Jeff Rosenstock (singer for my second favorite band, Bomb the Music Industry!). Future of the Left came on second, and for a third time proved themselves one the best live bands in all of music (I had previously seen them earlier that summer, and once opening for Against Me! way back in 2007). Jeff’s do-whatever DIY, FOTL’s political noise-punk and AJJ’s folk-punk never seemed like a logical line-up, but it was three great bands.

It only makes sense that the band would record their live album on the last stop. The band is a little worn-out and had experienced some unexpected dark days on the tour. And at one point, during “American Tune,” both the guitar and vocals cut out. After “Bad Things,” rude fans start requesting songs they know. It makes sense. Andrew Jackson Jihad has never shied away from ugliness in their music – “Back Pack” is about finding your loved one murdered, carrying her into town and wondering what her life could’ve been. It’s an imperfect show for a band that isn’t remotely looking for approval or purity.

This 2012 tour was a full band tour, not something they always do. They actually focus more on the electric songs, opening with the double-dose of “We Didn’t Come Here to Rock” and “Distance.” They do a great job placing fan favorites like “Big Bird,” “Rejoice” and “Hate, Rain On Me” among relative unknown songs, like “Kokopelli Face Tattoo,” “#armageddon” and “Inner City Basehead History Teacher.”

They spend a lot of time in between songs chatting, which can be a little cumbersome for a listener. But they have to, they were doing constant guitar switches. At the end of “People II 2: Still Peoplin’,” the band has to play an extended note so the singer can switch from acoustic to electric for the final ten seconds.

The album is surprisingly long, but they pack it with enough familiar songs to make it a very satisfying listen. With typical folk-punk, it’s fast, it’s messy and it’s got deeply unsettling lyrics. This live album won’t gain any new fans, but it is a great pick-up for current ones. Andrew Jackson Jihad is one of my favorite bands, and to have a record of the tour when I saw them is kinda special.

-By Andrew McNally

Potty Mouth – “Hell Bent”

(Photo Credit: Spin)

Grade: B

Key tracks: “Rusted Shut,” “The Spins”

Freshly born at a woman’s college just a short drive from me, western Massachusetts’ Potty Mouth’s full-length debut falls under the increasingly growing umbrella term of “pop-punk.” A decade ago, pop-punk was a very specific genre of music, but nowadays, it’s just anything that fits the qualifications. And technically, Potty Mouth do. Their songs are pop songs, tainted by punk rhythm and intensity. But they aren’t a big-chorus, small town hating band. Their songs have an added reverb tinge to them, uncharacteristic of pop-punk. And the band seems to have a personal attitude, not to be bothered by genre lines.

Potty Mouth have such a fuzzy and distorted sound that they almost start to resemble simple shoegaze bands like Yuck, but they still have definitive song structures. This toying with the basics of genres only helps to show the band’s open attitude and general distrust of being labeled under anything. This non-abiding of genres makes the catchiness of the album seem perversely warped, almost ironic. But it isn’t – the songs are catchy, at times fully embracing the pop element of pop-punk. Equal parts fuzzy and catchy, Potty Mouth properly blend the best of two genres to make that rich, 90’s-revivalist sound.

This isn’t a political album, but the band does take an approach towards equality in their music. And rightfully so, because they are often labeled as a “female band” and not as a “band”. This approach is, I guess, the “punk” element of the “pop-punk,” although that’s still defined more by the energy of the music. Because things aren’t equal, especially in the music world, they’re often labeled as a feminist band. But musings of equality creep into the album, pushing the album above most lyrically-boring pop-punk bands.

But what the album really is, is a decent set of fuzzy, catchy, punk tunes that have trouble separating themselves from each other but are instantly catchy and memorable. Potty Mouth has the energy of a punk band, the catchy rhythms of a pop group, and the reverb of a conventional-leaning noise-rock band. The album isn’t perfect, but it’s a winning combination.

If you like this, try: Yuck’s 2011 self-titled album. It isn’t that great of an album, but the distortion on “Hell Bent” reminded me greatly of it.

-By Andrew McNally

Melt-Banana – “fetch”

(Photo Credit: exclaim.ca)

Grade: A

Key Tracks: “The Hive,” “Schemes of the Tails”

There’s a certain number of people out there that have thought, “I wish Melt-Banana would just be more intense!” That number hovers around zero. But they’ve gotten more intense. The Japanese noise-punk group has been established, since the mid-90’s, as one of the leaders in the world of total aural assault. Their earlier albums were nonsensical blasts of noise, each track often lasting less than a minute. In the 2000’s, they gravitated towards more conventional song structures while still maintaining that furious intensity. 2003’s “Cell-Scape” was a goldmine of pop-brutality. After six years of inactivity, they’re back, and “fetch” makes those six years excusable.

It should be mentioned that they took time off because of problems faced in their native Japan – an earthquake in Tohoku and the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima left the band putting their careers to the side to help their country. But the return is still welcomed – because they’re back to their experimenting. Sometimes the band experiments, other times they just put out noise albums. But “fetch” sounds like the album that should’ve come out before “Cell-Scape.” To put it simply, this is the Melt-Banana album I’ve been craving since I got into them roughly six years ago.

“fetch” starts off with ocean waves and a synth rhythm, a bit of a red herring intro that also acts as a metaphorical apology for the band’s unintended hiatus. The song builds up, finally ending in intense Melt-Banana form. For those unfamiliar with the band, that involves guitar and drum paired with squeaky high vocals and drums that sound like they’re being murdered. Follow up “The Hive” is more of a traditional track, at slightly over two minutes.

A slight majority of the songs on the album are under the 2:30 mark, and all except an interlude are expectedly intense. But what makes this album great – maybe even their best – is the way it uses typical song structures to sound even more brutal. “Cell-Scape” loosely framed its songs around rock structures, but didn’t advance much beyond them. “fetch” takes a typical structure, allows the band to slow down just a little to add a noticeable energy, and intersperse typical songs against blasts of noise. The final track, “Zero,” almost comes close to resembling the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song of the same name, as a synth-based dance-number. But yet, the tracks before them are still brutally fast. Melt-Banana stretches their own boundaries on this album.

The vocals aren’t as high-pitched, and the drums are on a less consistently melodic, Zach Hill type of brutality, which automatically sounds different. “fetch” honestly would’ve been a wonderful intro to “Cell-Scape,” now 10+ years removed. But with the mediocre “Bambi’s Dilemma” standing as their most recent release, “fetch” is more than a welcome return – it’s a noisy, assaulting and relentless piece of noise-punk that recognizes its boundaries, always going to them but never going over. Melt-Banana is not a band that has a wide audience in America, but for those that do enjoy, they’ll hopefully accept “fetch” as an apology for a long absence.

If you like this, try: Lightning Bolt’s 2005 album “Hypermagic Mountain.” Two guys from Connecticut created one of the most feedback-laden, noisy masterpieces of the ’00s.

-By Andrew McNally