AMP REVIEWS MY REVENGE
Just completely bad-ass!!!
Ahhh...harkening to the old school days of...well, I guess middle school era of posi skate-rock hardcore, but whatever. I hate labels, classifications, genres, borders, cattle. These guys are just completely rad. Stepping up through the clones and sheep of modern hardcore, My Revenge from Burlington, VT, is a raw, blinding fast, and just flat-out good. In the vein of Token Entry, Trial, and Kill Your Idols, My Revenge, combines all the varying styles of the past twenty years of punk and hardcore into one big dose of ass-kicking, big burly backside air to disaster slide revert, uncompromising music that will be sure to get the crowds moving. And for the past seven years, that's what they've been doing. "Strength Through Nonviolence" is their third full-length release and leaves me wondering how I missed out on the first two. Check 'em out hardcore fans and skateboard hooligans. You won't be disappointed. I surely wasn't.
MADBALL
Definitive NYHC
The legacy of New York hardcore has always been in the hands of Madball. They were the next generation of what started in the 80s with Agnostic Front and Sick of it All, and they have continued to take those reigns and evolve over the last twenty years. "Infiltrate the System" shows not only maturity, but diversity and fearlessness, is pushing the bounds of what is NYHC. There are the songs about the streets, but not with the typical, thuggish-tough guy posturing that has become played out. Moreover, reflections of what they observe, what they've experienced, and looking through the trials and tribulations with wiser, more aware eyes. There are songs that lend to its title, "Infiltrate the System," about how they have fought the powers that be, the corporates, to come to a place where they can control their own destinies, without the help of those who exploit. They have in fact, infiltrated the system, to arrive above it all, on their own terms. Neck-snapping breakdowns, classic new sing-a-alongs, and full-blown hyper speed assaults. The third and fourth generations of hardcore that follow these footsteps have their work cut out for them.
KEVIN FLYNN & THE AVONDALE RAMBLERS
North Chicago Irish Drinkin' Songs!!!
Any Irish band that comes out of Boston will forever be in the shadows of the Dropkick Murphys. Any Irish band that comes out of Chicago will be in the shadows of the Tossers. Kevin Flynn and the Avondale Ramblers come from the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago's North Side, and anyone stumbling into a pub on those streets would be happy to find these guys throwing down. They are not an American band singing music about Ireland. They're a Chicago band singing about Chicago with Celtic music as the vehicle for some very skillful song crafting. There are definite elements of the Pogues there, as well as traditional Irish fare, but along with that the undoubtedly Midwestern flavor thrown into the mix. "Don't Count Me Out" is a pleasant, pint-tipping, 5-song release that has no downside except that it's only five songs. At the end of it, I really wanted more.
MARK LIND AND THE UNLOVED
There will be an audience for this...
Truthful, but definitely not brutal by any means. Some pretty softened punk rock with deep messages, and a, dare I say, "pop" tone akin to latter Street Dogs, which would be very appropriate in some Boston pub strewn with college kids. There are elements of Joe Strummer and the old-school singer/songwriter rock guys, and Mark pours his heart into the lyrics, but for me it seems to be a collection of ballads that never really hits hard. There is a place for this, and I know there are a lot of people who really will dig it. But this is what he does, and his thing goes back to his earlier projects like the Ducky Boys and Sinner and Saints, but I tend to be more a fan of brother White Trash Rob's Blood for Blood work. So I'll say those into that mellow style of barroom banter, check this out. It's just not really my thing. My eleven-year old daughter loved the record and said I was stupid. Maybe I am...
BRINE & BASTARDS
If a crew of pirates had electricity...
Living on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, just a few nautical miles from where Blackbeard's head was nailed to a stake after his capture, I feel the heritage of the buccaneers and privateers that plundered these shores unmercifully in the height of the pirating era. Brine & Bastards are a four-piece out of Port Newark, New Jersey, who blend punk rock with pirate themes, infusing traditional and folk elements in the grog to create a really hook-snapping, stylistic sound. If Flogging Molly was less Celtic and more swashbuckling, this is the bastard stepson that would result. It's just a good, rum-swigging, stranded-on-an-island sound that keeps the pillaging fun. Their live shows see them garbed in costume and I'm sure it would be a incredible time at the local pub where one might find themselves shipwrecked. This is a unique one to check out, so just do that.
20 BULLS EACH
Great hardcore from where you'd least expect it...
You start this CD off and it's got hammering double-bass drums, traditional hardcore guitar lines, and old-school vocals. You try and figure out what scene these guys came out of and no matter where you guess, you're miles off. Actually...a whole ocean. 20 Bulls Each are from Dublin, Ireland, and flat out smoke many of the new wave of hardcore bands coming out on bigger labels in the States. They've remained self-sufficient since their inception in 2002 and "Lost Causes" shows that they've stayed true to the hardcore roots, and keeping this faith by doing, playing, saying what they want and believe. Fifteen great songs that just fly through solidly and what I like most about this is the diversity. Each song has its own sound and the band has definitely found their voice...and OWN IT. It's truly a complete record. IRECORE at its finest, no question!!!
20 BULLS EACH
Even more great Irish hardcore...
A very cool, recent e.p. of some of the new blazing-fast hardcore songs from the IRECORE guys from Dublin. It's only five songs, but a perfect compliment to "Lost Causes" and without a doubt, worth checking out. Also released on Fail Records out of Dublin, it is like many good, short releases you stumble across in that it leaves you wanting more. Maybe that's the point? I'm thinking this is a plot from Ireland's bureau of tourism to get folks on a plane bound for Dublin. If that's the case, then it's working. And, come to think of it, guitarist and frontman Gareth "Gar" Cummins promised me the tour of the city and a place to crash if I ever made it across the pond, so, that said, I think that's all I have to say. I have a flight to book...oh, yeah...get this one too...you won't regret it. Ok, I'm off...
H2O
Fast & fun & still good after all these years.
I've always believed that H2O was a California band that was kidnapped and forced to live in Brooklyn. They just have that fast-driven sound notorious of many of the west-coast Fat Wreck style bands, and former Sick of it All roadie Toby Morse's vocals are just not nearly as hard as most of the NYHC outfits. It's just too fun and positive to be from the mean streets of the five boroughs, but nonetheless H2O continues to drop some great songs and messages in their new record "Nothing to Prove," their first in nearly six years. Unity, brotherhood, family, positivity...it's all there, as well as many special appearances from the Lower East Side and DMS crews. H20 proves that nothing has changed and they're still here doing their thing, which keeps them in a category of their own. On the interlude to "Unconditional," one quote says it all: "hard guys got feelings too..."
KILLING KINGS
Speaking the sad realities brutally
Metalcore. I hear you groaning out there. It has been done, over and over, and is played out. I know. I am with you. But there is a way to do it. Make it yours, don't play what all the hundreds of other bands are doing, and yeah...MAKE IT YOUR OWN. Killing Kings has done just that on "Delusions of Grandeur." From beginning to end, a non-stop assault of machine-gun drums, neck-snapping breakdowns, and high-speed runs that perfectly compliment the message that everything about our government and what its done to this country is completely fucked. And isn't that what hardcore is all about...or used to be about anyways? A refreshing swirl of chaos that brings you back to the days when the voice of underground music was about calling out injustice. Working class hardcore at its best, from of all places, Denver, Colorado. I'm sure these guys have the granolas and expatriate Republicans cringing in the Rockies. If so, good for them. Grab this record. An essential sermon.
COLD WORLD
Urban-blended hardcore lives...
I listened to this release and it reminded me of Biohazard, Downset, and many of the 90s era hiphop/hardcore stuff that just isn't done much anymore because, well, a lot of the bands who did it failed miserably at the fusion. Cold World, however, blended all the elements of urban music into a heavy dose of reality-driven rock that would make the DFL guys from Brooklyn proud. The 4-piece from Wilkes-Barre, PA, pull if off well and I really enjoyed the record, playing it several times since I got it. But I keep going back to Biohazard. There is just a lot that reminds me of the earlier work. Then...I read the press release. It was produced and engineered by Billy Graziadei. It all makes sense now. But it's not a clone, moreover, their own interpretation of urban struggle. A mash of hardcore, metal, and hiphop from the Keystone state that is just good.
STEEL NATION
Have you heard this one...again?
Metalcore. That dreaded already-been-done feeling strikes a nerve that has made fans of hardcore crazy in recent days. The band is tight, but the mix isn't great. There isn't much on here that really did anything for me. It's that same sound that you've heard a thousand times. Very metal, less hardcore, and like a very wise man from NYC said recently "hardcore is just a bunch of metal guys who don't want to have long hair and just bark like dogs." This is the new direction of hardcore, well, at least, a lot of hardcore. There isn't anything original...the riffs are rehashed hardcore cliches and every song sounds, well...pretty much the same. I don't know anything about this band, where they are from, but they just never had me. It's played out, been done, and predictable. There is already a Hatebreed. Do we need a hundred more?
KILLING THE DREAM
Fast, heavy, disjointed, pure chaos. "Fractures" by Killing the Dream is just a full-force attack on the senses. The vocals of Elijah Horner shred through the melodic parts until they somehow meet up again somewhere in the middle. It's heavy...it's raw, and in many cases, a sort of angry bliss. From California, they have that very new school, out of control, flying-off-the-handle hardcore sound that drops into contemporary interludes before exploding into hell again. I think anyone who is into that vein of exploratory metalcore might find something in this record. I think this band would probably be great to see live. I think the venue would probably explode. As far as playing the CD at home, it's just way too much and way too unyielding insanity, which I'm sure is their intention. Just not for me.
CHRIST ON PARADE
So when's the east coast tour, Barrie?
The first release from the Bay-area punks in nearly two decades with the original lineup. The beauty of this "sorta-live" release is that it covers all eras of Christ on Parade, from the recently re-released "Sounds of Nature" through "A Mind is a Terrible Thing." The upside about hearing these guys so many years later is what they now lack in youthful exuberance, they make up for in accomplished musicianship. They can just play much better than they did when they were in their teens. It still has the anger and fury of the 80s and will take fans of the band on a hardcore journey down memory lane to a world where bashing Reagan was fun. The music still holds relevant in the modern Bush world as the themes haven't changed. War is bad, government is corrupt, the poor is exploited. "Loud and Live" isn't a live record per say, as it was recorded "live" at KFJC in
a room full people, but as frontman Barrie says, it captures Christ on Parade's live sound. I think he's right.
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
I first heard BRING OUT YOUR DEAD on the AWAKE/STRONG "Music by People Like Us" compilation and I really liked the song, "And When the Dramamine Wears Off." I later learned they won the C-RAP zine contest put on by Armando of Fahrenheit 451, to get on to the comp. It was a good choice and I'm glad they won, so it would lead me to more from the band out of Long Island. The 5-song e.p. is a fast-paced, always flowing example of middle-school era hardcore, with melodic guitar lines that compliment the aggressive and unyielding rhythm section. The lyrics are spat harsh and abrasively, but intelligent and insightful in content, a far cry from some of the atypical thug anthems that played themselves out long ago. Songs like "The Dirty Casanova and the Cadaver Bride" spew phrasing that encapsulate the emotions of everyday frustration with choruses like "I'm sleeping alone tonight even with you by my side." At the end of five songs, I wanted more. So what do they really sound like? I think they explain themselves best: "therapy, anxiety, and the true happenings that hide inside the minds of those living through unsure days that are usually disguised by silence."
EVERYBODY GETS HURT
Dirty NYHC from Queens
EGH epitomizes all that is underground New York. The guys from Queens have been doing their thing for the last twelve years without the help of a major label, touring Europe and Japan on their own, and now, after three years of hard work and self-reliance, they have released their latest album. "It Is What It Is…Born to Lose, Live to Win" throws thirteen tracks of pure metal-influenced, old-school hardcore from the gritty streets of Queens that are heavy, raw, with purposely disjointed moments of disorientation. An urban beatdown mentality, but at the end of the day, it is classic New York hardcore from the underbelly of the streets. "Economics" is a full-frontal attack against the failing working class. "Red Eye Devil" is undoubtedly the scariest song ever written about smoking weed, while "Innocent Dreams Shattered" is their ode to the IDS crew. "Scumbag" is their lowlife anthem to a "burnt, lazy, shifty, shady" lifestyle of no ambition, which is followed by "Clean Slate," a duet revealing the ravaging effects of destructive relationships. After all is said and done, everybody gets hurt. I mean, it is what it is…
JULY 2008
reviews by Jason Walsh
"Strength Through Nonviolence"
(Jason Walsh) (Thorp Records/www.thorprecords.com)
"Infiltrate the System"
(Jason Walsh) (Ferret Music/www.ferretstyle.com)
"Don't Count Me Out"
(Jason Walsh) (Pop Goes the Vinyl Records/myspace.com/kevinflynnandtheavondaleramblers)
"The Truth Can Be Brutal"
(Jason Walsh) (Thorp Records/www.thorprecords.com)
"Set Sail for Sodomy"
(Jason Walsh) (Refugee Records/www.refugeerecords.net)
"Lost Causes"
(Jason Walsh) (Fail Records/www.20bullseach.com)
"The Incompetence to Follow" e.p.
(Jason Walsh) (Fail Records/www.20bullseach.com)
"Nothing to Prove"
(Jason Walsh) (Bridge 9 Records/www.bridge9.com)
"Delusions of Grandeur"
(Jason Walsh) (Killing Kings/www.myspace.com/killingkings)
"Dedicated to Babies Who Came First"
(Jason Walsh) (Deathwish Inc./www.deathwishinc.com)
"Soul Swallower"
(Jason Walsh) (Double or Nothing Records/www.doubleornothingrecords.com)
"Fractures"
(Jason Walsh) (Deathwish Inc./www.deathwishinc.com)
"Loud and Live"
(Jason Walsh) (Prank Records/www.prankrecords.com)
s/t
(Jason Walsh) (Bring Out Your Dead/www.myspace.com/musicthatmurders)
"It Is What It Is...Born to Lose, Live to Win"
(Jason Walsh) (Red Eyed Devil Records/www.everybodygetshurt.org)
