Armistice: Fluff and Stuff

Review # 15
Artist: Armistice
Title: Fluff and Stuff: The eps & early years
Format: LP
Label: Despotic Records
Year: 2005
Songs: 16






This is a record made up of early recordings and EPs by the crust band Armistice. The thing that makes Armistice unique is not their music.  It's not their lyrics.  It's their obsession with Winnie the Pooh. Yes, that's right, it's a crust punk band that obsessed with Winnie The Pooh.  So much so that Armistice have declared themselves to the first p-beat band. For those not in know, d-beat is a particular drum beat (and variety of crust that uses it a lot) that goes "do dotoo, do dotoo, do dotoo, do dotoo" (if that makes anys sense).  Armistice, as a Pooh influenced d-beat band has declared that they are a p-beat band.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, in terms of their lyrics or music, not much. It sounds like d-beat crust. Lyrically, the Pooh influence is subtle or non-existant--it's songs about war, environmental destruction, television, and capitalism.  Where the Pooh influence comes out is in the visuals.  I read an interview with this band a long time ago, and they said they were attracted to the Pooh motiff because, while most crust bands feature images of doom and gloom, they wanted to show images of the better, kinder world they wanted to bring about. A world which, apparently, is best embodied by Winnie the Pooh.

The result is images like this one:

Crusty Pooh and Piglet holding hands in front of a peace symbol.  Weird, right?

But let me be clear: I'm not being critical of this.  Far from it. I thought I was the only crust fan in the world who was also into Winnie the Pooh, but it turns out, I'm not alone. Winnie the Pooh and crust punk, it turns out, are totally compatible. I love it. I'm not being sarcastic at all.

So, you may be asking, how's the music? Well, it's fine.  It's sort of generic d-beat crust with both male and female vocals.  It's kind of predictable, to be honest, both lyrically and musically.  But, it's solid enough, if you like this kind of music. Nothing wrong with any of it, especially if you are into bands like Doom, Discharge, and One Way System (who they do a pretty good cover of on this record). I would definitley go see them live, given the opportunity to do so.  I would say I don't really need any more their records, except that I want these records for the visuals. So yeah, not mind blowing, but decent crusty crust if you like that sort of thing.

Ok, no more punk reviews for a few days. As we move toward the end of "A" we're going into some different sonic territory for a bit.

Wanna hear Armistice? Check out "Endless Struggle."

Total songs listened: 199