The Bristles: Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown

Review # 65
Artist: The Bristles
Title: Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown
Format: LP
Label: Beer City
Year: 1997
Songs: 10






Hello 30,000 Songs readers! Sorry about the long delay between posts.  I was out of the country for a while, and then I was sick for a bit (not unrelated), and then I had a lot of catching up to do on work because of being out of the country and/or sick for three weeks. I'm back, I have a brand new record needle, and I'm looking forward to finishing up the "B" LPs over the next week or so.

So, let's dive in. I own The Bristles' Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown because of a miscommunication. Many years ago, I recommended to my friend Tim that he check out local punk band Bristle (the subject of my previous review). He mistakenly picked up this record by The Bristles, who I had never heard of before. Years later, as regular readers are aware, he moved away and I got all his vinyl, and thus, this record that I didn't actually recommend came to be in my collection.

The Bristles are (were? Not sure, and internet searches have been inconclusive) a street punk band from New Jersey, not to be confused with the European band of the same name. This record sounds like the type of rock 'n roll influenced street punk that I probably would have liked a lot between the ages of 17 and 22 but have mostly moved on from. The record reminds me a lot of Blanks '77, and like that band, the Bristles would probably be fun to see live, but aren't something I listen to much on record any more. The music here is fairly generic, sounding like a lot of mid to late 90s street punk bands. There's nothing seriously wrong with any of the songs, if that kind of music is your cup of tea, but listening to this record I found my attention wandering at times. The songs are up-tempo and some of them (such as "Blue Collar Crime" and "Local 827") are fun and kind of catchy, but there's just not a whole lot of depth to the music. Aside from the opening instrumental track "109," it more or less just does the same thing from beginning to end.

Lyrically, the band is class conscious and seems sincere. The songs on this record mostly deal with the frustration of being stuck in a working class lifestyle, with a couple of songs about unionism and one about using substances to escape the bleakness of this life. The hopelessness that comes with poverty is a great topic for a punk song, but here it starts to feel more than a bit repetitive. If you're looking for deep insights or correct spelling, the lyrics here provide neither.

In a final analysis, I would describe this record as just ok. I've listened to it twice now and could imagine maybe putting it on again some time when I'm in the mood for street punk. There are definitely a lot worse bands in this genre (some would say I myself have been in one, but that's neither here nor there). This record just doesn't excite me too much.

I looked on youtube but couldn't find any videos of the US based Bristles to post. There are some songs on their myspace if you want to look them up.

Look for another post about one of the more unusual records in my collection coming soon.

Total songs listened: 814

The Briefs: Sex Objects

Review # 63
Artist: The Briefs
Title: Sex Objects
Format: LP
Label: BYO Records
Year: 2004
Songs: 14






Sex Objects is the third LP by the Briefs, and, like their first LP which was the subject of the previous review to this one, it's a fun and bouncy record of '77 style punk tunes in the vein of Generation X, Eater, 999, the Jam, and so on. Musically, it's a little more developed and complex than the first record, with better use being made of having two guitars in the band. Lyrically, while there's plenty snotty and/or goofy songs that are more attitude than content (e.g. "So Stupid," "Antisocial" and the title track "Sex Objects"), there are also some songs that  make a stab at social commentary. This record was released the year that George W. Bush, the president who was (rightly) the most maligned by punk rockers since Ronald Reagan was re-elected, and songs like "Orange Alert," "No More Presidents," and even the sillier "Vitamin Bomb" clearly reflect that social context. The lyrics and music, then, are both a bit more mature than their first effort.

So in a lot of ways, this record is objectively better than Hit After Hit, which has left me sitting her playing the record and wondering why I don't like it as well. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine record, but I never even got around to buying it--it's another one of the records I got from my friend Tim when he moved to NYC and abandoned his record collection. I've given it some thought this morning and I think I've figured it out. This record has more lyrical depth and musical complexity, but the fact is, that's just not what I ever wanted from the Briefs. The reason their first album was so great was that it was just so much fun to bounce around to. It was stripped down and basic and didn't make you think. It captured the simplicity that made the first records by many of the first wave of British punk bands fun and different from the lumbering dinosaurs of '70s rock that punk rock put out to pasture. Make no mistake, Sex Objects is still a fun and enjoyable record, but it lacks that primal feeling of "who cares, let's just play some fast music" that characterized the first LP. Probably if I heard Sex Objects for the first time in the year 2012, and then heard Hit After Hit for the first time shortly afterward, I'd think Sex Objects was the better LP. But as I mentioned in the last review, the Briefs' first record was the right record at the right time in the Seattle music scene and its simplicity and devil-may-care attitude was part of that.

Lest you should think I don't like this record, let me be clear: this is a fine record and I enjoy listening to it. If you like '77 style punk, this is worth having in your collection. Check out the title track "Sex Objects" and decide for yourself.

Total songs listened: 789

Aus Rotten: The System Works For Them

Review # 22
Artist: Aus Rotten
Title: The System Works For Them
Format: LP
Label: Tribal War Records
Year: 1996
Songs: 11




The System Works For Them is Aus Rotten's first LP, but for reasons of alphabetization, is second to review. I've never played these two records back to back before, but I'm actually sort of surprised by some of the differences that are apparent between this and ...And Now Back To Our Programming. We're not talking about "are these by the same band?" level differences, but there's definitely some development that's taken place between the two.

In the last review, I called Aus Rotten "masters of their genre," but this record is more... well, generic. It's not that it's bad. If you're into crust, this is still a solid record. In fact, it's got a little bit heavier sound that I think comes largely from more distortion on the bass which actually makes it sound a little more "crusty." And there's no shortage of passion in the delivery in these songs about capitalism, religion, war, etc. So if crust is your thing, you probably still enjoy this record.  On the whole though, the song writing here is much less developed than on the bands' second effort. The songs on The System Works for Them are simpler and much more repetitive. The influence of bands like Discharge and the Varukers comes to the fore in fast, metal-edged songs with only two or at most three parts, which are themselves more basic than the riffs on the band's second record. The vocal delivery is also rougher and has more of a barking feel to it that makes the lyrics a little harder to follow in places than on the band's second album (although still clearer than a lot of crust bands). It's not that this record displays incompetence, and I don't get bored with it necessarily, but I guess I understand better now why I listen to the other one more often.  This record really has a first-album feel to it: good energy, but not as developed as it could be. While the second album, as I suggested, has moments of what might be described as creative over-reach, I appreciate the band trying to do more than they did here.

Like the other Aus Rotten record I reviewed, my copy of this one is also missing the cover/poster. In fact, it's missing everything.  I don't even have a paper sleeve for this, it's just in one of those vinyl covers that people use to protect the outer jackets of records.  Bare bones. It's too bad, but I'm not invested enough in this particular album that I would buy another copy just for the packaging.

Total songs listened: 260

Aus Rotten: ...And Now Back to Our Programming

Review # 21
Artist: Aus Rotten
Title: ...And Now Back To Our Programming
Format: LP
Label: Tribal War Records
Year: 1998
Songs: 7



Aus Rotten was  one of the classic and best known bands of 1990s crust, spanning most of the decade and garnering considerable attention and credibility among crusties and more than a few fans of street punk with a sound that drew heavily off of the anarcho-punk bands like Conflict, but injected it with a more hardcore and metal sounds. I never bought a full-length record by the band but ended up with two in my collection thanks, again, to receiving my friend Tim's records.

...And Now Back To Our Programming is the band's second effort. It starts off, rather ambitiously, with a single 15 minute song, the title track. A song of this length for a punk rock band is a bold and ambitious move.  There's just one problem: even though it's all one track, it's not really all one song. It's probably three different songs. They have thematically linked lyrics, but structurally, this just isn't one song.  There are pauses, followed by completely different parts.  There are choruses, but they don't repeat throughout the 15 minute track, just one specific part of it. So as a piece of music, the song "...And Now Back To Our Programming" just doesn't hold together.  I'm not saying it doesn't sound good.  I'd say there are probably three good songs there.  But trying to make them all into a single song in this case feels either like a failed attempt at something that exceeded the band's creative grasp, or just a little bit pretentious. This isn't some epic opus, it's several good punk songs. Oh well. Side A of the record also includes an old ad for Phillip-Morris which extols the healthful qualities of their cigarettes. It's pretty preposterous that such claims were at one time widely accepted.

Side B of the record is more straightforward.  It's comprised of six  medium to fast paced hardcore songs denouncing sexism, homophobia, war, and greed. The vocal delivery is such that an ear that's used to this kind of music can actually make out most of what the band has to say, which is often not the case with bands like this. The message actually gets across in the music if you want to listen for it. Musically, what this has to offer is good, solid, hardcore punk with alternating lead vocals. There's nothing all that intricate or progressive on this record, but Aus Rotten are masters of their genre, and they deliver their material with passion and energy like a good punk band should. A few of the songs feature backing vocals from Adrienne Droogas of the band Spitboy, which is a nice touch, especially on the song "Sexist Appeal," which is thematically quite similar to a lot of the Spitboy material.

What my copy of this album lacks is the cover/fold-out poster.  I'm pretty sure Tim had this up on his wall at one point, and when the vinyl got boxed up and handed off to me, this didn't make it back into the package. So unfortunately, I don't have any of the album art or lyrics. What did come in this record was a pamphlet on veganism and a copy of "Resistance: A Journal of Grassroots Direct Action" from 1999. I'm not sure how this got in there, if it was from Tim or some previous owner of the record. It's got stories on the Zapatistas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the McLibel case, and other stuff you'd commonly find in an radical publication back in the late 1990s (and, to varying degrees, today). Most of it is kind of dated, but it the publication itself looks pretty well done and is a slice of what was going on around the time the record came out. I don't expect I'll spend a lot of time with it, but it's sort of a cool find from a historical standpoint.

Next, I'll be reviewing another Aus Rotten record from Tim's collection, and then moving into the last two artists in my collection of LPs that start with the letter A....

Listen to "Sexist Appeal"

Total Songs Listened: 249

The Assistant: We'll Make the Roads by Walking

Review # 19
Artist: The Assistant
Title: We'll Make the Roads by Walking
Format: LP
Label: Scene Police
Year: 2003
Songs: 7



Like the 7 Seconds record I began this blog with, this is a record I inherited from my friend Tim that I had never actually played before starting this project. I actually got rid of some of his records shortly after I got them because I either already had them or knew I didn't want them. I kept this one, actually, after misreading the band name--I had mistaken this for a record by a local hardcore band called The Assailant, who I think were ok, but not good enough that I felt the need to actually listen to the record any time soon after getting it.

Turns out this is by a completely different band, The Assistant. This record is seven songs of pretty excellent progressive hardcore, reminiscent at times of Refused and some of the better emocore bands of the 1990s. The bass is apparently all synth and there's also some other keyboard work on some of these songs, but it's subtle enough that you really only hear it at certain points--it's not keyboard driven, the keyboard mostly adds some extra texture or dramatic flare here and there. Urgent male and female vocals that scream out in desperation at some points but sing melodically at others contribute to the dynamism of this record. I don't think any song on the album maintains the same tempo all the way through, and several have time signature changes as well. Things will be plugging along on a standard 4/4 rock beat and then suddenly turn into a waltz.

Lyrically, these songs deal with everything from geopolitics to overcoming the pain of high school experiences to consumerism to the consequences of drug abuse.  The lyrics and are thoughtful and the included booklet contains extensive explanations of each song. Sometimes the explanations are longer than the lyrics, but they're often a good read. This band is serious about being honest and laying their thoughts and motivations out for their listeners, and the honesty here makes you understand the emotions and thoughts that they pour into these compelling hardcore songs.

The only moment on this record that was a little silly to me was the vocal delivery on the first song, "Be Nice To Me, I Had a Ruff Day."  The songs deals with trying to maintain a positive outlook on life in the face of a world that can make that very difficult.  I think this is a great message, but the tortured screaming of lines like "I will try to wake up with a smile on my face" strikes me as more than a little incongruous. By no means is this sort of thing unique to the assistant--many bands that have screamy vocals do songs about things they're not actually angry about, but this has always seemed a little weird to me. If you scream about everything, the scream can lose it's power.

All in all though, this is a really good, inventive, hardcore record that displays both musical prowess and passion, a combination one finds too seldom in punk rock music. This will be in my regular rotation from here on out.


Total songs listened: 234

7 Seconds: Walk Together Rock Together

Review #: 1
Artist: 7 Seconds
Title: Walk Together Rock Together
Format: LP
Year: 1985
Label: BYO/Positive Force
Songs: 7




Walk Together Rock Together is the follow-up to 7 Seconds' influential first full-length record, The Crew (which will be covered later in CDs). While I've had this record for a while, I've never actually listened to it all the way through before today. 7 Seconds is a band I tend to forget about. I saw them back in 1999, at the penultimate show at the RKCNDY in Seattle, and I was really impressed with their energy and liked them a lot, but for whatever reason I don't listen to them on record very much. I got Walk Together Rock Together over a year ago when my friend Tim moved away and gave me his record collection, and I should have given this a listen before today. The record is made up of 7 songs of a genre which seems to be nearly extinct, melodic hardcore. Catchy, short and fast, these tunes had me bouncing around while I cleaned the kitchen. The energy is similar to a good pop-punk band, and the record is over before you know it because the songs just fly by. The lyrics here are heartfelt and tend to be upbeat and personal without being saccharine. The real stand-out tracks on this release are the title track, which is a call for unity that sticks in my head for days every time I hear it, and their cover of "99 Red Balloons," a song I've always liked anyway but works really well covered by a punk band. A couple of things that set this record apart from others like it are the occasional use of cowbell by drummer Troy Mowat, which will suddenly show up in unexpected places and is kind of amusing, and the picture of the band on the back of the sleeve, which features guitarist Dan Pozniak sporting one of the worst punk haircuts I've ever seen. Additionally, it was produced by Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat and later, Fugazi). While I wouldn't say MacKaye's work is particularly evident here, it does make this record just a little cooler from a historical perspective. Although there's nothing startlingly innovative or profound on Walk Together Rock Together, this is a fun, upbeat record if you like '80s punk and hardcore.