The Vandals: Oi to the World!

Review # 74
Artist: The Vandals
Title: Oi to the World!
Format: CD
Label: Kung Fu Records
Year: 1996
Songs: 12




The Vandals, a long-running (but inconsistent) joke-punk band from southern California, released what may be the only full-length punk rock Christmas album in the mid-90s, well after their prime. I actually don't really like the Vandals, at least not as they exist today. Their early work features some great moments of 80s punk,  but if I understand correctly, the only person still involved with the band from those days is the drummer. In the years between their early 80s releases and the time this record came out, the Vandals changed from jokey hardcore to fairly generic 90s pop punk with "funny" lyrics. The Vandals weren't always clever even in the early days--some of their songs were hilarious, but others, like so many punk bands from their era, relied on shock value more than actually being funny. Call me a prude, but sometimes the Vandals' songs go too far over the line of political correctness for me to be comfortable. But that's a lot of 80s punk for you.

So I guess you could say I have mixed feelings about the Vandals. I picked up this particular record at a garage sale for a buck this summer. I had only ever heard the title track at that point, which is a pretty hilarious holiday-themed spoof on oi punk. Even though I've never really liked the later iterations of the Vandals as a band, I've always liked that song, so I picked it up. And... I have mixed feelings about it.

Oi to the World features some pretty hilarious holiday punk tunes. Similar to the title track, for example, "I Don't Believe in Santa Claus" is a send up of a punk sub-genre, in this case English anarcho-punk. The drums are all snare rolls and the vocalist takes on a thick (fake) British accent as he shouts out anti-capitalist cliches and denounces Christmas. Other tracks feature themes that would be familiar to most people who grew up celebrating Christmas--dealing with family members you don't really like, not getting the gifts you hoped for, people who are so obsessed with having the perfect Christmas that they end up ruining it for themselves and everyone else. They do it all to a pop-punk beat that's catchy and fun in small doses, but I wouldn't want to listen to all the time. A real stand-out track on the record, other than "Oi to the World" is the punk/metal version of "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies" from The Nutcracker. I don't know how to to describe it, other than to say that rocks, and I would happily listen to an entire Nutcracker album done in this style. Metal ballet? Who'd have thunk it?

As with the rest of the Vandals' catalogue though, there are a few tracks that go too far over the line of good taste for me. Lest you think I'm just a prude, I'll say up front that "Christmas Time for my Penis" is actually NOT one of these songs--I expected not to like that one, but actually, its pretty funny, because if you weren't paying close attention, you would think it was just a normal Christmas song that someone had written about a friend of family member who was having-ahem-a hard time during the holiday season. It hugs the line of bad taste but remains funny. On the other hand, "My First Christmas (As a Woman)," is a complete miss. It's not clever or funny, and seems a bit insensitive to the challenges faced by transgendered people. Their cover the of Yobs "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S" is equally if not more tasteless, relying on entirely on cheap shock value for its supposed humour.

So, the final verdict? For a buck, this was a good purchase, if for no other reason than the title track and "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies." This record, however, is not for the easily offended, and features some tracks that make me push the "skip" button.

Here's the title track, if you want to check it out as well as "Dance of the Sugarplumb Fairies".

Total songs listened: 903

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

Bristle: Won't Die For You

Review # 64
Artist: Bristle
Title: Won't Die For You
Format: LP
Label: Ransom Note Recordings
Year: 1995
Songs: 14



The last several posts now have been about Seattle area punk bands, and this review follows suit but also concludes that trend for the time being. Bristle is/was one of the most enduring and beloved Seattle punk rock bands.  I never got to see Bristle back in the early days down at the Lake Union Pub, but they're a band that refuses to stay dead. So, while Lonny, Tim, and Graham have all gone on to do other things (including but not limited to Dreadful Children, the Load Levelers, The Villans [sic], Skeezix, and Cyanide Destruct), Bristle still gets together for shows now and again, and the result is that I've seen them play a good number of times now. They're a great band and a nice bunch of guys.

What kind of music does Bristle play? Bristle plays punk. They're not part of this or that sub-genre. While the street punk influence on the band is probably most apparent on this record and all their releases, it's also easy to hear the influences of thrash, metal, and crust (especially in Lonny's guitar lines) and also '77 style and even pop punk influences (especially in the songs that Tim wrote). What this means is that if you like punk rock, there's something here for you, no matter which kind of punk is your particular cup of tea. Bristle is a political band when they want to be. Songs like "Officer Right," "No Society," and my personal favorite "Liberty's Lying" criticize consumer society, corrupt police, and jingoistic patriotism. Other songs like "Fired From Live" and "Stand My Ground," and "Judgement Day," however, deal with more personal issues like the loss of loved ones and the havoc that drug addiction wreak on people's lives. But it's not all doom and gloom either: there are also songs that are just silly fun, both lyrically and musically, like "Dodge Ram," a song about driving around in a Dodge Ram with no brakes, and "Lake Union Pub," an homage to long since closed Seattle bar that had notorious shows back in the days when people in Seattle still worried about the Teen Dance Ordinance. Regardless of the lyrical content, the songs are fast and fun. There's enough melody on this record for fans of melodic punk, but enough hard-edge to make it enjoyable for fans of hardcore punk, too.

Maybe that's why Bristle has been so loved by Seattle punks for so many years. The band doesn't try to sound like one scene, they just play songs they like. To the trained ear, there's a lot of diversity on this record. Bristle recently released a cd that includes everything except their most recent full length, which encompasses this whole record. One of these days I'll get around to reviewing that. I've held onto this record anyway, because it's just such a good collection of songs.

Some day I suppose Bristle will call it quites for good. They're all in other bands and none of them are getting any younger (but then, neither am I... I'm already 7 years older than Lonny was when this came out, so it's all relative I suppose). When that finally happens, the Seattle punk scene will have lost some of its greatest champions. In the meantime, next time Bristle gets together for a show, go check it out if you're in the area.

Suprisingly, I can't find a youtube video of anything from this record.  Sorry about that.

Just three more "B" reviews to go...
Total songs listened: 803

Born Against: Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children

Review # 60
Artist: Born Against
Title: Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children
Format: LP
Label: Prank Records
Year: 1991
Songs: 9






Born Against's Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children is a classic of 1990s hardcore punk. Over two decades later, Born Against remains one of most influential and memorable hardcore bands ever, and for good reason. With inventive guitar work and thought-provoking and sometimes self- and/or scene- critical lyrics, Born Against is the thinking man's hardcore band. This record showcases the band in top form. Many of the songs feature numerous tempo changes and guitar leads that often venture into dissonant and angular territory, alongside crushingly heavy distorted bass lines, pounding drums, and the crazed screams of vocalist Sam McPheeters. McPheeters alternates between incisive critiques, incoherent, frenzied babble, and desperate screeching (the lyric sheet actually includes "fgggffgt blaggga bdhg" in the song "Orang of Hope"). Musically, you get the best that straight-up, impassioned hardcore has to offer, along with a healthy dose of creative musicianship.

Lyrically, these songs are intelligent and highly critical of both mainstream American culture and all it's trappings (television, religion, and the "Jock Gestapo" that made so many of our lives miserable in high school) but likewise do not spare the counterculture.  In "Mount the Pavement," for example, the band points out that, unlike so many other nations, we in America (mostly) don't have "the boot to our heads," yet we still (mostly) fail to stand up against authority when it commits acts of injustice, a common theme running through many of the band's songs. The band's (and especially McPheeters) willingness to criticize punk scene participants for what they viewed as hypocrisy and simplistic thinking made Born Against somewhat divisive in their time, from what I understand. Today, their inventive hardcore still stands out, but is less controversial, as most fans of crust and hardcore punk have embraced Born Against in the years following their breakup.

This record features my favorite Born Against Song, "Well Fed Fuck." It's lyrical simplicity and repetition are reminiscent of Discharge, but it's sarcastic tone makes it feel less cliched. The music is relentlessly crushing, and McPheeters sounds more maniacal than on nearly any other song I know by the band.

A feature of this record that is worth noting is that the back of the outer sleeve features the full text of Mark Twain's "War Prayer," a short story critiquing the patriotic fervor, religious dogma, and willful blindness to the consequences of violence that go hand in hand with war.

In short: this is a gem of the 1990s hardcore scene, recommended to anyone who likes this sort of music.

Total songs listened: 747

Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear: Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah/Our Troubled Youth

Review # 51
Artist: Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear
Title: Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah/Our Troubled Youth
Format: LP
Label: Kill Rock Stars/Catcall
Year: 1992
Songs: 15


This record is a split LP featuring, on one side, Bikini Kill's second official release Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah and on the other, Huggy Bear's Our Troubled Youth. It was one of the first records I bought from an independent label, back in the days when getting my hands on stuff like this either meant a ferry ride to Seattle or, more commonly, sending a check in the mail to a record label's mail order service with a list of alternative choices in case what I wanted wasn't in stock at the time. In the 1990s, in the days before music was widely available on the internet, being punk rock in a small town was a lot more challenging. I'd send out my checks and then wait eagerly for the mail carrier to bring me a little slice of counterculture, out in the wasteland that was Poulsbo, Washington. This was part of one of those mail order purchases, recommended to me by one of the two people I knew who liked music that didn't get played on the radio, and it was very prized when it first came into my possession as one of only two or three punk LPs I owned.

But enough about me. Let's talk about the record itself, starting with the Bikini Kill side. Recorded on a 4 track, this record shows that it is possible for the band to be more raw and furious than they were on their first record. Musically speaking, this is just stripped-down punk recorded using basic technology in what sounds like a garage. The songs are heavier and more aggressive than the first record, and also a little better crafted. It captures the ethos and energy of the best hardcore bands.  It's compelling. Lyrically, the record is an even more uncompromising declaration of independence than the debut.  Every song screams out in self-confident defiance "We Don't Need You." By the time this record came out, people were becoming very polarized by Bikini Kill. Attracted or repelled by their uncompromising feminist stance, lyrics, and live presentation, most in the punk community were either with them or against them.  In "White Boy," Kathleen responds to the controversy: "I'm so sorry if I'm alienating some of you. Your whole fucking culture alienates me.... I'm so sorry that I think." Even as a white boy myself, being young and alienated in a small town that seemed at times to be closing in on me and in a school that largely seemed to encourage mediocrity, Bikini Kill's strident stance resonated. It should also be mentioned here that this record includes a less polished version of the band's well known single "Rebel Girl," which I think is superior to the 7" version.

In comparison, the Huggy Bear side of the record was a little harder for me to get my head around. The music is more varied, ranging from hardcore to garage rock to spooky bits that sound like a little like a horror movie soundtrack with someone ranting over them ("Jupiter Re-Entry" and "Nu Song") to the catchy pop of "Aqua Girl Star." It's pretty interesting listening, and "Aqua Girl Star" always gets stuck in my head every time I play this side of the record. To my budding punk tastes, though, some of this was a little hard to figure out, although it grew on me with successive plays. The politics were also harder to relate to. Many of the lyrics, and the poetic manifesto included inside the record sleeve, are pretty forceful about sexual identity issues, labeling the music "Queercore for the Queercorps." I wasn't someone who had an issue with people being gay, but as a straight 17 year old, I wasn't sure how to relate to music that dealt with these issues. They were topics that were simply not talked about by anyone I knew, and this record deal with them in an open and forceful way. I wasn't threatened by Huggy Bear per se, but just sort of confused by it, and vaguely uncomfortable with it for reasons I didn't quite understand. Today, there's nothing here I haven't heard in some form lots of time before, but at the time it was showing me something I hadn't seen before. It was educational and my perspective was broadened by it.

Taken together, the two sides of this record compliment each other nicely. Some of the music sounds a little dated at the end of the year 2011, but some of it could be released today and sound fresh. As far as the lyrical content, the messages here are as relevant today as they were nearly 20 years ago when they were first committed to vinyl. For the sake of alienated kids everywhere, I hope this record stays in circulation for a long time.

Here's the opening track of the Bikini Kill side, "White Boy" and my favorite track from the Huggy Bear side, "Aqua Girl Star."

Total songs listend: 648

Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill

Review # 48
Artist: Bikini Kill
Title: Bikini Kill
Format: 12" EP
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Year: 1992
Songs: 6



The self-titled debut of riot girl pioneers Bikini Kill is nothing less than amazing. For those not in the know, Bikini Kill was one of the first bands to set sail under the banner of the riot girl movement, a new kind of punk rock of, by, and largely for women. The band's uncompromising feminist stances earned them the undying devotion of thousands of young women in the 1990s (and on) and the scorn and disdain of many who found their message and music too abrasive, confusing, or threatening to their worldviews. Bikini Kill was started as a zine in Olympia, Washington by singer Kathleen Hanna (who would later go on to form the now famous feminist dance-rock band Le Tigre), Kathi Wilcox (bass) and Tobi Vail (drums). The zine project would, in short order, become a band with the addition of Billy Karen (guitar).

This record is the band's opening salvo, a manifesto put to catchy yet abrasive punk rock. From the opening of the record, "Double Dare Ya," when Kathleen shouts: "we're Bikini Kill, and we want revolution, girl-style, now," the passionate defiance of this record is evident. The songs herein deal primarily with women's rights ("rights, rights rights? You have them you know") but also connect society's treatment of women with other inequalities, like racism and the abuse of animals. It's hard to say what the standout songs on this record are because they're all brilliant. From the melodic "Carnival" to the fierce anger of "Suck My Left One," this record is a volley of righteous anger, backed up by energetic punk rock that confidently walks the line between hardcore and more melodic sounds. The most unusual song on the record is undoubtedly "Thurston (hearts) the Who," a live track in which the band plays repetitious progression while one member reads what sounds like a negative review of one of their concerts and another sings about pettiness in the music scene. The whole thing ends with a cacophony of screams. It's not easy to listen to, but the concept is cool and inventive, and fits well with the defiant attitude that characterizes the whole record.

Most of the other songs on the record were recorded by Fugazi and Minor Threat's Ian Mackaye, which only serves to make this record cooler. The importance of the Bikini Kill self-titled debut would be hard to exaggerate. It was a rallying cry for women (and their allies) who were sick of sexism in the music scene and the world in general, and it was a manifesto for an important musical movement, of which Bikini Kill would quickly become the best recognized participants.

It's just awesome. Check out "Double Dare Ya" to hear how it all began.


Total songs listened: 598

Jello Biafra with NoMeansNo: The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy

Review # 47
Artist: Jello Biafra with NoMeansNo
Title:The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy
Format: LP
Label: Alternative Tentacles
Year: 1991
Songs: 8






Former Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra has been involved in several projects since the disintegration of the punk pioneers that were the DKs. Some of these have been collaborations with other bands (e.g. Mojo Nixon), and of all of those, this is probably my favorite. It's probably in part because NoMeansNo was the first real punk rock band I ever saw, and as such, hold a special place in my heart. I'll go into that more when I review some NoMeansNo records, but suffice as to say, I'm biased in favor of this particular release.

Personal biases aside, there are a lot aspects of this record that make it an outstanding collaboration. To begin with, Jello is in top form. If you like his vocals and lyrics, there's nothing not to like here.  He manages, as he often does, to write songs which are both topical and durable. They often deal with specific events taking place at the time they were written (for example, the use of plutonium on space shuttles, one of the first issues to catch my attention as a budding young activist in high school) but also contain insightful and often sarcastic lines that are, sadly, just as relevant today as they were 20 years ago. My personal favorite from this record: "your lack of curiosity is the key to our success," a line which could characterize the thinking of most politicians and corporate executives today. As always Jello is snarky, political, sarcastic, and frantic, all delivered in his trademark high-pitched lisp. "Our whole economy is based on fear and death!" he shouts in "Sharks in the Gene Pool. "How long can this go on? And we live here!" Topics on this record range from consumerism, media critiques, the military industrial complex, to the war on drugs. Jello pulls out all the stops.

NoMeansNo is in good form here as well. If you aren't familiar with this long-running Canadian punk band, they play some of the most interesting and innovative hardcore music ever recorded. From the intense chunky rhythms of the title track, to the insane riffage of "Ride the Plume" and "Chew," to the frantic, almost "Flight of the Bumblebee" like guitar lines on "Sharks in the Gene Pool," there is not a bad song on this record. "Bruce's Diary" is among the most interesting tracks, with a catchy tune and a horn section providing an almost loungey feel at times. The album concludes with "The Myth is Real -- Let's Eat," which is perhaps the most Dead Kennedy-esque song on the record, but still holds firm to NoMeansNo's own style. It's just great.

This record is an absolute must for any fan of either the Dead Kennedys or NoMeansNo. My only complaint is that there is no booklet or poster with lyrics on it, but I got this second-hand, so it may just be that the previous owner misplaced it. Maybe it's just because I'm so happy to be reviewing punk rock again after so many other kinds of records, but this record is just fantastic.

Total songs listened: 592

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

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

A//Political: The Greatest Working Crass Rip-Off

Revew # 14
Artist: A//Political
Title: The Greatest Working Crass Rip-Off
Format: LP
Label: Threat to Existence
Year: 2010
Songs: 19




This LP features the entire discography of the mid to late 1990s peace punk band A//Political, as well as some previously unreleased material, and a hefty booklet (60 pages!) featuring the band's lyrics, photos, an interview, short essays on pacifism and anarcho-syndicalism, and a complete history of the band and the anarchist collective they were part of, the Crasshole Collective. Lots of reading material! I'm not actually a big enough fan of this band to need to read all of this stuff in a single sitting.  I like them well enough, but I didn't find them at the right time in my life to feel really passionate about their music I think. Still, I've picked through bits of the booklet and some of it is pretty interesting.  Really though, it's the kind of thing I wish would have fallen into my hands when I was still trying to figure out my own politics and what punk is actually about. It would have been informative and inspiring.

Musically, this record really hearkens back to the likes of Crass, Conflict, and the previously reviewed Anthrax.  It's not crust, it's anarcho-punk in the early 80s British tradition that largely faded away with the birth of the crust sound. The drumming has a lot of roll in it, ala Crass, the guitars are a little on the trebley side, vocals alternate between semi-melodic, shouty, and ranty, but never enter the Cookie Monster territory favored by so many crusty bands. As a big fan of the early British anarcho stuff, it's cool to hear a slightly more contemporary band playing in this style.  "Stop Thinking and Pogo" and other songs like it show a clear influence from Crass's Stations of the Crass and Conflict's It's Time to See Who's Who, yet the band still manages to have it's own voice. They seem to use Crass and Conflict as starting points, but also incorporate some street punk sounds in some songs, some American hardcore, and a hint of crust as well.

Lyrically, these songs are political and scene-critical, encouraging punks to step outside their limited scene ("Punk is a Ghetto") to try to affect larger change in the world. It's smart and political, and I find many of the critiques I've made of the punk scene represented in the lyrics of this band.

One thing that's a little odd about this record is that it seems to play a little fast. I've played it on two different record players now and it just seems like the songs are just a tiny bit sped up.  Maybe they had to do this to make all the songs fit on the record, or maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the band's catalogue and this is just what it sounds like. Maybe it's just in my head. It's not severe that it detracts from my enjoyment of the record, but the vocals just seem a little higher and more rapid than would be natural. I'd welcome the input of anyone who's more familiar with the original releases than I am, because while I've heard this band in passing many times over the years, this record is the first release I've ever owned by them other than one song on a compilation, so I don't have much basis for comparison.

A//Political was a band that was passionate about their politics and did real work to try to advance them, in the tradition of the groups their music emulates. If every punk band were as thoughtful and hardworking as they were, the scene would be much better place.  Musically, I'd recommend this to fans of nearly any kind of punk, but not necessarily anyone who wasn't already a punk fan of some kind.
Total songs listened: 183

Listen to "It's Not About Politics, It's About Life."

Antischism: Still Life

Review # 13
Artist: Antischism
Title: Still Life
Format: LP
Label: Prank Records
Year: 1991
Songs: 13





Hello, readers.  Sorry about the absence of posts in the last couple of days. I've just returned from a fantastic weekend in Portland, where I picked up a half dozen new jazz records. A couple of these will find their way into this blog in the next few days, but in the meantime, I'm going to review a couple more punk records.  For those of you less inclined toward this type of music, please bear with me. I'll be into some different stuff in just a couple more reviews.

With that said, let's talk about Antischism's Still Life. Had I not gotten out of place in terms of alphabetization and not reviewed some Sinatra on Friday, this record would have come immediately after Anti-Product's The Deafening Silence of Grinding Gears (review # 10), and the pairing of the two would have been appropriate.  There are number of similarities between these records (aside from similar band names). Both records are by crust bands from the 1990s, featuring alternating male and female vocals and similar topical content -- environmental destruction, racism, war, the plight of native peoples, the need for radical change. Both show a clear Nausea influence in both vocal delivery and musical stylings.

These are, however, in other ways, very distinctive records.  Still Life is sonically a heavier record that relies more on distortiona and standard crust and d-beat rhythms than does The Deafening Silence. That doesn't mean it sounds the same all the way through--tempo changes and precise starts and stops during the songs keep them from all running together. The songs here are not what I would call ground-breaking, though they might have sounded fresher in 1991 than they do today. In any case, though, the songs on this record  are generally well-written and competently performed late 80s/early 90s style crust. Not genre-transcending, but more than adequate if you like this kind of music.  Lyrically, Antischism tends more towards the abstract than Anti-product, though personal narratives also surface here and there, and the band avoids the excessive sloganeering of some political bands.

An aspect of this record that I find distinctive is the heavy use of non-musical samples.  There are numerous tracks on this record that feature samples of dialogue from films or news broadcasts that either stand alone or are paired with eerie backwards recordings of what I presume to be the band's own material. I can't identify all of them, but there are at least two samples from Michael Moore's Roger and Me, some that appear to be from television news segments, and another ("Ladies and Gentlemen") from a film I can't identify that features someone who sounds a lot like Jeff Goldblum (but might or might not be him) arguing with two women and in doing so making a number of extremely sexist remarks.  The anti-sexism message of this sample is clear. The sample I find a little more thought provoking is "Pets or Meat," which features a conversation between Michael Moore and a woman who butchers and sells rabbits for a living. Whenever I listen to this record, I find myself wondering whether Antischism is intending here to  to reposition this segment as a purely animal-rights message. The descriptions of the rabbits' living conditions and ultimate fate are disturbing, and are presented here out of the context of economic desperation depicted in Moore's film. In Roger and Me, the unfortunate fate of these rabbits is used to show what some people are driven to in face of an economic system which has left them behind. In the film, one sympathizes with both the rabbits and the woman who sells them.  Here, in the absence of context, the segment seems to take on a different message: "look how people mistreat animals."  I'm not saying the band is right or wrong to reposition in the sample in this way. In fact, I find the appropriation  and re-purposing of this sample to be an interesting move, made more interesting still by the potentially different meanings that one might bring to this track based on whether or not they've seen the film. I bring it up here not so much as a criticism as something I find intriguing.

As a side note, I bought this record used several years back, and there's a flyer in the sleeve for two punk shows at a place called the Mr. Roboto Project in Wilkinsburg, PA. I've never heard of any of the bands, but I looked at the website on the flyer, and the venue has apparently been active since 1998 and continues to be an all-ages music venue today. It makes me wonder how far and how long this record travelled before ending up in my possession.

In a nutshell: very competent crust with interesting samples. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Total songs listened: 164

Here's the opening track, "Failsafe."

Antiproduct: The Deafening Silence of Grinding Gears

Review # 10
Artist: Anti-Product
Title: The Deafening Silence of Grinding Gears
Format: LP
Label: Tribal War Records
Year: 1999
Songs: 8




To begin with, I want to make it clear that this is a record by the American crust band Anti-Product, not the English glam punk band AntiProduct, who do something entirely different and which I don't particularly care for. The next several reviews will deal with hardcore punk type bands, as a lot of such bands have names that start with "A" (go figure).

The Deafening Silence of Grinding Gears is a good, solid crust punk record.  Not the most inventive ever, but not overly repetitious and always smart and heartfelt.  Alternating male and female lead vocals that sometimes sing and sometimes shout create a dynamic sound that holds your interest. A crunchy (but not distored beyond recognition) guitar plays metal-influenced punk riffs, while the drums manage to avoid excessive reliance on same two beats that characterize much of genre, and bass does more than just follow the guitar. Good, competent crust. I would compare this to Nausea, but little less metal influenced.

The record comes packaged with a hefty lyrics book that, in 1990s-crust style, includes not only the lyrics to all the songs, but also an opening statement and a paragraph about each song explaining its topic and signicance. These songs draw straight, clear lines between imperialism, racism, industrialism, sexism, environmental degradation, and our lives and choices. There is a smart reclamation of term "feminism" in "Modern Day F* Word," and a comparison drawn between colonialism and and an unquestioning belief in scientific progress in "It Festers in Their Hearts." These are topics that often lend themselve to finger-pointing (not that there isn't a time and place for that...) but Anti-Product goes a step beyond the standard "those guys are bad, let's resist them" and examines also the struggles of people (i.e. themselves) trying to overcome internalized assumptions and prejudices, which does much to humanize this band and make the record feel more personal than one made up entirely of songs that exclusively criticize other people or simply "the system."

In short: a good crust record, if that's your thing, thoughtful lyrics, but probably not that appealing to most folks who don't care for the genre.

Listen to "It Festers In Their Hearts."

Total songs listened: 122