Thursday, May 15, 2008

Down By Law - Punkrockacademyfightsong




Down By Law were a band I discovered through a Punk-o-rama CD that came free with some surfing/skating magazine. When I first heard them I had no idea that the singer was Dave Smalley from Dag Nasty and was at one time fronting ALL.
At the time I was familiar with his work on Can I Say.

It came as a shock to me to recently learn that Epitaph records put all the Down By Law albums on their label out of print. However Dag Nasty albums are still in print. This may or may not be because Epitaph is owned by a Bad Religion member and another Bad Religion member is the Dag Nasty guitarist.

This album is the first album to feature Florida native, Sam Williams on guitar. Sam has been a stable band member ever since. On a more personal sidenote, Sam has recently became a father to twin daughters.

Many consider this Down By Law's best album. I haven't heard them all but I like the music on this album more than a lot of melodic punk that's around today. Haircut is somewhat dated lyrically with its Pearl Jam clones and grunge movement references. There is also a punked up cover of The Proclaimers song 500 miles. Edit: Found this youtube video clip of their song Hit or miss which is featured on this album: Check it out.

Songlist:

01. Punk Won

02. Hit Or Miss

03. Flower Tattoo

04. Sympathy For The World

05. 500 Miles

06. Brief Tommy

07. Bright Green Globe

08. Minusame

09. Drummin' Dave, Hunter Up

10. Punk As Fuck

11. 1944

12. The King & I

13. Haircut

14. Chocolate Jerk

15. Sam I

16. Heroes & Hooligans

17. Soldier Boy

18. Goodnight Song


Get it.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Coffin Break - Thirteen



Coffin Break were a Seattle band who were signed to c/z records before signing to Epitaph. The band seemed to straddle the line between Seattle's grunge movement and Epitaph's pop-punk (think early 90s pop punk). Here some of the songs would comfortably fit on a number of grunge albums that were released in the early nineties. These are mostly the songs written by Peter Litwin however the other songwriter(Rob Skinner)'s songs sound similar to Cruz record band Big Drill Car. So it does sound like this is more than just one band. On a side note, I used to think Cruz records and c/z records were the same label and that all bands had the melodic punk sound. Various sites on the web suggest this band stayed true to their punk and hardcore roots but looking at the Epitaph records wikipedia and listening to some of this album suggests signing this band may have been their attempt at breaking into the grunge movement of the early nineties while keeping one foot in the pop punk camp that the label would later become renowned for. There is a cover of Black Sabbath's Hole in the Sky which fits in well with the grunge songs. Confused? Get it!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Against Me, Bodega, Wellington May 6



Pic: Not Quite Right



Arrived at this one too late to catch the first band Fighting The Shakes. However when I got to Bodega Not Quite Right were onstage and seemed at home in front of a larger than usual (for them) crowd. I got burnt out on seeing them as they seemed to playing every single weekend but obviously this has been good for them development as a band. I was impressed with both their music and stage presence at this show.



Against Me!

Against Me! are a band I'm not overly familiar with. They did seem like an interesting band when I read an interview with them in Razorcake a few years back. Only recently I'd heard some of their New Wave album and listened to one of their albums As The Eternal Cowboy a few days before seeing them. They played only a few songs I knew but that's fine. Half Against Me!'s set reminded me of INXS, Pseudo Echo or other 80s bands. It seems no coincidence that Billy Idol's 80's breakthtough Rebel Yell is name-checked as most of their new direction seems to have originated from the same era. It's probably just as well for them most of their newfound audience are barely out of their twenties and missed the New Wave movement while it was actually happening.



While they were great tight and energetic live act I found half their music fell flat on my ears. Earlier in the year I saw The Dirtbombs knowing nearly nothing about them and came out impressed and would definitely go see them again. However I wouldn't see Against Me! again as they didn't grab me musically nearly as much.

Setlist for those who care:
Up The Cuts (New Wave)
New Wave (New Wave)
White People For Peace (New Wave)
Thrash Unreal (New Wave)
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong (RAR)
Walking is Still Honest (RAR)
Reinventing Axl Rose (RAR)
Americans Abroad (New Wave)
From Her Lips to God's Ears (The Energizer) (SFAC)
Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart (New Wave)
Stop! (New Wave)
Don't Lose Touch (SFAC)
Sink, Florida, Sink (ATEC)
The Ocean (New Wave)

Encore:
Piss And Vinegar (New Wave)
Cliche Guevara (ATEC)
We Laugh at Danger (And Break all the Rules) (RAR)

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...