(c) 1999 Burning Heart Records
[rating:3/5]
I get so innundated with punk rock music that sounds exactly like punk rock music sounds. It becomes very difficult to descern one band fron the next. They have to have something that stands out from the crowd, or they have to be really rockin’ when I’m drunk. Sweden’s Bombshell rocks are a slightly better than average punk band. don’t get me wrong I’m not being harsh. I like the CD. I’d play it for my friends in casual settings, and I’d bring it along on road trips if I had the room, butt… Heres how it is though, it’s like bottled water. There are umpteen bazillion brands of bottled water and each and everyone is wet and watery and just about the same. So anyway if you like punk rock in the style of mid career Rancid, Swinging Utters, Humpers etc… Get this CD. If that aint your bag, keep away.
–Jerry Actually
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Swingin’ Utters is a damn good band. Youth Brigade is still a damn good band. Both of them together on one CD?? Stop, you say. It can’t be so. Ah, but it is true. This spit series CD is a fucking cool idea. This is the first time that I, personally, have run across one of these (that’s not saying a whole hell of a lot.) Anyway, for those of you who have never heard of these bands, Go BUY IT NOW!!! This is not necessarily 100% hardcore, but a little Oi, a little traditional, a little hard-core, and a little (oh shit!) pop. Could you really ask for more? Guaranteed you will find at least 4 songs that you will play again. My personal favorites, not that you give a stinky hippie, are Haven’t Seen Yourself In Years (Swinging Utters) and Let them Know (Youth Brigade.)
Well, I can’t honestly say that I’m giving this CD a fair and honest review, but I’ll do my best. I actually only got to listen to the thing one time through before I had to go out of town, while which Mrs. Upstarter promptly removed the CD from the changer and as of now it is MIA. What I did gather from the listen that I got is that “Dirty Sanchez” is a bit better than the previously released “Kicked In The Teeth” Zeke has lost a little bit of that Kiss feel (not all of it, just some) and overall the songs rock pretty well. The mystery/bonus track is pretty damn funny for those of us that are old enough to remember. anyway I gave this disc a three out of a possible five on the !upstarter “UP” rating scale perhaps fair, perhaps not. At any rate not bad for a bunch of Seattle post grunge boys.
Remember that one time when Hank III and the Butthole Surfers got in a fist fight in a Southern Babtist churh over who was going to get drunk and repent the most and the good preacher tried to set ’em all right or send ’em right to Hell? Neither do I, but Let The Sin Begin is something what like that might sound like. Scruffy growl and cow punk. Prostelitizing while carousing. Them Damn Young Livers muster up 15 rabblerousing songs to help you demoralize your previously chaste life. Kansas City’s Freight train cow punk for the young and drunk.
Where the heck were these guys when I lived in Portland? Not around I guess. I wish I would have would have been in town though. They sound like a hella good band. Folksy and punky with songs of sailing the seas and the drinking of beer. They swagger like Swingin’ Utters and The Pogues and rock out with less melodrama than most of the rain-addled cock-n-roll of many Portland bands. Cloudy Skies contains 12.5 tracks of the aforementioned variety of rock and it does not dissapoint. If you like the drinking and the singalongs and music that may make you want to steal a boat, then this one is for you. There’s more to it of course, but the jist of it is good time rock and roll. Enjoy!
Have you ever, as an ever tough punk rocker wanted to let you inner-emo out? But how could you and still save face with all your extra tough punk rock friends? San Francisco’s Get Dead holds the answers to your fears. Their “punkcoustic” anthems reek with their innermost feelings but still come across as cool and nonchalant. I venture to say that you can safely listen to Letters Home and you will still command the respect of your spike-bedazzled friends and maybe you’ll even show that cute little pale girl all dressed in black a little bit of your own tortured soul (but not too much) Aside all that, Get Dead brings some fine non-electrical punk rock in an anthemic and almost piratical way. If I had to make up some adjectives that you can use to tell your friends about them, I’d go so far as to say that they are both Clashtastic and SwinginUtteriffic. For those of you back east, you can say that they’re wicked sweet!
Welcome to the B-side. What have we here but no less than 32 tracks of B-side, demos, 4-track takes and BS schlock from none other than Swingin’ Utters. It is generally easy to dismiss B-side compilations as strictly for the die hard fan. Generally they consist of crap to lackluster to otherwise distribute. That is only partially true for Hatest Grits. Instead of the usual 90% garbage 10% diamond, the Utters give you a sketchbook chronology of one of the best bands of the hybrid folk punk genre. Of course you also get some crap to lackluster to otherwise distribute, meant only for the die hard fan. But thanks to the good graces of the band, the ratio is more like 75% kick ass takes and 25% filler. You slice it how you like it though. I for one am down with their brand of rock and roll. Highly recommended from your friends at !upstarter.
So I’ve been listening to the new Dillinger Four disc quite a bit lately. Up until recently I can’t say that I was really all that familiar with them. I had heard their name and probably have them on some comps, but hadn’t really listened to them. Based on that I have no real idea of what they’re all about. But just ’cause I’m not familiar with them doesn’t in any way mean that they aren’t from Minneapolis. It should also in no way detracts from the fact they are a pretty kick ass band. My lack of knowledge aside, this new release has apparently been a long time coming. Something on the order of six years since their last full length. All I can say is, “About Time! I suppose.” Seriously though, CIVIL WAR is a solid release featuring 13 tracks that while rockin’ also seem to be trying to re-capture times past. But with the “halcyon days” long gone by, there is still ample opportunity for scathing commentary on modern times. Any ways, if you’re like me, you’ll like this disc. It reminds me a bit of Larry Arms, though a bit more up beat. It’s Sunday. It’s early. Just go listen to it already.