The Bricks – Here We Come

The Bricks – Here We Come
© 2015 Raven Faith Records

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Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

the-bricksSup y’all, here’s something for you to try on. Here We Come is the debut album from punk rock / street punk band, The Bricks. Coming at you straight out of Omaha, NE. The band hasn’t been around for more than half a year and they already have an album out. Freakin’ kudos to that. I know what a pain in the ass it can be to even get everyone to the studio.

Maybe you’re like me and you know about jack shit about the Omaha music scene other than 311 was from there, them and some sort of ironic emo hipster guy. Based on that The Bricks are a bit of fresh air to my perspective on the Omaha Sound. The album was described as punk, street punk, oi. I get that I suppose, but I think I’d probably just throw them under the good ol’ “Punk Rock” label. Probably more semantics than anything.

Here We Come has 10 tracks of gunka-gunka-gunka rock with surly vocals, a guitar hook here and there, and song titles such as Punk’s Not Dead, Yahweh, and Omaha Punks. As much as I like the idea of punk from Omaha, I’m having a hard time deciding if there is more potential here or more of a novelty that I’m momentarily amused by. I sense that it is likely the latter, but I’m willing to give this band the benefit of the doubt.

I think what might be the holdback for me is the intensity of delivery. Sadly this is a problem that I’ve identified often in faith-based music. It’s as though the bands are holding back. I’m not suggesting a band can’t celebrate their faith, but if that’s the case, use it as a stepping stone and not an anchor. That aside, I’d like to hear the band push the envelope away from the almost “slow chant” nature of the vocal lines on every song. There’s some bits early on that drift into Social Distortion territory. That maybe isn’t a bad area for this band to explore.

Bottom line is that while I’m not left speechless, I think this band has some potential with what their doing. Take this idea, fellas and run wild with it.

–Jerry Actually