Off With Their Heads/Detournement – Split 7” (orange mix)

On this 7” split each band offer one acoustic original and an electric cover. Before picking up this split I’d only herd one song from Detournement, and that happened to be the electric version of ‘Odessa’, which is the acoustic original the band offers. This probably isn’t the best release to be introduced to a new band, but I’m gonna have to keep my eyes (and ears) peeled for them at my local record store.

Detournement’s cover Tracy Chapman’s ‘Talkin’ Bout A Revolution’ and even though I haven’t herd the original version I’m sure it wouldn’t rock this hard. Though I do have Tracy Chapman’s ‘Crossroads’ LP, but I can’t remember shit off of it.

Off With Their Heads’ side of things is what I really came here for. ‘Listerine’ (their acoustic original) can now be found on their new LP ‘In Desolation’ under the title ‘My Episodes’. Now I don’t know too much about Panthro UK United 13 (infact I know nothing of them) but the OWTH version of ‘Princess’ sounds pretty good. I’m gonna have to check these guys out as well.

Also great artwork by Zak Kaplan (of Detournement).

Fingers Crossed – Semester Of Stress

More of the same modern pop punk. The production quality isn’t that great but I didn’t care too much, for me the raw production quality made the songs seem more honest in a way. Also the fact that these guys are giving this away for free (here) gives me the perception that these guys are doing this for the right reasons (although I don’t know shit about this band so I could be completely wrong).

This is ok.  

Fingers Crossed – We Fight Girls

Fingers Crossed play modern pop punk. This isn’t great but it’s a lot better than a lot of pop punk bands around at the moment. I download this from here. 

Final Fight – Half Head, Full Shred

Final Fight is a fast melodic hardcore band. They aren’t pushing many boundaries but they sound extremely passionate and like they mean every word and every chord. This is a lot better than what a whole lot of other bands in this genre are doing. 

Eleventh He Reaches London – Hollow Be My Name

A while ago I borrowed a friend’s copy of Eleventh He Reaches London’s ‘The Good Fight For Harmony’. I liked that release by this Perth band quite a bit. After hearing some songs from this new record on some comps that I came across I got excited about this record. So I finally got around to purchasing this record during a recent trip to Melbourne at a Dixons (there are a bunch of these second hand record/CD/DVD stores in and around Melbourne. They have a great selection and everything is fairly cheap. I picked this CD up for $8).

This is a pretty powerful and dark record. The songs are pretty lengthy at times (the longest being the last track, For The Commonwealth And The Queen, at 11:03), but the songs held my attention and have unexpected twists and turns. The lyrics are great as well. There’s a running theme of bitterness towards anything godlike, royal or fatherly. The artwork suits the music perfectly.

The only thing I found annoying about this record is that at times the transitions in sections of some songs are jumpy. A perfect example of this can be seen during For The Commonwealth And The Queen at 3:12.

All round this is a great record. Check this band out if you have the attention span.

The Bouncing Souls/Hot Water Music – Split 7” (Black/Pearl white /500)

When I put this on my turntable I instantly started smiling. Last night I saw Hot Water Music and Bouncing souls play with Dave Hause (front man of The Loved Ones). For those who care the local support at the Melbourne show was A Death In The Family, and for Sydney it was Grand Fatal. Anyways at the Melbourne show I purchased this 7”.

Both bands cover a song of the other. The Bouncing Souls cover Wayfarer, while HWM cover True Believers.

Both these songs are part of HWM’s encore where all bands come out and play the songs together resulting in uncontrollable sing-a-longs and crowd surfing.

These shows were amazing, as is this 7”. If you didn’t see this tour and had the chance, I feel sorry for you.

The Bouncing Souls – Neurotic 7” (black)

This is a great 4 track 7” that my girlfriend picked up during our recent trip to Melbourne from Missing Link. These songs are energetic and fun. I'm not I can happily listen to this on repeat. These songs are on The Good, The Bad & The Argyle.

However, the way the lyrics are laid out annoys me. They’re just a chunk of lyrics with no titles separating each song from the next.

I recently saw The Bouncing Souls in Melbourne and last night in Sydney and was kind of disappointed. Their records are so full of energy but their live performance failed to deliver for me. Greg (the singer) seemed bored and tired during both sets. Oh well.

This 7” rules anyway.