Rocking
melodic punk rock in the vein of Hot Water Music. You can download this album
from Death To False Hope Records. Get on it!
FFO: Paper
Arms, Hot Water Music
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Gun Club – Fire of Love
This is The
Gun Clubs debut album from 1981. Blues driven punk rock. This is a really brilliant
record. A friend at work gave me this and a bunch more of albums after talking
about music at lunch. Thanks Brendan.
FFO: The
Pixies
Guiltmaker - The Emerald Coast
Guiltmaker
play post rock/90s emo and they play it pretty damn well. I have no clue how I stumbled
onto this band but the band have this EP up for free download and stream on
their bandcamp. If you like Fairweather’s ‘Lusitania’ then chances are you’ll like
this.
FFO:
Fairweather and Further Seems Forever
Website: http://www.facebook.com/weareguilty
Grim Fandango - IV. Eat Not The Heart
When I listen
to Grim Fandango I can’t help but smile and sing-a-long. This EP is packed full
of jangly guitars, busy bass lines, gruff vocals and hooks that get stuck in
your head for days on end. These guys have to be one of my favourite Australian
bands at the moment.
FFO: Jawbreaker,
The Optionals
Grim Fandango / Kill Whitey - Split EP
I went and
saw both these bands touring together in support of this split in a warehouse
in Surry Hills. Both bands blew me away. On this split CD each band offers 3
original tracks and a cover of the other band. I’m in love with Grim Fandango’s
jangly guitars, just the right level of gruffness and energetic pop. Kill
Whitey have unfortunately broken up which is a shame. Really nice punked out melodies
and a huge Australian feel.
Grim
Fandango –
FFO:
Jawbreaker
Kill Whitey
–
FFO:
Dinosaur JR and A Death In The Family
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life LPx2 (black / ???)
I’ve just attempted
to read the review of ‘David Comes To Life’ on Pitchfork…They use big words. This
‘rock opera’ of an album was one of the best records of 2011. Double LP with
each side being an act in the story. Everything comes together perfectly.
Here’s what
the plot of the story is according to Wikipedia:
“David
Eliade is a worker at a light bulb factory in late 70's, early 80's England. David
meets Veronica Boisson, an activist, and the two fall in love. Though David
enjoys being in a relationship with Veronica, David starts to worry that
something wrong is going to happen. The two build a bomb as a form protest and
attempt to bomb the factory. The bomb fails to destroy the factory, however,
and ends up killing Veronica in the process. David feels sorrow for spending
time with Veronica, thinking that it was all a waste, something the narrator
agrees on. David also feels guilty for causing Veronica's death.
The story
then introduces an acquaintance of David named Vivian Benson, who tells David
to not trust narration. David then realizes that he is a character in a story,
being controlled by Octavio St. Laurent, the story's narrator. David and
Octavio fight for control over the plot, but David loses the fight and comes
out feeling worse.
Vivian then
reveals to David that she witnessed the bomb blast, and that Octavio was the
cause of Veronica's death. Octavio accepts that having Veronica die was wrong.
However, Octavio defends his action, saying that because he was cast as a
villain, he was merely doing his job and should not be blamed. Veronica's spirit
returns to David and David realizes his time with Veronica was worthwhile.
David, glad with his experience, returns to the factory to relive everything
again.”
This is
good. Buy this now (if you haven’t already).
FFO: Hüsker
Dü
Website: http://davidcomestolife.com/
Monday, January 23, 2012
Grown Ups – Songs
The first
time I listened to this it was a rainy and overcast day and I had a blast with the
fiddly guitars and the up beat melodies.Grown Ups play noodly and poppy punk
rock that you need to sing your heart out to. Plus, this is up for download onIf You Make It so you know it has to be amazing!
FFO:
Latterman, Castevet and Street Smart Cyclist
Website: http://www.myspace.com/ihategrownups
Civil War – Demo 2011
Civil War
formed in 2011 from the ashes of Persist. Moving away from the melodic hardcore
style that Persist played, Civil War play more of a NYHC style of hardcore which
is so popular at the moment. I haven’t seen these guys live yet but they pull
off this style well and I look forward to it. You can download this demo for
free from their band camp.
FFO:
Trapped Under Ice, Phantoms and NYHC
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Nim / In Sepia – Split CD
I saw both
these bands play together while touring in support of this split at Jura Books.
Both bands played really well. I was pretty impressed, especially by Nim who
played extremely passionately. I have both the Japanese and Australian versions
of this split which has alternate artwork.
In Sepia are
from Brisbane
and play emotionally driven post rock. Nim also play the same style. They are
both intricate, though In Sepia are a little more calculated and Nim play with
a little more of a passionate force.
Unfortunately
In Sepia broke up recently.
FFO: Sunny
Day Real Estate, Arrows and To The North
Frenzal Rhomb - Smoko At The Pet Food Factory LP (black/???)
Frenzal
Romb have still got it! This band just seems to get better and better as time
goes on. This is their 8th full length and not much has changed.
They still play basically the same style of punk rock and they still have their
tongue stuck firmly in their cheek.
Website: http://www.petfoodfactory.com.au/
Fat Guy Wears A Mystic Wolf Shirt – Counter/Transference (/500)
Fat Guy Wears
A Mystic Wolf Shirt is one of the best band names in NSW. FGWAMWS are a spazzed
out and frenetic 3-piece grind band. This is their debut album and it rips
hard! 17 tracks in under 16 minutes. This CD is on a limited run of 500 and
only $10. Get a hold of it before people catch on.
FFO:
Totally Unicorn, Battle Pope, Agents Of Abhorrence and Converge
Website: http://fgwmws.bandcamp.com/
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Algernon Cadwallader – Some Kind of Cadwallader LP (black/???)
Algernon
Cadwallader is by far the best Kinsella clone band, and I mean that in the
nicest possible way. This is their first full length of noodly and upbeat Midwest emo. The guitars are jangly and angular, the
singer yelps the lyrics with a smile and the drums tie it all together. It all
comes together perfectly in a beautiful mess. If you like anything that the Kinsellas
have done then you need this in your life.
FFO: Cap’n
Jazz, American Football and Owls
Counter Attack – Burn Fitzroy To The Ground (123/200)
Thrashy
punk rock played by ex members of Massappeal, Open Wound, Nihilistik View and
Soft Cocks. Harsh and distorted punk rock mixed with some old school thrash
influence. This is pretty unrelenting. Once the song is over the next one is
already halfway finished.
I picked
this up from Poison City Records in Melbourne.
http://counterattackmelbourne.blogspot.com/
Hot Water Music / The Casket Lottery – Colors, Words and Dreams Split 7” (grey / 706)
This split
acts as a Government Issue, the 80’s hardcore band from DC. Each band offers up
a cover each. Hot Water Music covers ‘Jaded Eyes’ from GI’s ‘You’ (’87) and The
Casket Lottery cover ‘For Ever’ which can be found on GI’s ‘Crash’ (’88).
Having never herd the original versions of these particular GI songs I can’t
exactly tell how the quality of these covers stand up to the original.
This is the
most common colour of the first pressing of this record but out by SecondNature Recordings. I picked this split up from Black Wire Records.
Circuits – Demo (third pressing 9/100)
I picked up
this six song demo from Poison City Records while I was in Melbourne.
Circuits are
a four piece, female fronted hardcore band from Melbourne. They are pissed with a
socio-political edge.
There have
been four pressings of this demo and each out of 100. I managed to get a hold
of the third pressing.
Worth
checking out if you get the chance.
FFO: Conation,
Glasses and Punch
Website: http://www.facebook.com/circuitshc
Green Day – Dookie
Green Day’s
‘Dookie’ is one of the earlier punk albums that I ever got. It was given to me
by the same family friend who gave me the three classic Avail records, a Nirvana
bootleg, The Pixies’ ‘Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim’ and a lot of others. I
obsessed over these songs and the cover art for hours.
This record
is packed full of fun and snotty punk rock. No matter how jaded I have gotten
about Green Day over the years this record hasn’t gotten old just yet.
While
talking about Green Day I think it would be worthwhile to mention that Look Out
Records recently shut down. They never really recovered after losing the rights
to releases, most notable being their early Green Day releases.
FFO: The
Offspring, Blink 182, Bad Religion and NOFX
Website: http://www.greenday.com/
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Anchors – Bad JuJu
I’ve seen
these guys a few times now and I don’t know why but I wasn’t really all that
into them. When I saw them play in Melbourne
as part of the Poison City Weekender something clicked and I am now hooked!
I picked up
the CD version of ‘Bad JuJu’ after they played and it’s been getting some
pretty steady plays since. I really wanted this on vinyl but the band didn’t have
any on them. The artwork on the vinyl release is so much better than that on
the CD release.
Anchors
play fast, and at times, techy punk rock with elements of modern day pop punk.
Don’t sleep
on this any longer than I did.
FFO: A
Wilhelm Scream and Strung Out
Website: http://anchors.bigcartel.com/
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