Category: Punk (Page 5 of 10)

Buzzcocks: Love Bites (Reissue)

February 9, 2010 /


RIYL: Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, The Clash

https://www.esdmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/buzzcocks-love.jpg Love Bites is the Buzzcocks’ second album. When it first came out in 1978, it was probably the closest punk rock came to a concept album at the time, the concept being just how much love can bite. Almost every single song on Love Bites is a blistering pop-punk piece of bitterness about the darker side of love and lust. Screw Morrissey and the Cure – no one has ever laid pop misery down like Pete Shelley and crew do here. If songs like “Just Love,” “Real World” and the immortal masterpiece “Ever Fallen in Love” don’t move you on some level emotionally, then you have either never faced the pain of a broken relationship or you are dead inside. Love Bites is a brutal trip to the dark side of love, but it’s one that sounds so damn good that it’s impossible not to revisit it again and again. Being miserable never sounded this good before or since.

And as if you needed another reason to own this classic of pop-punk, Mute’s new re-issue adds a whopping 30 bonus tracks, including several Peels Sessions, over a dozen demos and a live concert from 1978. Shockingly, none of these add-ons sound like filler, even though you’re getting some songs two or even three times. The Peel Session function as great mini-concerts, the demos (which sound amazing) work both as quality performances and as a study in how songs can change from conception to final recording, and the concert is a high-energy set that includes non-Love Bites classics like “What Do I Get” and “Autonomy.” If you like punk rock and you don’t own Love Bites already, you’re doing it wrong and you have even less of an excuse not to own it now. If you’ve already bought Love Bites you can re-purchase it feeling confident that you aren’t being bilked out of your cash for a cheap double-dip. This is the real-deal, a must-own no matter what. (Mute 2010)

Buzzcocks’ MySpace Page

Artists, CD Reviews, Punk, Rock

Buzzcocks: Another Music in a Different Kitchen (Reissue)

February 8, 2010 /


RIYL: The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Dead Boys

With “I Don’t Mind” and 14 other songs! In 1978, the Buzzcocks issued this album for the first time, solidifying their musical imprint in rock and punk’s history. It’s been resiussed and remastered a couple times since, but this time out fans get a John Peel session tacked onto the end of the original LP, plus a second disc filled with demos and a crucial live show at the Electric Circus in 1977. Suffice it say the main album here is as good as it ever was, with “Love Battery,” “Orgasm Addict,” and “Fiction Romance” upping the jittery, nerve-grinding ante. Pete Shelley and co. already had their own original Manchester take down cold, though perhaps these sides were less accessible than “Ever Fallen in Love,” but that’s usually the point of these recordings.

As for the bonus disc, the demos here are all alarmingly tasty. Sure, the unexpectedly great sound quality is a pleasure, but it’s the performances themselves that prove the band had the chops to make bigger waves. “I Don’t Mind” might actually be better in its demo form here, in fact. The live show is the only thing here that’s a bit of a disappointment, with the band perhaps sounding a little too speed-fueled and Shelley’s vocals a tad too loud. The brief Peel Session tracks on the first disc aren’t anything revelatory, but show the band in a bit more of a controlled atmosphere compared to the sound of the Electric Circus show. (Mute 2010)

Buzzcocks Myspace page

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Punk, Rock

Fucked Up: Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009

February 4, 2010 /


RIYL: Pissed Jeans, Minor Threat, FEAR

Fucked Up’s The Chemistry of Common Life was the best album of the decade (if you ask me). The downside to releasing an album that good, of course, is that now they have some pretty high standards to live up to. Couple Tracks is actually composed entirely of material that pre-dates that masterpiece, culling from the band’s extensive 7” singles discography, most of which were never released digitally or even on CD. While it may be unfair to compare this earlier material to what came later, it’s impossible not to.

Luckily most of Couple Tracks comes close to living up to the high standards set forth by the band’s later work. “Triumph of Life” and “Black Hats” both hint at the wall of noise sound that was to come on The Chemistry of Common Life, and pulse-pounding, ready-made moshers like “Ban Violins” and “Dangerous Fumes” show that before Fucked Up was tearing down the boundaries of what it meant to be a hardcore band, they were working within the confines of the genre damn well. The band even lets their artistic and avant-garde guard down with a series of covers, which include “Anorak City” (originally by Another Sunny Day) and “I Don’t Want to Be Friends with You” (originally by the Shop Assistants). It’s silly, for sure, but it shows the rarely seen lighter side of Fucked Up, as they transform both songs into Ramones-style punk numbers. Also showing off the band’s sense of humor is “Generation,” which is a purposely stupid anthem song meant to rally the easily led.

Unfortunately there is a bit of filler on here. Early versions of album cuts “Crooked Head” and “No Epiphany” seem like pointless additions, and the live tracks from a Daytrotter session are fun, but more vinyl-only rarities would have been preferred. Still, if you’re a hardcore fan of the band but missed out the singles the first time around (or you just don’t have the turntable to play them), then this collection is pretty much essential. If you’re new to the band and only know The Chemistry Of Common Life the more straightforward sound of Couple Tracks might surprise you, but you’ll still find something to like. (Matador 2010)

Fucked Up MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Hardcore, Punk, Rock

Lucero: 1372 Overton Park

January 13, 2010 /


RIYL: Ryan Bingham, Bruce Springsteen, Soul Asylum

1372 Overton Park is the sixth album from these Memphis blues rockers, but it marks their major label debut. There’s a rootsy blues rock sound at the core, but with a punk influence and soulful horn arrangements from Memphis session player Jim Spake. The band claims no one genre as their own, preferring to mix and match. Guitarist/vocalist Ben Nichols is the star of the show, delivering gritty vocals blending blues with punk and country vibes throughout the album. You rarely hear a punk influence blended with a horn section though, making for a relatively unique vibe.

The tunes are mostly bluesy rockers, accented with those soulful Memphis horns to create a sound that seems like it would go well with adult beverages. “The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo” builds slowly with piano and arpeggiated chords, and some tasty lead guitar that could open up nicely live. “What Are You Willing to Lose” shines with an up-tempo rocker where Nichols truly sounds like a man who is indeed ready to lay it all on the line, as he sings in the song. “Sixes and Sevens” is a high-energy party tune about gambling and carousing, with the horns and lead guitar intertwining nicely, while “Hey Darlin’ Do You Gamble?” brings things down a notch with a heartfelt romantic plea from Nichols to the girl of his affections to gamble on running with him. Overall, the album hits the mark as an homage to the musical heritage of Memphis. (Universal Republic 2009)

Lucero MySpace page

Artists, Blues, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Country, Punk, Rock

21st Century Breakdown: Jim Washington’s Best Albums of the 2000s

January 9, 2010 /

As I compiled my list of the best music of the decade (a much, much longer list than you see here) one inescapable conclusion reared its shaggy head: the last 10 years pretty much belonged to Jack White.

How many other artists produced five stellar albums in the aughts, not to mention a couple of killer side projects and (that old rock critic standby) incendiary live shows?

No one, that’s who.

So, the best album of the decade really came down to which White Stripes album did you like more, White Blood Cells or Elephant.

Thankfully there’s no wrong answer. I first became enamored of “Fell in Love With a Girl,” totally fell for “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” became quite close to “We Are Going to Be Friends” and spent a lot of time in “Hotel Yorba” and “Little Room.”

On the other hand, Elephant had “Seven Nation Army.”

“Seven Nation Army,” motherfuckers. How could a song released in 2003 sound like it invented the bass line? Not just that bass line, but the whole concept of bass lines.

So as we recap our favorites of the decade, rock lives on into the new century in various forms, from low down and dirty to high and arty to pulsating and poppy, while what was once the cutting-edge hip-hop has devolved into auto-tuned disco synth. No doubt something new will emerge in the next decade to take our minds off it.

1. The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (or Elephant)
2. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. Outkast: Stankonia (or Speakerboxx/The Love Below)
4. Green Day: American Idiot
5. The New Pornographers: Electric Version (or maybe Mass Romantic)
6. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
7. LCD SoundsystemL Sounds of Silver
8. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
9. Jay-Z: The Blueprint
10. The Strokes: Is This It?

Just a few of the runner-ups:

Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf, Rated R
Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Drive By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera, Dirty South
Sufjan Stevens: Come On Feel the Illinoise
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
Decemberists: Picaresque, Crane Wife
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Ben Folds: Rockin’ the Suburbs
Missy Elliott: Miss E…So Addictive
The Roots: Phrenology

Alternative, Americana, Artists, Funk, Lists, Pop, Power Pop, Progressive, Punk, R&B, Rock

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