Fat Wrecktrospective Review

Fat Wrecktrospective
Various

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Released: Dec. 8, 2009
Label: Fat Wreck Chords

Review by: Bill Jones

It’s hard to believe that Fat Wreck Chords has been around for two decades, especially when this reviewer was about five years old when it all began. It wasn’t really until the latest decade or so that I really got into the iconic punk label, but in that time it has become a standard for good punk rock.

There aren’t any labels the entire catalogs of which appeal to any one person – the music scene is just too diverse. Fat Wreck is no exception to that rule, but if there’s any one label I will happily give a chance to anything it releases, it’s Fat. And it’s likely due to label owner and NOFX frontman Fat Mike’s simple philosophy of signing only the bands he likes, and only ones that are punk rock. And while the California label is facing the same hardships as the rest of the waning music industry, the last 20 years (or how ever many the particular fan has jumped in on) have undeniably been one hell of a ride.

The Fat Wrecktrospective is a three-CD compilation looking back at the label’s history to date. It collects a hefty 88 tracks, separated into three categories – 33 of the “Fattest Hits,” 28 demos and 27 Fat Club tracks. The “Fattest Hits” are all previously released tunes, which means Fat fanatics might own a lot of the music on the first disc, but by limiting it to one song per band, it is also a diverse collection guaranteed to allow even the most hardcore punkers to discover (or maybe rediscover) a new favorite. Either way, it provides a great stroll down memory lane.

The Fat Club disc may agitate fans who purchased the series as it was released, but they still remain in possession of a collectible version of the releases, and new fans are treated to a great deal with the third disc, which features bands like The Vandals, Strike Anywhere, The Lawrence Arms and Swingin’ Utters. But the middle disc, the demos, is what really makes this collection a standout. In many cases, listeners get to hear the songs that got many of these great bands signed and ask that hindsight question – “Would I have recognized the potential in a band like Lagwagon, Mad Caddies, Rise Against, etc?” Fans also get a chance to hear songs like Against Me’s “You Look Like I Need A Drink” in a different way, in this case an early acoustic recording.

It is quite the collection of music, and the packaging that goes with it is equally as grand. The discs come in a fold-out Digipack featuring posters from the many tours of Fat bands and a short note from Fat Mike about the beginnings of his label. What makes the compilation, though, and is in my opinion worth the price of purchase alone (What are they asking, $15?) is a pull-out that unfolds into a full poster. One side features the covers of everything Fat has ever released. The other side collects great stories from many bands on the Fat roster and how they found themselves on the label. The anecdotes are mostly entertaining, provide information on the bands and their label, as well as offering some insight into Fat Mike’s philosophy.

General skepticism about compilations aside, Fat shows how to do it well with the Wrecktrospective. And the 88 tracks on this compilation show that if any label deserves such a look back through time, it’s Fat. Here’s to another great 20 years.

Hit the Switch and Blacklist Royals Interview

I recently wrote two interviews for Punknews.org. The first was with Matt Hawks of melodic punks Hit the Switch. The second was with Nat Rufus from folk-country-punkers Blacklist Royals. Please check them both out...

Hit the Switch

Blacklist Royals

Oceans calling it quits, last shows in Chicago tonight, tomorrow

Chicago instrumental indie-rockers Oceans are calling it quits, according to their PR rep. The band wanted to let fans know that their two final shows will take place in Chicago tonight and tomorrow.

The band plays at 8 p.m. tonight at Reggie's Rock Club with The Ghost, Mt. St. Helens, Burn Tibet and Johnny Bodacious. Oceans is then scheduled for its final show at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Summer Camp with Native, Noumenon, Birth Rites, Victor Fix the Sun and Antarctic. Oceans released "Nothing Collapses" on Copper Lung Records this year.

They Came From The Shadows - Teenage Bottlerocket

They Came From The Shadows
Teenage Bottlerocket

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Released: Sept. 1, 2009
Label: Fat Wreck Chords

Review by: Bill Jones

Since the band’s inception, Teenage Bottlerocket has been subject to the criticism that they aren’t really doing anything more than what The Ramones did more than 30 years ago with their special brand of three-cord pop-punk. It’s a hard criticism to combat, because at the core of it all, it’s true. But the question punks have to ask themselves is – is Teenage Bottlerocket’s reliance upon and perfection of that sound such a bad thing?

Fat Wreck Chords must have seen something worthwhile in the formula, picking up the Teenage Bottlerocket’s latest, They Came From The Shadows, for the band’s first release with the label. The Laramie, Wyo. quartet does little to reinvent the sound, with 14 three-chord pop-punk tunes, and it doesn’t help matters that the inside album photo that features them in a row, decked out in leather. But that’s just the way we (the non naysayers) like about these guys.

Teenage Bottlerocket starts thing off with an homage to the skate culture in “Skate or Die,” declaring, “We’re gonna fight, we’re gonna win / We’re gonna make skate a fucking threat again.” Over the next 13 tracks, they don’t deviate much from the battle plan – driving drum beats with lots of cymbal rides, three-chords giving way only for brief guitar solos, and passionate vocals with plenty of hooks – save for the lyrics which…well, there are actually more than three lines to a lot of these songs, which can be cited as new ground for Teenage Bottlerocket.

While the change may ring false for some, citing the simplicity as part of the charm, Teenage Bottlerocket succeeds because, as it turns out, the boys can write ‘em. “Bigger Than Kiss” marks one of the funniest songs they’ve written to date, slamming Kiss and imagining being bigger rock stars than the Detroit natives.

“Detroit couldn’t rock itself out of a paper bag / Gene Simmons looks kinda cool / But Paul Stanley kinda looks like jag / Ace Frehley can play guitar / But he ain’t no fucking Kerry King”

“Be With You” is another standout on the album, with its catchy chorus…

“I don’t want to be be be with you / No I don’t want to be be be with you / I don’t want to do what you want me to do / I wanna do what I want to”

The production of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore at the famed Blasting Room is ace as always. But let’s face it - Teenage Bottlerocket could have recorded this in a garage and it would likely be just as endearing. They Came From The Shadows definitely doesn’t come close to breaking the mold. Teenage Bottlerocket doesn’t use its jump to Fat Wreck to reimagine themselves, but fans wouldn’t have it any other way. No oh oh!

Live from Axis Mundi - Gogol Bordello

Live from Axis Mundi
Gogol Bordello

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: Oct. 6, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

Review by: Bill Jones

It is never much of a surprise when a live album sucks. Usually designed as a tie-over between albums, they are packed with music fans have already paid for, sometimes a poorly shot DVD, and audio recordings that do nothing to capture the live performance, leaving listeners better off with the album originals. When a live album is good, however, and exceeds those expectations, it can be a truly pleasant surprise.

Such is the case with Gogol Bordello’s Live from Axis Mundi. The 2-disc (one CD, one DVD) set is put together in a great package by SideOneDummy and the band. Fans are treated to a fold-out digipack, with a couple great photos, as well as a booklet featuring a letter from front man Eugene Hutz and plenty more live photos.

But it is the content on the two discs that truly impresses. The DVD contains a passionate 14-song set from the band, captured in July, 2007 at The Filmore at Irving Plaza in New York City. The Live Nation Studios Production is expertly filmed to capture the high-octane show Gogol Bordello always gives fans, seemingly on a pair of nights when the band was 110 percent on its game, taking to the balcony and riding bass drums over the crowd, all without using cheap editing techniques or mind-boggling quick cuts to get the job done. Between the vibrant visuals that cater to the band’s performance and the great audio (with options for Dolby 5.1 Surround or Stereo), Live at Axis Mundi provides fans the closest thing to being at a show, though without all the sweat.

The DVD is rounded out by four extra live tracks, music videos (“Start Wearing Purple,” “Not a Crime,” “Wonderlust King” and “American Wedding”) and “Bonus Chronicles,” which range from stage antics to a featurette on the band titled “Creative People Must Be Stopped!” It is a nice collection of goodies to make a great DVD even better.

Then the band one-ups itself again, opting for a CD collection of BBC and Gypsy Punk sessions, as well as two demos and an instrumental track, for a total of 11 tracks. It is a much better idea than a simple audio dub of the live DVD, and gives fans new ways to hear some of Gogol Bordello’s biggest and favorite tunes. Live from Axis Mundi is the type of live release that goes above and beyond to be something more than just another album break. Gogol Bordello outdoes itself, and fans should love every minute of it.

Gallop Meets the Earth - Protest the Hero

Gallop Meets the Earth
Protest the Hero

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Released: Sept. 8, 2009
Label: Vagrant

Review by: Bill Jones

A Star Wars-style scrolling text at the opening of the “Director’s Cut” version of the Gallop Meets the Earth DVD is a pseudo-review/hate letter directed at the band for a performance deemed to be all right, but nothing spectacular. The band lacks the energy and all-out craziness of previous performances, according to the text. If the letter is real, and was written in response to the particular show recorded for this DVD/CD combo, it’s dead on.

Love or hate Protest the Hero, they are known for a sort of metal fusion sound that prides itself on technical proficiency in its wacky, always-changing time signatures, rounded out by fantasy lyrics that would make Rush proud. Such technical performances don’t always translate well to the live setting (especially depending on the actual skill of any given band). Protest the Hero does a decent job of pulling it off, albeit better in a small club setting, and more notably a few years back in the Kezia era. But lately the band seems a little less-lighthearted, and the show suffers a bit as a result.

Vocalist Rody Walker’s jokes still fall flat and piss off the crowd, Arif Mirabdolhaghi keeps quietly at the guitar, failing to deliver any of his signature poses, and guitarist Tim Millar with his ever-increasing facial hair is starting to look like he may be moonlighting as a faux-bo. And that could be a good thing. Maybe the band isn’t trying to be a gimmick but rather simply perform their tunes, but the energy is lackluster, and the performance is mediocre with a recording that doesn’t help, meaning fans should just toss the CD to the garbage heap in favor of the studio albums.

On the DVD side of things, viewers have the option of watching the performance straight through, or a longer cut that features backstage segments awkwardly cut in at all the wrong places to offer a not-so-special behind-the-scenes glimpse at the band. The performance itself is filmed with high-quality cameras, and the crew sets up some impressive visuals that involve confetti drops and great stage lighting. The effort is somewhat undermined, however, by editing that is at times more erratic that necessary, coupled with terribly ugly split-screen jobs that look like they were done with a home video kit on the computer.

The extra material is the usual fare of the band’s tour shenanigans. These are unfortunately not as exciting for the viewer as the fun the band seems to be having in each scene. The highlight is two members of Protest and crew cross-dressing for a metal awards show dance designed to be Bruno-caliber gay. And the liner art is an ugly wave of orange, yellow and black forming some kind of face.

Protest the Hero does nothing overtly terrible with Gallop Meets the Earth. It follows the standard formula for a band DVD release designed to bridge the gap between studio albums, packing in the content, but every piece of it screams mediocrity. And when the performance falls in that same category, the band has a problem on its hands. Gallop Meets the Earth is a disappointment.

Quickies 2: Casualties, madcowboys, Nathen Maxwell and more!

We Are All We Have
The Casualties

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: Aug. 25, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

The seventh studio album from The Casualties is essentially more of the same, which will likely please their crusty jean-jacket-wearing fan base, but We Are All We Have does little to evolve the sound of the street punk veterans or entertain casual fans coming back for more. The cover is mostly black, featuring growling wolves, and the back cover features the band in traditional dress. The songs are just as familiar, with requisite anthems about being punk veterans, banding together and war being a profitable endeavor. The problem is that the lyrics being belted out by Jorge Herrera are as simple and by-the-punk-books as they get, and never has Herrera sounded so much like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, despite the work of Bill Stevenson and his crew at the Blasting Room. When there are bands like The Briggs doing the street punk sound so much better, there’s really just no need for a Casualties album this mediocre.

A Lot of Weird People Standing Around (7-inch)
Everyone Everywhere

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: March 10, 2009
Label: Evil Weevil Records

From “Everyhow Everythere,” the opening track of Everyone Everywhere’s latest four-track effort, A Lot of Weird People Standing Around, the band practically screams, “We’re indie as fuck!” Light-fingered guitar riffs weave their way through airy vocals. But Everyone Everywhere has a leg up on some of the competition – they don’t seem like pretentious artists, but rather a group of dudes having fun with their tunes. They sing about being stuck in the house in underwear, keg parties and heating bills. The vinyl packaging adds to that fun. Aside from the weird people standing around on the front cover of the cardboard sleeve, the record comes pressed on a cool translucent blue vinyl, and came with photo copies of someone’s notebook doodles, as well as a voucher for mp3 tracks of the EP. Everyone Everywhere might not have the most original sound around, but they do service to the indie genre with this entertaining 7-inch.

madcowboys
madcowboys

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: June 2, 2009
Label: New Black

The madcowboys third full-length effort sees the trio hitting its stride with witty lyrics and a style that is truly becoming their own, while still calling to mind influences like Dillinger Four. Vocalist Mike McLeod plays fast and loose with the lyrics, rolling lines like “girl, you look so goddamn fine, but you got that religion in the mind / I’m just tryin’ to open up your eyes a bit, show you ‘a light’ and show you a good time / but your god is a motherfuckin’ cockblockin partycrashin’ biatch, honey” in the album’s highlight track, “Girls in Shackles.” Yeah, madcowboys pull no punches with their lyrics, which also lambaste monogamy and American Idol, but that’s just the way punk should be. The 16 tracks contained on the band’s self-titled effort are packed to the brim with energy, barebones production, just enough pop to keep the mess together and catchy, and a shit-ton of blunt lyrics laced with humor, covering just about everything. The only caution is that madcowboys self-titled effort is hard to stop listening to once the listener puts it in the stereo.

25 Years
Middle Class Rut

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: May 5, 2009
Label: Bright Antenna

It may not go back 25 Years, but listening to Middle Class Rut’s latest EP sounds like a trip back through time, to at least the late 1990s. In the six-track effort, which clocks it at a hefty 28 minutes, MC Rut weaves a selection of four-plus-minute barebones alternative rock anthems. Okay, barebones may not be a fair descriptor, as the sound is quite hefty considering there are only two guys behind it. But as a studio effort, where those two guys could layer sounds for eternity, 25 Years is fairly cut-and-dry. There are a lot of heavy drums and sound effects (like chains) to give things an epic feel, and it is entertaining, for sure, but it also sounds like something Jane’s Addiction might have done a decade ago, with no noticeable update to the formula. The lyrics linger way too long in a methodical manner to live up to the tenacious comparison they have received to Rage Against the Machine. As a throwback to a style long since abandoned by many musicians, 25 Years is guaranteed to please, but fans shouldn’t expect anything more.

White Rabbit
Nathen Maxwell & The Original Bunny Gang

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Released: Aug. 18, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

The bassist for Irish-punk legends Flogging Molly, Nathen Maxwell, steps out on his own, with a little help from The Original Bunny Gang, on White Rabbit. For those expecting a touch of the Celtic flavor, it is nowhere to be found on White Rabbit. Instead, Maxwell mixes folk and reggae – and maybe even a bit of Latin flavor in songs like “Mijo” – influences for an incredibly laid back sound for a guy usually seen pounding Guinness on the stage in front of rowdy crowds. It’s definitely an interesting mix, but whether it is successful is something that listeners will have to decide on their own. Ted Hutt does a decent job producing the effort, but there doesn’t seem to be much to it. The lyrics and instrumentation come across as simple, and Maxwell’s voice isn’t the most appealing at the slowed pace. Maxwell does a great job of separating himself from the Flogging Molly sound, but that leaves him without the interest of the band’s fans and questions of whether the work is strong enough to stand on its own.

Spirit Desire (7-inch)
Tigers Jaw

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: Aug. 18, 2009
Label: Tiny Engines

From the home of The (American) Office, Scranton, Penn., comes Tigers Jaw. The band follows its full-length self-titled debut with Spirit Desire, a four-track 7-inch vinyl EP. Though the band doesn’t really sound anything like them, Spirit Desire’s wuss rock vibe, created in large part by vocalists Adam McIlwee and Ben Walsh, often reminds of Weezer, with a bit of another band they really sound nothing like, Pain. Comparisons they’ve received to Archers of Loaf, Pavement and the Chapel Hill scene are probably more accurate. Spirit Desire is packed with fuzzy guitar sounds, and slow beats creating slow builds in each of the four songs. The opening title track shows a lot of promise, but ultimately the limp, sad, brooding vocals tug this effort, and the listener, down through most of the 13 minutes it lasts. The 7-inch features a translucent sleeve with a strangely intriguing piece of art behind it featuring a man seemingly Photoshopped in front of a building and pool, with purple and yellow colors added to the mix, but the yellow vinyl is pretty ugly. It comes with a free mp3 code.

Distances (7-inch)
The Wonder Years/All or Nothing (Split)

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Released: March 10, 2009
Label: No Sleep

The Distances split between The Wonder Years and All or Nothing offer a pair of new tunes from each band. In the case of The Wonder Years, the tracks are “An Elegy for Baby Blue” and “Don’t Open the Fridge,” both of which are a lot more studio polished than their previous work. The tracks sound like something that could have fit in with New Found Glory’s debut, Nothing Gold Can Stay, in a very good way. All or Nothing has a bit more modern of a sound, with airier vocals, but a strong punk backbeat driving each song. The white vinyl and artwork are a bit boring, but it’s the music that counts most, and the Distances split should be a hit with fans of both bands.