Good Views, Bad News - Broadway Calls

Good Views, Bad News
Broadway Calls

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Released: Aug. 18, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

Review by: Bill Jones

For Broadway Calls’ latest full-length and SideOneDummy debut, the boys hit the famed Blasting Room studio with Bill Stevenson, and come out swinging with a more polished version of their usual throwback to late 1990s pop-punk, producing their best effort yet in Good Views, Bad News.

For fans of the band’s self-titled effort, Good Views, Bad News isn’t quite as diverse as the band’s previous work, but Broadway Calls has polished a sense of great melody working to perfect a style of music this reviewer grew up loving – taking influences from bands like Green Day, New Found Glory and maybe even a touch of Lit in songs like “Basement Royalty.” The lack of diversity, instead of hurting the band, actually adds a bit of stability to Broadway Calls’ latest.

Every song is filled with a variety of sounds, included some slight harmonized vocals between guitarist Ty Vaughn and bassist Matt Koenig, with a tight drum performance by Josh Baird. Toss in some poignant and well-sung lyrics about everything from being in a band (“To the Sheets”), to a blast of military recruiters (“Be All That You Can’t Be”), to an anti-self-pity self-pity song (“Give Up the Ghost”), and Broadway Calls has a great album on their hands. If the album cover – a girl flying a burning kite in an industrialized area as the sun goes down – is any indication, there are some intelligent, dark themes to be found in these subtle and catchy hooks.

Good Views, Bad News doesn’t necessarily evolve the genre or the Broadway Calls sound. It is the most focused effort they’ve put together, however, and rather than hopping trends, finds the band honing in a particular sound that the band and its fans can enjoy. Another great album from Broadway Calls.

Gold Country - Chuck Ragan

Gold Country
Chuck Ragan

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Released: Sept. 1, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

Review by: Bill Jones

After the initial Hot Water Music break-up, singer/songwriter/guitarist Chuck Ragan set out on his own with great results. But while his first solo effort, a live album called Los Feliz, did an incredible job of harnessing his powerfully captivating live performance (let’s see those noisy, trendy bastards try to talk though an acoustic performance like his), it fell a bit short in truly feeling like an album. To be fair, it was more of a compilation of solo songs and HWM tracks. Its follow-up, Feast or Famine, took Ragan to the studio to properly record an album, but while he got the album feel correct; it didn’t quite capture his performance.

Gold Country, the songwriter’s third release with SideOneDummy, finally gets every piece of the puzzle right, and gives Chuck Ragan fans everything they could hope for in an album. Gold Country is the kind of album that defines a musical career, crosses genres seamlessly, truly earns the overused descriptor of “timeless” and most importantly tells a story in a way only music, and a great songwriter like Chuck Ragan, can.

From the very first track, “For Goodness Sake,” it is evident that while Ragan’s music is still founded on simple themes, melodies and backbeats (as actually noted in the lyrics) in a manner that hearkens back to Johnny Cash, Gold Country is a dynamic and mature effort, accented by the violin of Jon Gaunt and the drums of Hot Water Music drummer George Revelo.

The second cut, “Glory,” features a rolling rhythm that brings to mind an old mining scene, and highlights the power of Ragan’s vocals, with a beautiful violin solo mid-song. Later, listeners get a classic Ragan rock n’ roll sing-a-long mover in “Done and Done,” the chorus of which takes center stage.

“Oh let it go / cut loose and roll / rock steady soul / get up stand up. Throw your hands up / ah let it go / cut loose and roll / rock steady soul / get up stand up until you’re done and done”

It is followed by “The Trench,” an old-school grassroots folk song. Then there is the slow and moody “Don’t Say a Word,” following by another mover in “10 West,” with background chants of “Ohh! Haa!” that remind of Against Me! In each song, Ragan tells a story, but the album as a whole also tells a story, and he is as good at arranging the effort as he is each song.

Gold Country is an album perfect for a road trip through the national parks of the American West, but works just as well in the car on the way to work, at a campfire with friends, or while sitting at a computer and writing reviews. It has the power to run the gamut from rollicking to haunting and back again without fear. Ragan’s effort opens its arms to anyone who will listen, but doesn’t cheapen itself for one second of its 12 tracks. It is 100 percent Chuck Ragan, cutting loose and letting it roll. This is an album that this reviewer’s grandmother is as likely to listen to as the guy who remembers being in the pit at a Hot Water show. With Gold Country, Ragan resets the bar for his musical career, with songwriting as close to flawless as one can get in something as subjective as music. It is an American folk gem, and one of the best albums to be written, of any kind, in a long time.

Fluent in Stroll - Big D & The Kids Table

Fluent in Stroll
Big D & The Kids Table

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Released: July 7, 2009
Label: SideOneDummy

Review by: Bill Jones

Picture being a judge during the Olympic Games. A promising young gymnast steps up to the mat. It is commonplace to expect the next trivial evolution of her routine – a simple reorganization of many of the moves seen throughout the day by other competitors in the event, ideally with a marginally better performance.

And then something beautiful happens.

The gymnast gets rid of the proverbial safety nets and mats, and launches into a routine that is entirely new and exciting. On the surface, the routine is not dissimilar to decades of other performances, but she is reinventing the rules and launching herself into unknown territory, uncertain of where things are going, inventing as she moves, and the landing isn’t guaranteed.

The moves aren’t perfect – some of the techniques are abrasive (possibly unnecessarily), it might alienate traditional fans and the performance has a few notable flaws – but how does one take away from something so beautiful. The idea of letting go, experimenting, truly performing, it’s…cool.

Such is the feeling of listening to the latest from Allston favorites Big D & The Kids Table, but then the gymnast turns out to be a “tough little ninja” and escapes on an elephant with vocalist David McWane. Fluent in Stroll is an amalgamation of hopscotch, double dutch, soul, ska and reggae that the band calls “stroll,” and that sounds about right.

While judging a book by its cover is almost always shunned, the cover of Fluent in Stroll has an odd way of letting the listener know exactly what he or she is in for. On it, a women with bright red lipstick, a cigarette in hand, and a 1950s-looking bikini top and hairstyle, stands with all sorts of shapes and figures seemingly emanating from her eyes, with the objects and background dressed in faded colors that give it a retro vibe. And somehow, that image perfectly describes the sounds to be found on the album’s 14 tracks.

Fluent in Stroll sounds like the album that should be playing in a Cadillac convertible on a perfect sunny day at the beach, decades ago, and more so than any other album has humbled this reviewer into realizing that sometimes there are no 1,000 words that can create the same experience as just listening to the music. And Fluent in Stroll is well worth that listen.

Big D & The Kids Table is a band of real musicians, in the strictest sense of the word. If the band’s catalog to date hasn’t proven to fans that the Boston natives are much more than a “ska” band, Fluent in Stroll surely will. Never content with doing the same thing twice, rehashing ideas or conforming to a particular sound, the classically trained musicians have dabbled in everything from straight-up punk , to a Strictly Rude vibe, to all-out dub (Salem Girls), and even a gangsta rap back in the day. And six full-length albums into the band’s career, those changes have never felt forced or pretentious – well, maybe with the exception of that hip-hop oddity – but rather like intelligent musicians candidly experimenting with new ideas while paying tribute to favored genres, despite the risk of alienating fans that like one sound or another, constantly staying relevant in the process. Fluent in Stroll isn’t perfect, but the creativity is a thing of beauty.

The People or the Gun - Anti-Flag

The People or the Gun

Anti-Flag

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Released: June 9, 2009

Label: SideOneDummy

Reviewed by: Bill Jones

If it looks like an Anti-Flag album and sounds like an Anti-Flag album, it must be an Anti-Flag album. With the co-lead vocals of Justin Sane and Chris #2, it has become pretty hard to mistake an Anti-Flag album for anything else. Not to mention there is a bit of, let’s call it “consistency” to Anti-Flag’s work that lends it both familiarity (in a good way) and a somewhat basic, derivative feeling (in a bad way).

The People or the Gun isn’t an album that’s about to break the mold. Punk fans who absolutely can’t stand the music of the Pittsburgh four-piece aren’t going to be swayed by the band’s latest. But longtime fans will be pleased with the band’s return to a smaller label and the self-production of People or the Gun.

Immediately noticeable is the band’s aggressive approach in the opener, “Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C. (Sheep in Shepherd’s Clothing),” a melodic punk attack on the misuse of scripture. The band slows things down with two big sing-along choruses in “The Economy Is Suffering…Let it Die” and “The Gre(a)t Depression.” Both contain catchy riffs and deal with misguided capitalism and greed leading to today’s economic woes.

Things pick up again with “We Are the One” and don’t let up. “You Are Fired (Take This Job, Ah, Fuck It)” absolutely tears things up. It is almost a shame that it only accounts for one minute of this album’s length, as it is an intense throwback or crusty old hardcore, guaranteed to have kids on a path of destruction in the pit. Incredibly straightforward lyrics and downright violent music.

“This is the First Night” provides the mid-album change of pace, a song designed to be a sing-along for the end of the show. From here on out, the songs aren’t quite as noteworthy as those in the opening half, but the solid songwriting continues. As expected with Anti-Flag, every song has a very direct social message, with a healthy mix of straight-up punk tunes, ballads and anthems. The socially intense 10-track album does go out with a humorous hidden track called “Teenage Kennedy Lobotomy,” slamming bands in it for the wrong reasons, in which drummer Pat Thetic declares, “I get paid by the drum beat!”

Many bands have used SideOneDummy in recent years as a launching pad for career revivals, while others (Big D and the Kids Table, Gaslight Anthem) weren’t really in need of revivals, but signed to the label and released the best material in their respective discographies to date. The People or the Gun doesn’t quite hit the “best of career” mark, and Anti-Flag wasn’t in need of a revival. The band also doesn’t stray too far from its usual repertoire. It’s still a bit sophomoric and preachy enough to make the live rants wholly unnecessary, but The People or the Gun sounds like an album written by a band that has been refreshed. And the reinvigorated attack of Anti-Flag is definitely worth a listen.