The Anniversary - Devil On Our Side: B-Sides And Rarities

School is out for summer, my internship is over, and I'm unemployed until I get back to Ohio, and even then, probably until June. What better thing to do than review stuff then?

This right here is a two disc compilation of B-sides and rarities from The Anniversary (obviously, if you read the title). For those who never listened, the closest comparison I can think of when thinking about this band's first album would be Motion City Soundtrack, except a few years older. However, while The Anniversary's first album was a complete sugar rush of keyboard infused pop-punk awesomeness, they made a complete left turn on their second album, the classic rock indebted Your Majesty. It was a turn I didn't get when it first came out, and it's one I still do not get to this day. In the end, I think Motion City Soundtrack has had a better overall track record than The Anniversary.

However, this does not diminish how important of an album Designing A Nervous Breakdown was to me. I picked it up when I was in 9th grade, and became immediately attached to it. I first heard the band through one of those Vagrant Records Another Year On The Streets compilations (incidentally, the first place I ever heard Rocket From The Crypt!), and man, I thought I was on to some really underground shit once I tracked down their album. I kept that album like a secret, only showing it to a few people. Which is why Your Majesty was such a slap in the face to me- as it showcased a band abandoning everything they were really haphazardly.

As for this collection, it's a bit like a see-saw in terms of my relationship with The Anniversary. The songs that sound more like Designing are fucking great, and it's interesting to hear some of those songs in rougher, demo form. However, some of the other stuff on here is just head-scratchingly bad. I remember right before they broke up, in a couple issues of Alternative Press, that they had been working on some new EPs, one of which was supposed to contain "campfire songs" and the other would contain more reggae oriented tracks. Well, some of those songs are on this collection, and the idea of The Anniversary playing reggae is JUST as bad as you think it is. Please, skip the song "Che" every time you listen to this. I think I found myself actually shaking my head a few times during the duration of Disc 2, which compiles most of the Your Majesty era rarities.

Oh, and who thought it would be a good idea to put those two live tracks on there of Josh Berwanger talking between songs? Especially when they aren't the most endearing ones, it really just kind of makes him come off as as huge of a prick people were perceiving him as during the Your Majesty days.

Anyway, this was good for the sake of digging up some Designing-era B-sides, but at the same time a little disheartening to basically chronicle the way I feel this band managed to shoot itself in both feet stylistically.

They still have a MySpace, by the way: http://www.myspace.com/theanniversary69

-Erik

Rival Schools - United By Fate

I don't understand this album. I don't understand this band, or the people in it. Rival Schools is composed of a veritable who's-who of the late 80's New York hardcore scene, and the post-hardcore scene that sprung from it. Members include Walter Schreifels, from the legendary Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand, and Sammy Siegler, also an ex-Biscuit. I don't understand how people from so many good bands could make such a completely underwhelming album.

First off, what the fuck is post-hardcore? Does it even mean anything? If you look at it literally, it means "after hardcore." Well, this is a band that was started AFTER a bunch of these dudes were in hardcore bands, so I guess that qualifies. Apparently "post-hardcore" also means you write borderline radio rock songs that make fans of your earlier work scratch their heads and just sit there and wonder, "Why?"

Mainly, I could just see people buying this album based on the members' pedigree, and being extremely confused. They might check the liner notes, just to make sure they bought the correct album. First off, this album is produced as FUCK. I can almost anticipate a rock radio DJ beginning to talk at the ends of some songs. It's so slick, you could possibly go ice skating on it. That's not even mentioning Schreifels's vocals on this album, which inch closer and closer to aspiring-Cobain territory.

Ugh, I can't even focus on this. I'm just so baffled that people who actually contributed to an album as good as Start Today could be the same people responsible for such safe nuggets as "Good Things" or "Undercovers On," in my opinion two of the worst songs on this album, the latter of which throws in the "acoustic guitar over all the rest of the noise" trick that just pisses me off. I'm baffled at the apparently sampled drum parts on "Holding Sand" that sit right next to some near-nu-metal guitar riffs. I just can't wrap my head around this. If this is what post-hardcore really means, count me out.

It's official. Each project Walter Schreifels does, I like less and less. I really really like Gorilla Biscuits, I only like Quicksand's first album, and this, well this just doesn't do a thing for me. If anything, it just kind of makes my head hurt and confuses me. But, in the end, this album came out eight years ago, and I'm just another asshole with a blog and an opinion.

-Erik

Rocket From The Crypt - The State Of Art Is On Fire

Let me start this post by saying I think Rocket From The Crypt may be one of the most consistent acts to have ever existed. No matter the release, you knew what you were getting yourself into: absolutely searing rock 'n' roll with blaring horns, and John Reis' perpetually sleazy vocal style leading the entire charge. As much as I liked a couple of the bands that came out of the whole "Return Of Rock" revival at the beginning of this decade (ie: The Hives, The Strokes), they were hardly needed to play the role of saviors, since RFTC was still trucking along just fine during that time period.

Reis also may be one of the craftiest businessmen to play the major label machine. In addition to getting RFTC on Interscope, he also convinced them to sign his other band at the time: the even weirder/more abrasive Drive Like Jehu, who put out their final album Yank Crime in 1994 before disbanding. Despite putting out most of RFTC's main LPs on major labels, Reis was also offered the freedom to put out smaller releases on labels such as Sympathy For The Record Industry. The State Of Art Is On Fire is a prime example of this.

1995 was probably the most busy year for RFTC- recording and releasing three different things by the end of the year. Kicking things off with this, then the quirky Hot Charity, and ending the year with the fucking cannonball of an album that is Scream, Dracula, Scream. A banner year, for sure.

The State Of Art Is On Fire is unique in its approach, as it was pressed on a 10" record where one side is played at 33rpm and the other at 45. As a result, the A side is a ton gritter than the B side, which actually goes as far to showcase a kinder, gentler RFTC, with some of Reis' most tuneful singing coming in the form of the song "Ratsize." As I just stated, the A side of this record absolutely slays, and it sounds like the band themselves might actually have been on fire while recording it. 3/4ths of the songs on the A-side even have some sort of reference to fire in the title. An aborted concept album, perhaps? And how about the part at the end of the A-side where everyone locks into the same riff? Chills.

Had the production been cleaned up a little more, there would be no reason any of these songs could not have appeared on Scream, Dracula, Scream. They're dually some of the harshest yet melodic things the band ever put to tape, and it's a shame that this release doesn't get more attention, in my opinion. I was lucky enough to snag a copy of it from Looney Tunes Records off the Hynes Convention Center T stop, and was thus pretty excited to write about it!

-Erik

Cloak/Dagger - We Are

I'm really supposed to be writing a paper right now, but this album has made that basically impossible. I know I've been slacking on this blog for the past half-month, etc. Let's get into it.

I first saw and heard Cloak/Dagger when they were opening for Lifetime right after that band put out their phenomenal self-titled album (quick note, an album that stands just as high as Hello Bastards and Jersey's Best Dancers, making for one of the best 3-for-3 runs any band has had in my mind). They played to a slightly confused crowd, most of whom were actually there for The World/Inferno Friendship Society (another quick note: while I like the band, their shows are obnoxious experiences only because you're constantly getting slammed into by very nicely dressed ladies and gents who have no other desire beyond shoving you the fuck out of their way. Like, even before the band started playing). However, they had me sold.

Perplexingly, Cloak/Dagger contains one member of the underrated and defunct Renee Heartfelt, but they couldn't be any further from that band's effective Quicksand-aping. It's been stated a bunch of other times, but Cloak/Dagger somehow manages to slip into that comfortable slot between Hot Snakes and 80's hardcore. A couple of years after seeing them, I finally picked up their debut full length, We Are, at some used CD store that is currently slipping my mind. It would be months before it came up on my iTunes on my list of stuff to listen to.

Honestly, this is not the band I remembered seeing opening for Lifetime. It's a band that's like ten times better. A great deal of this credit goes to producer Chris Owens (who also handles guitar/vocal duties in the completely batshit insane Lords), a guy whose production work I have always admired. Owens really knows how to take a band and make them sound as raw as humanly possible without it devolving into a 2-track tape hiss/fuzz mess. The drums hit like punches to the stomach, and constantly seem to be on the verge of peaking, resulting in album that completely tramples the listener. Oddly enough, I see a lot of Owens in this band's vocal style, in which phrases are stretched out and given a little upwards inflection at the end of each line.

The first song on here had me a bit worried, as it initially seems like the biggest Hot Snakes rip of the bunch, namely the song "Braintrust" off of Audit In Progress. However, the aping quickly stops once "Sunburnt Mess" kicks in, which I swear could have been an unrecorded Minor Threat song. While there isn't really anything on We Are that sticks out head and shoulders above the rest, it's of little consequence. It's an album that doesn't give you time to breathe or think about things, where total destruction seems like its ultimate goal. There's hardly any room left between songs, and just when things seem like they're going to slow down a bit, after the mostly instrumental "JC Pays The Bills," "Hollywood Hills," immediately dispels that notion.

Basically, if I had to classify any album I've listened to in the past couple of weeks as a "complete and utter shredder," it would be this one. Hats off.

-Erik

Sinaloa - Footprints On Floorboards

Sometimes, there are bands that I hear a lot of great things about, bands that get compared to other bands that I like a lot, and bands that because of this reason, I think I would really like. Which is why Sinaloa frustrates me. All of the above scenarios have happened with them, but for some reason, I haven't heard anything by them that really sinks its claws into me and won't let go.

I think the biggest issue I run into when thinking about Sinaloa is the scene in which they are from. Massachusetts has a bunch of fantastic screamo/emo acts playing around the area, including Ampere and Daniel Striped Tiger, two bands that I am big fans of. Coincidentally, I have seen both of those bands live before. Maybe if I saw Sinaloa I would finally get what they're trying to accomplish a bit clearer. Right now, all I hear is that Sinaloa is a band that traffics in the sort of early/mid-90s emo that bands like Moss Icon or Indian Summer became known for.

Meanwhile, Footprints On Floorboards, while being far from offensive, falls into pits of redundancy with me. It becomes hard for me to distinguish songs from one another, and the vocals are pretty uniform throughout the entire album, in that each line usually starts at a pretty high pitch, and works it way down. With the lack of a bass player (except on two tracks, and it's an acoustic double bass!), their guitar work becomes harder to distinguish from song to song. Basically, it all just kind of runs together. They lack the immediate, huge riffs of Daniel Striped Tiger, or the balls out chaos of Ampere.

Yet, part of me feels bad for being so harsh towards Sinaloa. The reason they don't have a bass player is because either their old or prospective bass player ended up dying. They kept the space vacant as a memorial. I also feel bad because there is a ton of emotion being released in every song. Not in a whiny/self-indulgent way, but in huge cathartic bursts. There's just some sort of indistinguishable wall holding them back from me really getting into them.

There are two minutes where Sinaloa hit true pay dirt on this album, and they're the songs "Green Street" and the absolutely staggering closer "With Our Ears To The Soil." The latter has to be one of the more powerful songs I've heard recently, no doubt.

I'll be taking a look at their 2008 album Oceans Of Islands somewhat soon. Maybe that will be the one to finally convert me.

-Erik

Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster

Los Campesinos have all of the energy of an entire kindergarten class hooked up to caffeine IV drips, which is to say, a LOT. Oddly enough, the first band that came to mind upon starting this album was The Anniversary circa Desigining A Nervous Breakdown- if The Anniversary were British and WAY more hyped about everything.

The vocals are split pretty evenly between Gareth and Aleksandra Campesinos (who are also responsible for glockenspiel and keyboard, respectively). I'd have to say I favor Gareth over Aleksandra though. While she's a competent enough singer, she's just kind of, I don't know, there. Meanwhile, her male counterpart, who at times seems like Art Brut singer Eddie Argos' little brother, is wailing his way through every song, sounding exactly like the unhinged, manic adolescent their music seems to represent. He's wildly out of key, he causes the mix to clip at times, but at the same time, he's what pushes the band beyond the lazy comparisons one could make (like the one I did earlier!).

The band's debut album, Hold On Now, Youngster manages to pack in a ton of references (to things like the ATP music festival, K Records), barrels of seemingly teenage angst, and other timeworn lyrical focuses into extremely high strung indie punk. Guitar leads are high on the neck of the guitar and all over the place. Synths buzz in every direction, everyone is shouting, and the whole thing constantly seems like it's on the verge of falling apart. Which is exactly where this album manages to derive a great deal of its charm. If this album was completely smoothed over, or run through a ProTools autotune rig, I doubt I'd be that interested in listening, as it would probably sound just like every other indie band that has managed to score big in Europe. When the songs hit their slower sections, I'm guessing it's because they all just need to take a breather. That's how frantic things get at times.

Surprisingly, the song everybody seemed to dry hump when it came out, "You! Me! Dancing!" was probably my least favorite of the set. It's almost like it made it big because it was the closest thing to safe indie rock that the band had released.

I haven't heard Los Campesinos' 2nd 2008 release, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed yet, but if it manages to come anywhere close to the manic highs this album achieves, I'll look forward to checking it out.

-Erik

Darker My Love - S/T

It's midterm week here in Boston, which means I have plenty of time to listen to tons of albums while I do work and whatnot. The only downside, is that I don't have the time to WRITE about them, so I am majorly backed up on content! I'll work through it.

Anyway, Darker My Love is a band that on paper, really shouldn't work. Here we have two ex-members of The Nerve Agents, who were in my opinion, one of the most hype punk/hardcore acts to come out of California, starting a psych-rock/shoegazeish type group. Honestly, my expectations weren't that high. It's just such a complete 180 from everything that made The Nerve Agents so great- their speed, how loose and spastic they seemed at all times, threatening to burst at any moment. My friend Patrick here in Boston, who is from Santa Cruz, CA, has told me several stories of seeing The Nerve Agents and describing it as one of the most dangerous experiences he's ever had in his life.

So yeah, complete stylistic left turn, blah blah blah. To be blunt, this album completely failed to engage me upon first listen. Five tracks in, I was ready to dismiss this album as nothing more than Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's first album worship (which was in itself total Jesus And Mary Chain worship). Two degrees away from the original source material.

But then, all of a sudden, this became the little album that could, as quickly as my second spin through it. I realized my initial comparisons were a bit off. I actually started noticing the organ parts scattered throughout, or the harmonies in the vocals, or just how damn well this album is produced. If I had to be lazy, I would go as far as to describe this band as a more laid back Swervedriver, if Swervedriver wasn't so obsessed with, well, driving, or writing albums as awesome as Mezcal Head.

Sometimes it's as simple as a band just putting together a really well crafted album, that pays respects to their influences without being a total rip. This album is nothing explosive, relevatory, or new for that matter, but it's just good, and it seems to get better each time I come back to it.

I've gotten to the point where I'm taking so much music in that I'm finding it harder to look forward to hearing new things. I mean, I'm always open to it, but actively pursuing specific things happens less and less. I'm a complete mess when I go into a record store, because I have no fucking clue what I'm looking for. That being said, since this album has grown on me, I really want to track down a copy of Darker My Love's second album, the aptly titled 2. It feels good to look forward to stuff again.

-Erik