Can You See the Sunset? » punk

The Boogers – Let’s Go! Review & Giveaway

Eric — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:41:14 +0000

On their website, The Boogers claim to be “the world’s most dangerous kids band.” They don’t play death metal so that might not be 100% accurate, but The Boogers do play some of the finest punk rock for kids I’ve ever heard. The band’s 2nd album Let’s Go! is filled with 13 songs of fast and hard-driving Ramones-core that will appeal as much to punk rock parents as it will to the youngsters. In addition to their originals, the band tackles classics like “Pop Goes The Weasel,” “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” and “London Bridge” and transforms them into sing-a-long punk rock songs. But wait, there’s more…

The Boogers aren’t just your average punk rock band. The trio is the brainchild of musician and developmental psychologist Paul Crowe (aka Crusty Booger) who spent time touring with a punk band and shared the stage with both Dee Dee Ramone and Marky Ramone. The songs on Let’s Go are simple but totally fun and will have your kids dancing around the living room and asking for a leather jacket and some Chuck Taylor’s. Heck, I’ve even found myself humming the melody from “Otto” a time or two.

Thanks to The Boogers and our friends at ParentSphere, we are lucky enough to have 3 copies of Let’s Go to give away! To enter just leave us a comment. We’ll pick 3 random winners on Tuesday, April 12th at 10PM CST.

A little band called Boxer

Eric — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:30:27 +0000

You might not know it but the first band signed by Vagrant Records was Boxer from Boston, Mass. The band’s one and only album, The Hurt Process was produced by none other than Face to Face’s Trever Keith and released by Vagrant on May 5th, 1998. It’s an under-appreciated but masterful slab of post-Lifetime post-hardcore influenced melodic punk rock that’s one of my all time favorites. Now the wife (not yet the wife at that point) and I moved to Indianapolis earlier that Spring and somehow spent quite a bit of that summer hanging out with these boys. We had some good times and (more importantly to their legacy) the music was amazing.

It was a long time ago and I don’t exactly remember the first time we met ‘em, but I know we were all just kids back then and having a blast. At the point we knew the band, Boxer was Matt, Jeremy, Dave, Will, and Nathan. They crashed at our house a number of times so all these memories sort of bleed together, but here’s what I’ve got.

I remember riding in their van to a show in Muncie, Indiana that summer when they put on a dubbed cassette tape of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. We were floored by the record and made our own cassette copy even though it wouldn’t officially be released for another 7 months or so. The show we were en-route to was at a little record shop called Stevie Ray’s House of Wax and also featured a band you may (or may not) have heard of called At The Drive-In. The show was incredible and would have been highly memorable without it, but I was awestruck when, during their final song, one of the guys in Boxer poured lighter fluid on the cymbals and let Nathan smash away. It was fucking epic. After that show the guys in Boxer and At The Drive-In crashed at our tiny apartment and, in the morning, Matt from Boxer made everyone some delicious apple pancakes.

We also rode in Boxer’s van with them to a show at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago where they played with the pop-punk band Lounge. After the show headed back South, the van was speeding down I-65 somewhere around Lafayette, IN, we drove through a mess of semi-truck traffic and then (in the rearview mirrors, thank God) saw the truck leading the pack behind us swerve and jack-knife across the road, then… nothing. It was a surreal moment to say the least. I also remember that when we got back to Indianapolis there were fireworks shot out of van windows in a liquor store parking lot. I’ll say no more about that except no one was hurt (I think), just use your imagination.

All in all we had some pretty amazing times that summer… times we’ll never forget. On The Hurt Process, Boxer was actually a bit of a different band. Matt and Nathan hadn’t yet joined, and their original drummer was Chris Pennie, who is a founding member of The Dillinger Escape Plan and now also plays drums for Coheed & Cambria.

As for the guys we knew, Jeremy McDowell played guitar and was terribly allergic to our cat Indie (see Will with her in at least one of the picures). He spent at least a few nights sleeping in the van instead of on our floor. Will Kerr played bass and Dave Vicini sang. Dave was (and I presume still is) one very tall dude. Post-Boxer, both of them played in The Lot Six and Dave is now in Viva Viva. Nathan Shay played drums for Boxer and before that served a short stint as the drummer for the Get Up Kids. Some say that the Get Up Kids song “Second Place” is about him… I don’t know for sure. Nathan also spent some time playing in a band called Winner Road after Boxer. Matt Wachter played guitar for Boxer that summer of 1998. Since then he has played bass in 30 Seconds To Mars and (now) plays bass in Angels & Airwaves. How’s them apples?

For whatever reason, Boxer’s one album is not available from Vagrant nor iTunes. In fact, I couldn’t find it for purchase anywhere on the ‘ol internet, so as far as I’m concerned, this is out of print. It is (however) way too good to stay that way so below you’ll find the entirety of The Hurt Process in MP3 format. I never post full albums but you can’t get this anywhere else. Enjoy.

MP3:
Boxer - We Don't Like Them Girls
Boxer - Blame It On The Weather
Boxer - Georgia
Boxer - Lucy
Boxer - Child Labor Laws
Boxer - Blue And Gray
Boxer - Shorepoints
Boxer - If You Got 'Em, Smoke 'Em
Boxer - By The Way...
Boxer - One For Milwaukee
Boxer - Do The Math
Boxer - You And Me

An incomplete history of Chicago punk rock (vol. 28)

Eric — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 02:25:25 +0000

I’m not sure what other “category” to put this post in, so it just sorta haphazardly ends up as part of this series. Just go with it. So on what was the sunny afternoon of December 23, 1997 the three guys in Allister (that’s me on bass, John on guitar, and Tim on drums) went into Solid Sound in Hoffman Estates, IL to record the 4 songs that would become our first 7″ record, You Can’t Do That On Vinyl. We were really really stoked to work with Phil Bonnet who had done records for bands such as Smoking Popes, Slapstick, Apocalypse Hoboken, and more. So yeah, in one afternoon we tracked these 4 songs and eventually pressed 500 copies on vinyl. At some point we got signed to Drive-Thru and they handled it from there, but those were the only copies of this 7″ ever pressed.

It’s not available on iTunes or elsewhere so I’m making You Can’t Do That On Vinyl available here. You’re welcome. Now “X-Girlfriend” was on a few comps and “Jimmie’s Dreamgirl” was re-recorded for the first Allister full-length, Dead Ends & Girlfriends but “Forget About Joe” (featuring me on vocals) and John’s masterpiece (not one bit of hyperbole either) about his roommate’s girlfriend, “Debbie” aren’t available anywhere else. I know because I have the original DAT master for this in a box in my garage, which really might not be a bad thing as it seems that we may have been a bit out of tune at the time. Can’t change it now, right? Besides, these are some sloppy and fun pop-punk songs. Anyhow, there are probably 25 people that own this record with a photocopied hand-colored insert instead of the brick red sleeve with Alasdair Gillis’ face on the front. If you’ve got that cover, then you don’t have the other. Cheers.

MP3:
Allister - Jimmie's Dreamgirl
Allister - Forget About Joe
Allister - X-Girlfriend
Allister - Debbie

Mayflower – Second Best Sunsets

Eric — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:36:51 +0000

So you want to know about a really great band? A band so great they should have been on my year end list last year. Well, the band is called Mayflower and they’re from Syracuse. Their debut full-length, Second Best Sunsets was released last summer by the studs from Kiss Of Death Records their sound is in the same vein as Dillinger Four, Off With Their Heads, The Mushuganas, and Iron Chic with a wee bit of East Coast Fuck You thrown in for good measure. You know, gruff but poppy punk rock that’s pretty straightforward and 100% amazing. Maybe a bit heavy-handed at times but still it makes you wanna put your fist in the air and scream along until you need to go get another beer and take a piss. I can’t get enough of this. Serves me right since this sat on my desk for about 6 months. Really, you should see my desk and all the crap that makes it easy to (physically, on my desk, I mean) overlook amazing albums like this one.

MP3:
Mayflower - I Never
Mayflower - Worst-Case Scenario

A little band called Plow United

Eric — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:45:21 +0000

I first heard Plow United in 1996 courtesy of my freshman roommate and became an instant fan of their ramshackle East Coast thrash pop. We played the shit our of their second record Goodnight Sellout on his crappy turntable. So I ended up with both of Plow’s pre-breakup albums and a bunch of their split 7″ records too. A few years later along comes this girl from Pennsylvania (she’s now my wife) and she’s got her own collection of Plow United records including the pop-punk gem that is Plow’s second 7″. That record features the two songs below; “Dance (Better Than You’ve Ever Seen)” and “Timmy Is An Arsonist.” All told, we have (I think) 8 different Plow United records, all of which are (to the best of my knowledge) completely out of print. Plow was an amazing band that far too few people are familiar with. You can also check out West Chester Rock City for more Plow music and videos.

MP3:
Plow United - Dance (Better Than I've Ever Seen)
Plow United - Timmy Is An Arsonist

Campaign – It Likes To Party EP

Eric — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 02:03:42 +0000

Simply based on the denim and beards they’re sporting on the cover of their newest EP It Likes To Party, the Atlanta-based punk quintet Campaign can’t be anything other than bad-ass. Luckily the music contained within backs ‘em up. The EP begins with some throat-shredding yells on “Rock Bottom Summer” that sound painfully atonal, but over the course of the its 5 songs, Campaign adds enough melody (including the hook on my favorite here, “Best Luck”) that you’ll have no choice but to take notice. It’s a nice juxtaposition of dissonance and melody, really, it is. Campaign isn’t re-inventing the wheel or turning out anything that you haven’t heard before, but they do the gruff-voiced punk rock thing pretty doggone well and add just enough sonically to keep it interesting. It’s not that other bands in this genre aren’t, but somehow Campaign manages to sound really fucking loud on It Likes To Party. Their sound is dense, raucous, and in-your-face. RIYL: Small Brown Bike, Hot Water Music, D4, etc…

MP3:
Campaign - Best Luck

The Atom Age – Kill Surf City

Eric — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:01:18 +0000

I was (and I guess I’m still a big fan of the classics) a big ska-punk fan in my younger years (not that it really has any bearing on this review) but just because a band features a brass/horn section it doesn’t mean they’re a ska band. In this particular case, The Atom Age is not a ska band. They’re a punk band with a singular saxophone player who is prominently featured on every track of their debut album Kill Surf City. The band is from Berkeley, CA and is fronted by Ryan Perras (who was once the drummer for The Queers and billed as Ryan Qwon Doe). Now I’ve heard comparisons to Rocket From The Crypt and Voodoo Glow Skulls but I’d also like to throw out the Blue Meanies as a point of reference. There songs are pretty straightforward but the saxophone adds a little bit of that “psycho circus” element at times. I love it.

There’s plenty of melody on Kill Surf City but it’s also forceful, hard-hitting, and unrelenting from start to finish. Guitars blaze forth without a single upstroke anywhere in sight and the vocals are a bit gritty without being gruff. Seriously, there’s no filler to be found. The Atom Age also manages (because of the sax) to infuse their punk rock and roll with some jazzy skronk and (at times) an almost garage/rockabilly spookiness. I applaud the band for doing the punk
with horns thing and actually pulling it off without being gimmicky. I mean, this sort of thing could devolve into parody really quickly, but it never does.

MP3:
The Atom Age - Kill Surf City

Glory Bound – Glory Bound EP

Eric — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 03:42:25 +0000

This 8 song EP is a must-have for fans of gruff and sometimes folksy punk rock. I mean, it reminds me of Crimpshrine, early Against Me!, and other bands that have done this sort of thing before with a little (maybe) Defiance, Ohio and some Rumspringer thrown in for good measure. You’ve got catchy songs, solid guitar playing, throaty vocals, and everything else you’d expect in a paint-by-numbers kit for this sort of sound, but (as is usually the case with good music) it really isn’t that simple. What they lack in overall uniqueness, Glory Bound makes up for through the passion and energy of their delivery. There’s no denying that aspect of the music. Additionally, for all the relative diversity of sounds on this EP, the songs come together into a pretty cohesive whole. It’s raw, it’s raucous, it’s rough, and pretty damn great. So these dudes are from The Poconos in Eastern Pennsylvania as well and somehow sound a little like Rustweiler as well. Shitty but fantastic and available entirely for free from the good folks at Death To False Hope.

MP3:
Glory Bound - Excuse Me Sir, I Have A Keg Party To Attend
Glory Bound - More Ian MacKaye, Less Ron Jeremy

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The Riot Before – Rebellion

Eric — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:55:06 +0000

I like The Riot Before’s new album Rebellion better than their last one, Fists Buried In Pockets, which I also like a lot. On first listen, I wasn’t sure, but it’s grown on me quite a bit. Rebellion is a more direct and in-your-face record than its predecessor and relies less on subtlety in the arrangements and more on volume and relentlessness. It’s still got catchy melodies and sing-a-long parts, and there’s still a little (but less) Americana twang than I hoped for, but (in retrospect) I don’t really miss it all that much. The vocals are forceful and the guitars are louder (thanks in part to producer J. Robbins) and it’s definitely a cathartic sort of listen. I also dig the strange word breaks and lyrical cadence; it’s something (at times) a bit unexpected. I’ve also come to the conclusion that this record works much much better when listened to as a whole in one sitting. Sure, the songs are good individually, but, yeah, it’s a complete product and every song kinda builds on the song before. Rebellion is available from the badass mofos at Paper + Plastick. RIYL: New Wave, Caution, Over The James, etc…

MP3:
The Riot Before - The Oregon Trail
The Riot Before - Uncharted Lands