Year:1986 Genre: Human Label: God Records Tracks: 24 Length: 69 Minutes My Rating: 7/8 Okay, okay, so I've been on NOT FACEBOOK and I TOTALLY FUCKING MET THIS FUCKING GUY NAMED ERIC ALLEN PREWITT. And y'know what? He's really nice to me. He actually talks to me and he's nota total dick. I like Eric. Eric is nice. There was this one time when he was telling me about this road trip... no, he said he was a ROAD PIRATE. He went on road trips all the time. Fuck, I'm still talkin' to the guy right now. He knows I am typing this bullshit. He is all-knowing. He believes in doing whatever ya want. That's cool. I respect thut very much. I want to be friends with Eric. I am not gay for him but he is cool and seems to understand and respect my feelings and shit. He has a daughter. He said me being 18 was just like him being 18. Which is cool. He got laid and he travels a lot so maybe that means WHAT THE FUCK, WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT GETTING LAID ANYWAYS?
It rained outside... it was thundering... loud... shaking the house. Anyways, yeah, he's a pretty cool guy and he has a beard and I don't really know him that well, but I'd say he ranks in the higher-ups of people I don't really know that well. So let's give Mr. Prewitt a hand here... yayyyyy (clap clap clappy clap)
(Oh, and he also likes my music. Which means I like him.)
Year:2010 Genre: Punk Rock/Heavy Metal Label: None Tracks: 10 Length: 25 Minutes My Rating: 6/8
Okay, so in January of this year, one of my friends from school handed me a copy of this CD. It's a demo CD by the artist "Matt Bones". Apparently Matt is a friend of hers. Matt Bones was apparently in the Piqua hardcore punk (imagine that!) band, the Street Freaks, which existed during the previous decade until they "got tired and burnt out" on that project. Matt Bones also plays bass guitar for a French industrial rock band called Electra-Kill. This recording resembles more traditional '70s punk rock and early heavy metal than the hardcore/street punk type stuff that the Street Freaks played. According to my friend, Matt was in another band before that but I do not know the name of thiz band. Sorry.
1. All Dressed Up The whole intro guitar melody and riff sound really familiar but I do not know where I have heard this before... perhaps it's just one of those riffs so good that they were simply meant to be invented so they were in our hearts all along and finally, Mister Bones played those notes n' chords THAT WE AS A HUMAN RACE WANTED TO HEAR!! But probably not. Matt has a unique but cool singing voice. This song is about getting fucked-up and loaded at night because there's nothing else to do. It has a metal-ish sound to it... it's kind of a sad song.
2. Shut Up Honky Despite Matt Bones being a honky himself (or simply a very well-disguised negro), he too tells honkies to shut up. Once again, lyrics describe smoking cigarettes and feeling lonely. What a shame. This is a little more upbeat... it's about being pissed off at a chick (?) who's a backstabber and breaks your heart. A lot of emotion in these songs, or at least a very good pop sensibility. Nice guitar playing. It has a slight surf rock sound to it ('cuz of that nifty little beat), with a little Misfits flavour in thare ass well. Ass well. It's a well inside of somebody's ass. Great song.
3. Alien Armageddon This song iz pretty fun. I love it myself. The song, as you may guess describes an alien invasion that destroys the human race and the panic that precedes it. I HOPE I LIVE TO SEE MYSELF GROW OLD BEFORE THE WORLD TURNS BLACK AND GOLD... actually, this song might actually be about the fact that aliens are ALREADY controlling the planet and using our governments/large corporations to carry out their bidding. Either one, I suppose. I have to pop. But anyways, this is a fucking rock song in a sense most people would assume. Except for that little paranoid scream "FIND GAWWWD, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!" in the chorus part. YAY FOR ALIENS KILLING PEOPLEEEEE UUUGHHH NOOOO
4. Blow You a Kiss Through the Wind I love this song as well. It's beautiful... the guitar sounds absolutely wonderful and it's about as blissful as you can get. It's about missing the girl you love and just being able to blow her a kiss through the wind... unfortunately girls hate you (guys if you're into those) and will never love you so FUCK YOU, BITCH.
5. Darkest Times This is probably my favorite song on the CD. The guitar is really soft (maybe acoustic) on this one and the chorus is about as good as it gets. The song's about feeling that you will survive through the hard times in life. I used to drive around backroads a lot listening to this song because I love it so much. Unfortunately my new car CD player hardly works worth a shit.
6. Break the World Another song in a more heavy metal territory. Quite lead-guitar driven. I could imagine a bunch of badass biker dudes blasting this if not for its overtly leftist message... the song expresses a desire to destroy the capitalist system and its greed-driven rulers and the military, so we don't have to live in a world where there is a price on everything. Yet another awesome tune from mister Matthew Boners.
7. Sunburns This is probably my least favorite song on the CD. It's just not as appealing to me as the other songs. The chorus is pretty good, though... I like the twang in his voice in that part. It's like angry glam metal.
8. Some Kind of Hate This is a Misfits cover. And I heard this version before the original (didn't know much about the Misfits at thut point), and briefly I actually believed this was an original song... it's awesome either way, they capture the spirit of the original just fine! Wonderful but gruesome lyrics, extremely hard-rockin' beat and guitar riff. What's not to love?
9. Song for the Gambler This is just acoustic guitar and singing, as opposed to other instruments. It has a pretty but kind of gloomy chorus... the song describes feeling like you're living life against a gambler as "you've been dealt the losing hand". I really like the vibrato in Matt's voice...
10. Hold Another kind of sad pop-metal song, but it doesn't really hold (hah, get it?) up to most of the previous songs here. It has a cool guitar solo, thuh.
Where the glam rock ethic has pretty much been dead since the '90s, this record still has that. It's a pretty refreshing thing to listen to since it doesn't really sound like much else that's being made right now and the songs are all very memorable and well-written. Matt's singing voice is very good as well and it's a nice change of pace from the constant screaming or the canned emo-boy shit that seems to dominate most rock music these days. But yes, this is definitely a good listen and it sucks that this doesn't seem to be an actual band or anything. So I guess the Skeleton Family doesn't even exist and it's Matt Bones. Which would make sense since most skeleton families happen to be buried under graves. But do check out Matt's muzick on his MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/matthewbonesband
BYE BYE!
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Darkest Times 2. Blow You a Kiss Through the Wind 3. Shut Up Honky
Year: 2011 Genre: Black Metal Label: None Tracks: 5 Length: 26 Minutes My Rating: 6/8
Tryblith is a black metal band from Dayton, Ohio. It was formed in 2009 originally as a solo project of Havik/Alex Jones (also drummer for the End of Time). The band has not yet released a full album but they have released a demo. The band now consists of Havik (drums), Helvete (guitar), Tzaboath (bass guitar), and Nihilus (vocals). According to founder and drummist Havik, the band is centered around the concepts of abstract subconscious philosophy, Shamanism, occultism, and anti-cosmic Luciferianism. The demo consists of five songs.
1. Adorning the Circle of Stones With Laurel and Flame Starts out with a soft, wispy sound/vibe flowing through yer eardrums... very tranquil, but it's hard to tell whether it's going to ascend or drop... you can hear what almost sounds like the wind blowing in the background... towards the end of the song you can hear other types of instruments, often abruptly cutting eachother off... it's a really beautiful sound.
2. A New Aeon of Desecration Real crunchy guitar riff and a very slow beat... the guitar sound is crunchy but it has a flow to it, like water or wind almost. Not potato chip crunchy. Like, maybe if there was an ocean or river of potato chips flying towards your head. Sometimes the guitar sounds like it's doing a somersault or something... those little parts where it stops momentarily and goes into a different riff. I say the word "riff" to much... there needs to be another word for chord-progressions... suddenly, you hear a monster-like growl and the song transitions to a thrash mode... very fast now. The vocals sound like a fucking beast... growled, bellowed noises... fucking rabid. I love vocals that sound like that. They echo too. Barely even sound human. No idea what the lyrics are about but I'll just take the song title's word(s) for it. A new aeon of desecration? OKAY. But desecration of WHAT? SO MANY MYSTERIES... OFFF RUUUAHAHHGHHHHHHHhjhhhhblonnkkjgguurrruuaaahhh. Yeah!!!
3. Convergence of Eternal Winter Really fuckin' fast! The vocals are more of a dark-sounding whisper here... more intelligible than the last song but I still don't know what the hell he's saying. The riff feels like mayhem... like a volcano's about to errupt and there's nothing you can do about it... because you are standing right on top of the piece of land where the volcano is about to erupt. 1/3 through the song, it fades into a cleaner-sounding section with a really beautiful guitar melody being played. However, it cuts back into a fast but not as fast as the first part. Different riff here. Eventually it returns to the original section of the song... and then there is another clean guitar-only part, but it's a different melody here. After that fades out, the song returns to a fast part with a guitar solo. Song fades out when it is over.
4. Visions of a Long Dead Past Begins with a really awesome guitar riff and an extremely fast beat... the chord progression changes and the beat slows down to half as fast... the vocals are screamed like a fucking demon. Or whatever sounds like what the singer of this song sounds like when singing this song. This one's packed with a lot of rage and aggression. It's like a freight train headed full speed ahead right for ya! Your best push in the opposite direction won't stop it from crushing you. Imagine if you played this music to people in the fucking 1950s... then suddenly there's a clean guitar-only part with the vocalist (not sure which one) saying some spoken lines while the guitar plays. The strum of the chord with the watery sound is a great touch. Things get real powered-up again for the ending part. The ending port. I'd say this is my favorite song on the demo.
5. The Light Fades Upon a Darkening Horizon Instrumental. Starts out with a clean guitar intro with ambient sound in the background... as the guitar playing continues, the ghostly noise surrounding it intensifies and almost seems to overpower the central section of this part of the song. It's like a jillion clouds slowly moving in until they fog up everything... cold. Or is it? Maybe they are warm clouds... for some reason I get visuals of the cold and cold things when listening to this album but maybe that's 'cuz it's raining out right now. Appropriate way to end the album seeing how it started off.
So that's the Tryblith demo. I forget if they said they were making an actual album anytime soon but here we have this, and plus, they are playing live so why not just go FUCKING SEE THEM LIVE OR SOME FUCKING SHIT BEFORE ALL OF THE MEMBERS DIE IN SOME FREAK ACCIDENT INVOLVING CLOUDS???!!!! I haven't listened to a ton of black metal to be honest so I don't know how this compares to other black metal bands, but I like what they do... the combining of fast thrash music, more mellow ambient sections, and unhuman vocals is something I really fucking like... kind of similar to what I wanna do musically but in a more "punk" way than this band. If you havun't check aut the band The End of Time, which contains two members of this band, I suggest you do, if you are a fan of hardcore punk rock. I just wish I knew the lyrics. So there's yer Tryblith... they write about the occult and weird subconscious events and shit like that. And they even sing about it, too! SOMETIMES, they even scream about it. 'Cuz THAT'S just the kinda people they are... this is like the kind of music you listen to when you're lost in the middle of the icedesert or something and you're starving to death. Or maybe the band has somethin' else in mind. I don't know. Go listen to this.
Year: 2011 Genre: Hardcore Punk Label: None Tracks: 2 Length: 5 Minutes My Rating: 6/8
Okay, okay. So this is my first review I think I have done in about two months... school, and then eventually sheer laziness/apathy led me to slack off for awhile. BUT I NEEDED A BREAK, OKAY?? People (in other words, Facundo) started asking why I wasn't doing reviews anymore. No, I didn't quit. I was just taking a break. I'm writing right now, isn't that a step in the right direction? OKAY. OKAY.
Anyways, I saw my first punk show ever last Friday (the one before the most recent Friday) and I got to see Secondhand Destruction, Mr. Clit & the Pink Cigarettes, the End of Time, and the Defendants all in one night at the Brewery in Troy. I got to meet Mike from the Defendants and the other members of the Defendants and I also got to hang out with the members of the End of Time for awhile. They gave me a copy of their 2-song demo CD for free and practiced for awhile in the back room behind the stage. Later that night, the End of Time played (third band of the night) and they played harder and wilder than anyone else! Some of their songs were really fast... the band's singer, Xerxes, started slicing his forehead open until he was bleeding, and he sang by screaming and growling really fucking loud into the microphone. Sometimes he would jump off the stage and try to hit people! It was really fucking awesome to see. I got to sing one of the band's songs on-stage also but I didn't know the words so I just yelled a bunch of gibberish. Towards the end, the band played a GG Allin cover... I forget exactly which song it was, but it was about molesting children or something. L;SDALKSGD/sasfdsfd anyways, it was a really great show and definitely one of the more interesting bands to play that night.
So, this is the End of Time's first (?) demo, I think. The band is from Dayton, Ohio and they formed in 2009. The current members of the band are Angelo Viera (guitar), Josh Coffman (bass), and Alex Jones (drums). Xerxes is not singing for the band anymore currently, so according to the band, the remaining members will fill in his place. Anyways, uh, it's a demo, and it has two songs on it. So let's hear THIS FUCKING MASTERPIECE NOW, SHALL WE???!!!!!!! SHALL WE????????!!!!!!!!!!!
(yeah.)
1. Baconator Uhh, so this song's about bacon... not, it's about a baconATOR. Maybe "bacon" is supposed to be a euphemism for the police or something. I don't know, I can't understand the lyrics. Alex sings on this one. It's a real fast song with a razorblade-cutting guitar riff and sometimes the drums are off-time but it's okay 'cuz it captures the aggression of this one! Really like the urgency in Alex's singing on this juan.
2. Blows and Hoes This one's slower. But the guitar riffs are great here and they sound really awesome with the hard-assed distortion used however the fuck they recorded this. Xerxes sings here... his screams are as corrosive as shit here... not that SHIT is corrosive, IT'S A FIGURE OF SPEECH, YOU MOTHER FUCKER!!!! (which is also a figure of speech, so let's not get stuck in a fucking vicious cycle here... GODDAMN IT!!!! Wait a second... GODDAM-- it's done.) The chorus riff is the best... Xerxes sounds like he's going to kill you or something... Alex is providing the backing chorus vox here. This song used to be an instrumental called "Exaggeration". Some parts of it are pretty fast, and other parts are slow.
So yeah, you get two songs and both of them are good, SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, MAN???? WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT??? I'M TALKING ABOUT THIS CD I JUST REVIEWED... IS THAT OKAY??!!!
...the answer is no. But who cares? Hopefully the End of Time will create more awesome music and they are playing their next show on June 11th at the Brewery... so go see them if you like the music. Their songs can be found here:
http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/theendoftimedayton
So there, there's my review for the day. BYE BYE, KIDS!!!! BYE!!! BYE!!!! BYE!!!!! BYE... bye... bye-- wait, where are you going? COME BACK! :'(
[ The End of Time live photos from 5/20/11 (the day they released this demo) ]
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Post-Punk, Noise Label: None Tracks: 3 Length: 12 Minutes Style: Angry/Happy My Rating:7/8
It's been awhile since I've written a new review... well, I'd been having some "problems" last week... Anyways, here iz yet another good band beginning with the word "White"... kinda like how there's a lot of good bands with the word "Black" in their names. Well, this iz a special little review, because this iz the second review of a local band I've ever done! That's, right, they're from fucking Ohio. I have not seen them live, but I would really like to. I don't even know what their show dates are. But anyways, I don't even know if they've released anything or if these tracks are a part of some ultra-obscure unknown LP that they've made, but for now, I just call it a fucking demo.
This music is GOOD. One of the best new things I've heard in awhile; it ranks up there with bands like Grrrl Friend in terms of being actually fun to listen to and originality. At some points I feel like I'm listening to a psychedelic version of Flipper. The music is very analog and warm-sounding, so there's none of that ear-fatigue shit you get with a lot of new music. Anyways, time to listen to the songs...
1. Patriot Dames This is a sort of fast song. The bass guitar is very prominent, almost like slap-bass or something like that. The lead singer has a sort of deadpan-but-super-cool singing voice. I'm still loving this great bassline. Then after the second chorus there's a neat solo. There's always that layer of total chaos going on in the other ear, as well.
2. Simple Food and Drink Definitely the best song by this group that I've ever heard. The song starts with a brief, quiet guitar melody which is abruptly stopped by a new bass riff and the drum beat. The rhythm guitar comes in, making a really beautiful, airy noise which sounds really fucking great. Turns out the melody in the very beginning of the second was a fragment of the verse riff. Now we hear the verse, which is happier-sounding and more upbeat. The vocals are kind of muffled by the rest of the instruments, but that adds to the effect. The chorus section is slightly more noisy and aggressive than the verse. After two verses and choruses, the song returns to the melody in the earlier part of the song, with a complete anarchy of guitar solos, and the tempo is faster this time. Then back to the verse and chorus and shit like that. What a song.
3. Bad Control Starts with a few quiet clippets of various people (probably band members) talking. LOUUD FEEDBACK NOIZES... then we get an ultra-catchy bass guitar riff guiding the melody while the rhythm guitar also carries a melody but it's much more abrasive. The singer sounds a little like Kurt Cobain, here. The bass is fucking great in all parts. I really wish there was a way to download or get an album with these songs on it. 'nother guitar solo in the middle. The cymbals constantly crash.
So, that's "White Album". All of these songs can be heard from their MySpace. There is one other song on there called "Diabetes", but it is a boom-box demo rather than a studio demo, so I decided not to include it. I usually don't do a "top 3" for releases with less than six songs, but if I had to put these songs in order from favorite to least favorite regarding this, I would say it goes: Simple Food and Drink, Bad Control, Patriot Dames. But damn, this really is a good band. I listen to this music and a part of my mind has a little trouble believing that this was all made in the same state that I live in. "California" is always the first thing that comes to mind when I hear this music. But nope. Ohio. So yeah, go check out their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/sewerwave) and give them support and maybe try to pester them to play more shows and record more shit that we can listen to. And that they need to play all-ages venues so I can come too. Yeah. Well, thanks for reading my review, and may the force be with you. Always.
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres:Post-Punk Label: Warner Bros. Records Tracks: 11 Length: 34 Minutes Style: Weird/Funny My Rating: 7/8
Alright, alright... I have not listened to Devo a whole ton. But I've heard some good stuff about them. As one of the earliest and most well-known post-punk/new wave bands, they're actually older than the Ramones! The group was formed by a bunch of nerds from my home state of Ohio -- the name (originally spelled 'DE-EVOLUTION') was supposed to be based upon the concept that the human race in the modern age has actually been devolving! In 1974, the band created a long-form music video called "The Truth About De-Evolution" -- in 1977, it won first prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. After years of existence, they released their first single for their song "Mongoloid" in 1977 -- the year that punk was hitting an all-time high. The music on this debut LP seems to be grittier and more post-punk than new wave. But, I'm going to listen to this record now, and you can follow along if you haven't already heard it or just make fun of my opinions if you already have. Alright? Let's go.
1. Uncontrollable Urge The riff here is really cool. The vocals are very enthusiastic and energetic. The tempo shifts back and forth from a more straightforward beat to a more intense one. The chorus riff is real cool, too, and there's some neat backing vocals in those part. Nice use of tape-manipulation about 3/4 through the song. A few beepy noises towards the end.
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction This song's a bit slower. It's a Rolling Stones cover. The music is significantly weirder-sounding, with some atonal guitar sounds that soar around, and a funkier bassline. Some synths are used in the chorus-section towards the end of the song -- they sound real cool.
3. Praying Hands Damn, there's some hilariously strange weird sounds in the beginning of this song. The song is sort of a criticism of religion, proclaiming the lines "assume the position... go into doggie submission", comparing a person dogmaticly praying to a person "receiving" from an imaginary patriarch.
4. Space Junk He said "junk"... huhuhuhuhuhh... but yeah, anyways, there's some more synth keyboards on this song. I like it. The melody is pretty happy-sounding and cool n' stuff. Lots of tiny little subtleties in the background that might not be caught upon the first listen. The song seems to be about junk falling from space to the surface of the Earth and hitting various people, much to the protagonist's dismay. Maybe a statement on how we need to be careful what we're putting up in our atmosphere.
5. Mongoloid An earlier version of this song on the A-side of the band's first single. The synth sounds remind me of the music from the sorts of video games I was obsessed with as a young'n. I guess the song's about a kid with Mongolism (Down's Syndrome), but he has an extra chromosome so nobody knows it and he's able to live a 'normal' life. The riff and melody is pretty cool, and entertaining as the rest of the songs on here all seem to be so far.
6. Jocko Homo For some reason I instantly recognized the very beginning music from this song. I have no idea how. Perhaps a memory from a past life... who knows? "ARE WE NOT MEN? WE ARE DEVO!". Very quirky beat and more oddities interspersed around the main guitar riff. This song was the B-side to the "Mongoloid" single from 1977, but this is a new re-recorded version. This song heavily focuses on the whole "de-evolution" concept, referring to modern humans as "monkey men all in business suits". "God made Man, but he used a Monkey to do it." End of Side 1.
7. Too Much Paranoias Extremely cool and dangerous-sounding riff. The song seems to be about how people these days are afraid of nearly everything. The mid-section of the song is comprised of some bizarre sounds made with guitars. The final part sounds much like the first part. Good song.
8. Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy) These are two songs in one. Gut Feeling has a wonderful-sounding melody done with a relatively clean-sounding electric guitar and a basic punk rock beat. Some synth piano and synth organ begin to accompany the other instruments around the 1-minute mark. The keyboard melody continually ascends higher and higher, until cutting off when the first sung line begins. The lyrics describe what sounds like a break-up. The music gets more aggressive towards the end, with a layer of noizy fucked-up guitar playing over the song, and the beat gets more intense. Gut Feeling ends with a SCREAM! "Slap Your Mammy" is a short, fast song (sort of like hardcore punk but not as angry). The lyrics here are just kinda nonsensical, singing about slappin' your parents and stuff.
9. Come Back Jonee This song's about a boy named Jonee who decides to become a rock-star. He buys a guitar, leaves everyone else behind, including a certain un-named woman (I'm not sure if it's his mother or his girlfriend or something), and "makes her cry" as she asks for him to come back. Sort of something I had and have contemplated a few times before. Sort of a sad song and a happy song at the same time. Later in the song, there are some female backing vocals yelling "JONEE, JONEE!". Either that or dudes who sound like chicks. I dunno. Good song, though.
10. Sloopy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') Probably my least favorite song on here. It's alright. The lyrics are about relationships again. It's fast.
11. Shrivel Up Weird guitar melody here. The song seems to simply be about the fact that we're all just slowly shriveling up and dying day by day. YAEY!!! Kind of dark and funny at the same time. I guess we call that satire/sarcasm. Heh heh. Well, time to go shrivel up...
It's easy to write Devo off at first glance as another 'new wave' band or because you didn't like the song "Whip It" or something like that, but personally, I think this is a really good record! The music is very intelligent, weird, and sometimes REALLY weird at times. Artists like Iggy Pop proclaimed the band "the future of punk" -- well, that wasn't quite the case, but sometimes a good thing is better off untarnished by mass replication. Especially if it's difficult to replicate. Well, perhaps I shall review some more Devo records in the future. Before this, there was an EP entitled "Be Stiff" from 1977 that contains songs from even earlier sessions than this album. That's all I've got to say for right now. Seeya.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Gut Feeling 2. Uncontrollable Urge 3. Too Much Paranoias
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Ohio Riot Records Tracks: 10 Length: 16 Minutes (Short) Style: Political My Rating: 6/8
Damn, it's been awhile. I haven't written one of these reviews in forever! Well, I can explain it all: a few weeks ago when the weather was slightly less hot than it iz now, my Mother walked in on me singing and recording the vocals for one of my own songs. She was infuriated (second time I got caught making my own music)... I was immediately grounded for several weeks, so I was unable to write any more reviews... well FUCK IT! I don't care how many times I get caught, I'm so damn close to finishing my demo I've been working on for a half-year, I simply must finish it. Nothing else will do. Well, after my grounding wore off, I just got on a lazy streak writing-wise 'cause I was so used to not really doing anything productive.Anyways... the Defendants are one of the few local punk groups in my area. They formed around 2008-ish or so, and take a lot of their influences from street-punk, hardcore punk, and crust punk. After numerous line-up changes, the band eventually solidified its lineup with Mike Defendant as the frontman (guitar and vocals), Chad as the bassist, and Johnny on the drums. Their lyrics are mostly about their political beliefs, though there's a few fucking-around-lyrically songs here and there. "Uncle Scam" is their first album they've released and I'm pretty sure it was released on Ohio Riot Records (and if not it's probably from their old label, Gem City Punx Records). Ol' Mikey Defendy actually gave me the damn album for free, so I decided to give it a review in return (which I like to do for as many albums as possible). And here is how it goes...
1. This is War Starts with a pretty lead-driven intro. It's a sorta mid-tempo song against the government, declaring war against the government which has caused people to die "because of the system's selfish pride". The main riff kinda reminds me of one of the early Melvins songs, for some reason. Once again, a lot of guitar lead.
2. Legends Similar tempo to the song before it. This song pays tribute to the punk rock legends of times gone by. More of a traditional hardcore sound in this one.
3. The FCC This one's real fast! It's a thrasher detesting the FCC, an organization that practically wants to parent the whole world (including the parents!). I love the line "the FCC can censor me". Just sounds right for some reason.
4. Stand Up Fight Back Probably the first Defendants song I ever heard, back when it was a demo. It's somewhat of an anti-police-brutality protest song. "Never fear a man in blue", Mike proclaims. The chorus that goes "STAND UP, FIGHT BACK, TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK" is joined by some background vocals; probably the rest of the band. Nice little solo in the middle, there. Spices things up a little bit. I love the riff.
5. Lies I'm actually not quite sure what the lyrics to this one are, but they're probably about lies. Just a guess. Like, people lying and stuff. And how when you lie you're not actually telling the truth. And that the word "lie" can also refer to being on your back on the ground. The riff is pretty catchy, here.
6. No Nation The riff reminds me of the song "Riot Fight" by the Beastie Boys in the beginning. Once again, I can't completely decipher the lyrics, but I actually kinda like how Mike sings all fast on this one. And it's another real fast song, which is a nice! I like the little lead guitar "tweeengs" thrown in parts of the song.
7. Nazi Scum Totally my favorite song on this album. It has a great riff, and a nice fast beat. It's an anti-Nazi song. I love the line "you're gonna be dead by the end of this song". The lyrics are real confrontational and badass. The solo here is really cool. More backing vocals in the chorus.
8. Broken News This is my second-favorite song on here. It's about the unrealistic, fallacious, superficial, dead-brained mainstream media and news that delivers lies to the gullible. Once again, a great lead guitar solo. "They can never stop the force that's known as punk" -- damn right.
9. Phone Sex Ya see, here, the Defendants have delved into the world of 2nd-person lyricism. The song is about YOU, and it's from YOUR viewpoint. The song puts you in the place of a person who's Mom is getting phonefucked. Er, yeah. But for real, this is by far the shortest song on the album, being barely a half-minute long. I'm not quite sure if they should be havin' that phone sex with my Mom, though.
10. Uncle Scam The title track of ze album. Starts with a funny spoken by Uncle Sam himself, asking you to hand over all of your hard-earned money to him. The song is pretty fast, including the vocals, so I dunno what the lyrics to it are, but it's a pretty good song. However, that iz the end.
So, that's "Uncle Scam". The main themes of the album are rebellion against the government, anti-fascism, and media behavior-control. I do have to say that I really like the production on the album -- it has a certain rawness in it not present in a lot of new albums, making the songs a lot more listenable than songs from a lot of other new artists. While not extremely innovative or anything like that, the Defendants have a good sense of writing a catchy, cool riff, which can make a great song in itself. According to the band, they're close to releasing a new EP, and it should come out pretty soon. And remember, children: the FCC can censor us all. Even youuu.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Lies 2. Broken News 3. No Nation
ERIC ALLEN PREWITT'S LIFE
