Madcap-East to West
Damn, this is a badass CD! Many of these songs remind me of a slightly poppier Sham 69 or Stiff Little Fingers. At the same time, there's lots of other influences. You can definitely hear a street punk sound, and the bassline on "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like something from Rancid. There's a major lyrical theme of belief in a world where meaning is crap. The songs are well-written and diverse, I could hardly ask for more from a punk record.

Pressure Point-To Be Continued
More ferocious oi from this Sacremento group. Rough, growling vocals cover unions and corporate power as well as personal tales of despair "C st. Pass" and the bloody violence of a robbery "Home Invasion." The music is fast oi with plenty of guitar solos. I find this album to be better musically than their previous releases. The guitar parts are better, there's a great bass solo on the title track (which is fuckin' great!), a tasteful reggae breakdown at the end of "Drinkin' With the Damned," and so on. The music and vocal style is great in general, and perfect for the lyrics. Another reason I love this group is the fact that the lyrics aren't bullshit-the singer is talking about stuff that really happens to him as opposed to some suburban kid talking about revolution. (like me I guess). Anyway, this is definitely one of my favorite punk albums.

Tiger Army-The Early Years EP
Yikes. A mere twelve minutes and eleven seconds doesn't seem like enough material for a CD format. Fortunately, this is some of the best psychobilly I've ever heard, certainly on par with Tiger Army's later material. "Temptation" and "Jungle Cat" are fast tracks with the trademark quick guitar, great vocals, and unstoppable upright bass of Tiger Army. The earlier version of their cover of "Twenty Flight Rock" is slower than the track on their first full length. The trend of more billy and less psycho actually continues in a slow (relatively) Misfits' "American Nightmare." Rounding out the disc are early versions of "FTW" and "Nocturnal." Both these versions are great, I actually prefer this version of "Nocturnal" to the more recent one. This stuff sounds less polished, which works very well for Tiger Army. Don't know if you want to buy something this short, but I will say this material kicks ass.

The Unseen-Complete Singles Collection
Technically a singles collection, this is more or less the early years of the Unseen. The albums starts off with some more recent stuff. The first track, "Stand Up and Fight" from the split with Toxic Narcotic is simply ferocious. Fast, pissed punk. Much of this just isn't as good as the other Unseen stuff though. Often these songs sound the same and some of the vocals are impossible to understand. A lot of this reminds me of early Casualties, music-wise. There's a bunch of great songs, and a total of 30 on this record, so I'd still say it's a good CD, and something Unseen fans should like. But if you aren't familiar with them, I'd recommend getting one of their other albums instead.

The Vandals-Internet Dating Super Studs
More catchy and humorous pop punk from the Vandals. I was a little disappointed with the amount of humor, usually these guys amuse me more. As you probably expected, fast songs abound, but the breakup song "Where's Your Dignity" is a slower song with very pleasant-sounding background vocals, like maybe a very slow version of theQueers. Basically the same stuff as most Vandals albums, but generally not as well done.

Anti-Flag/Bouncing Souls-BYO Split Series v. IV
The Bouncing Souls open up the latest installment of the BYO split series with "punks in vegas," a fairly typical melodic Bouncing Souls track. The next song, "No Security," shows the diversity of this album. It's a nicely fast-paced and angry political song, not what I was expecting from these guys. I was looking forward to hearing their cover of "That's Youth" by Anti-Flag. The similarity to the original was a little disappointing-the ska is gone, but the vocal style is very similar to Justin Sane. (Not necessarily a bad thing, but I like it when covers deviate from the original) Fortunately for me, their cover of the CockSparrer classic "We're Coming Back" is very faithful musically, but the vocals are done in the usual Bouncing Souls style, which fits the song very well. Anti-Flag's songs are pretty much what you'd expect. Their lyrical trend of heartfelt/corny lyrics, depending on your perspective, continues strongly. "America Got it Right" has a nice punkified reggae section at the end, but other than that the music is somewhat mundane. The two covers-the Bouncing Soul's "Freaks, Nerds, Romantics," and Pete Shelley's "Ever Fallen in Love with Someone..." sound like Anti-Flag without their normal lyrics-you already know if that's a good thing or bad thing. Overall, probably what you'd expect from these two bands...I have mixed feelings about this one, but I definitely appreciate the good Cocksparrer cover.

Anti-Flag-Mobilize

What you get when you buy this is half a CD of new material, half a CD of live songs, and a free CD sampler for A-F records. The new material is good, but the music is all similar and tends to blur together. It continues the trend towards poppier music by Anti-Flag. A lot of the lyrics are about general resistance to the system instead of specific issues like a lot of their older material. The major exception to this is "Anantomy of the Enemy," in my opinion the best Anti-Flag song. Slower guitars churn in the background while spoken word describes how the media and government construct enemies to go to war against. The live material is all good, but sounds more or less the same as the studio versions. "Die For the Government" is the only song that's notably different, and it's clearly an improvement over the original. The live music is pretty varied, though, avoiding the problem the new material encounters. The sampler CD covers a range of styles, including crust punk, street punk, fat-wreck type punk, and Justin Sane's folk-influenced solo material. A lot of it's generic sounding, but there's bound to be at least a few tracks that a listener would like. This isn't the best CD, but it's definitely good, and won't let down any fans of Anti-Flag.

Anti-Flag-Die For Your Government

This is simply great pissed off, political punk rock. The songwriting seems to be more very than Anti-Flag's latest releases. "You'd Do the Same," the first track, is poppier, almost Ramones-esque punk rock. In contrast, "Your Daddy was a Rich Man" is more experimental, slow, and strange Crass-like music. Almost all the tracks are excellent, with the only clear misstep being the ska-like "Summer Squatter Go Home." The lyrics are split between political issues and criticism of the scene. Some call this whining and don't like it, but it is needed and intelligent criticism backed by some of the best punk around. Highly recommended.

Anti-Flag-Underground Network

Anti-Flag's fourth album, and first on Fat Wreck doesn't dissapoint. Once again, the band displays varied songwriting. Most of the songs are the fast punk rock fans of Anti-Flag will be familiar with. Other tracks verge closer to hardcore (This Machine) and slower thrash. (Culture Revolution) The songs are almost all social political, without any attacks on problems within the scene this time. The only exception is "Spaz's House Destruction Party," which is about a punk rock party, of course. The lyrics are notably less explicitly angry than previous albums, the tone is more informative/inspiring as a general rule. This isn't to say they've gone soft, they're still pissed off, it's just less obvious than before. The songs are catchy, the lyrics are great, and the lyric book is full of great information as part of the underground network. You won't regret buying this one.


The Class Assassins-State of Emergency
This is pretty straightforward oi from Canada with simple music and simple lyrics and sing along style choruses. It's more melodic than a lot of the genre. This is particularly noticeable in the vocals. The songs are mostly good and pissed off social/political commentary. Unfortunately, the cd is kinda front-loaded. Especially towards the end of the album it seems like some of the songs should've been shorter. While there's no major suckage, I get the impression that some more time should have been spent on this material. Not to say this is bad, fans of the genre should check this out-I just wasn't particularly impressed.

Coquettish-Total Pops Madness

I want my money back. The cover art is great, but that's the only positive thing I have to say about this. The seven songs incoroporate emo, ska, reggae and hardcore, often in the same song. Other than the fact that these styles are mixed together in the same song, it's all very generic. Just imagine the stereotypes of all the genres-unintellible hardcore, simplistic ska from TV commericials, etc. Making it worse, the lyrics are boring and forgettable. To be fair, most of it is fairly catchy. My biggest complaint is that the songs are very short, there's ten minutes of music tops on here. Even if was good, it's not worth more than two or three bucks given its length.

F-Minus-Suburban Blight

The twenty short tracks of raging hardcore on this album are allright. I was a little dissapointed by this CD since I really like female punk vocals, and F-Minus has two of them, in addition to two male singers. Unfortunately, the vocals are screamed in such a raw fashion that it's pretty hard to tell that some of the vocals are female. In addition, the lyrics are more or less indecipherable without the lyric book in front of you. If you don't have a problem with this, or like it, this is a good record though. Unlike much of the genre, the songs are diversely written. The lyrics are good, and having multiple singers keeps it interesting as well. Extra points for great punk cover art.

Global Threat-Here We Are

A Global Threat's first full length sinc Mark Unseen left disappointed me a little. The vocals are allright, but their music seems amazingly slow in comparison to their older stuff, and a little more generic. The lyrics are also far less explicitly political than earlier. The music is still good, it's more melodic than most street punk and has lots of good guitar solos that give A Global Threat a distinct sound. Better than average, but not great. Get Until We Die instead if you aren't familiar with these guys yet.

Global Threat-Until We Die

Well-done political street punk/oi. Vocals courtesy of Mark from the Unseen. Great political lyrics. Most of the songs sound the same-raw screamed vocals, catchy yell-along choruses, and fast guitars, with many distinctive cool guitar solos. "Young and Dead" is a slower and longer song, making it unique on this album. It doesn't work very well, the raw vocals are a bit too much when slowed down, and the song gets boring quickly. Awesome lyrics about how infighting in the scene over straight-edge, vegetarianism, etc. will kill the scene save the track though. Overall, this is a fast, pissed off, great album. I'd compare them to a more musically sophisticated Unseen.

Hudson Falcons-Desperation and Revolution

I have mixed feelings about this CD. On one hand, there's some things about it that I really like. The lyrics in support of the working class are simplistic but very heartfelt and good in a straightforward manner. Plus, the style of very rocknroll sounding punk rock is fairly unique and great to sing along to, not to mention catchy. On the downside, most of the songs sound the same. More troubling is the disclaimer of sorts, which says people who don't believe in national sovereignty should f*ck off and not listen to the CD. Why they exclude that portion of the punk scene, which happens to agree with them on empowering the working class perplexe sme and pisses me off. So if the rabid nationalism doesn't bother you, you might want to check this out.

Nicotine-Samurai Shot
This is mostly melodic fat wreck style punk from Japan, but hints of a relatively unique sound come through as well. The distortion is turned up during parts of some songs-at times the music briefly sounds similar to street punk, but then the vocals come in and the feeling goes away. Hints of ska pop up occasionally as well, but the music never ventures into any crappy skapunk material. The lyrics, which are excellent and sometimes humorous, deal with social commentary, reflections on life, bowling, and being scared of a shark. Extra bonuses: this is nice and long, with 23 songs, so you're getting your money's worth. Also, the lost art of cool album covers shows up on this one-one of the nicest covers I've seen in a while.

No Use For a Name-Hard Rock Bottom
Although I no longer listen to much of this style of punk rock, I enjoyed this album. It sounds pretty much like the majority of past No Use material, the only difference I noticed is that this cd is slightly more musically complex and sophisticated. Many of the songs have a small string part, for example. It's fast and melodic pop-punk that is catchy and well-written. A lot of the lyrics deal with personal relationships, but some are more socially and politically oriented. A few songs are too slow for my liking, but if you like these guys you'll probably like this album as much as any.

Oi Polloi-Fight Back

Kick ass record. First, a caveat. All the songs are recorded off vinyl as one track. Also, the quality isn't too great. That said, in my mind, it's all the punker. (and better) There are 12 tracks on here, most of them are also on Total Anarchoi, so buy that one instead if you can find it. Down to the business. Really great hardcore punk CD. The vocals are a bit rough, ie indecipherable sometimes. The lyrics are great, and highly political of course. On two tracks, there is a spoken word section over the musical backing, both times this really enhances the track. Aside from typical topics such as police oppression, classism, and American imperialism, Oi Polloi shows they don't care about conforming to the scene with the anti-smoking track You Cough/They Profit. Get this if you can.

Oi Polloi-THC

Damn, this record rocks! These four tracks were recorded in 98 and released in 2000 by Campary Records. If you can pick this up, I'd urge ya to check it out. The style is heavy street punk with lots of distortion and an occasional badass guitar solo.
This album is divided into th political side and a more fun-oriented side. The political stuff sounds great. One track I didn't understand as it was in German, but Simon Weston has nice political lyrics while maintaining a snobbish, fuck-off punk attitude. The other side sports the tracks THC and Sex with Strangers. Both have nice lyrics about their respective vices with a subtle political edge. If poltical analysis and such strikes you as dumb, THC is just a kick ass punk anthem about toking, though, and is worth a couple bucks by itself. One of the best punk releases I've heard for a long time.

Pressure Point-Life's Blood

Absolutely mind-blowing oi from California, the only possible complaint is that this EP isn't long enough. The six incredible tracks will inevitably leave the listener aching for more. The great sing-along anthems are diverse (enough, anyway) and well-written. Topics range from old friends to unions to oi, of course. "Claim the Night" and "Retribution" start off the album with typical rocking oi, but played at it's best. "Life's Blood" starts off very slowly while the singer's hoarse voice yells praise to the power of unions before the intro ends and the song takes off at a ferocious tempo. "New Age(originally by the Blitz) rocks like the first two tracks before "Friend of Mine" reminices while the music evokes loss and sadness to fit the lyrics. The lyrics throughout this CD seem are far less negative and jaded than the other PP full-lengths.. The CD ends with "Fuerza por Oi," a Spainish version of "Strength through Oi." If you don't know this band, or know them only from the song "Heart Like a Lion" on the Give em the Boot compiliation, do yourself a favor and pick this up. It's an essential oi album.

Pressure Point-Youth on the Street

Simply incredible. I love this album more and more each time I listen to it. The first time I heard it, I didn't like it as much since I was expecting nothing but straightforward oi. As soon as I listened again and appreciated it for what it was, I was very impressed. This record has plenty of rocking straightforward oi, but it goes beyond that musically. "Heart Like a Lion" starts off the album with a ferocious rocking oi song. Next up is a great cover of "Never ad Nothing" by the Angelic Upstarts. The next two tracks, "Guts Alone" and "Skinhead Justice" are unusually dark and heavy oi songs. Many of the lyrics throughout the album are dark, tales of sellouts and broken men. The album goes on like this, but two tracks that jump out are "Pride & Glory" and "Blue Collar." These are both reggae songs that remind me of "Rudie Can't Fail" and "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" by the Clash, and the cover of "Johnny Was" by Stiff Little Fingers. Both these tracks are excellent, like the rest of the CD. Another essential album.

Tiger Army-Power of Moonlight

Damn. This is a great record in so many ways. If you're not familiar with Tiger Army, this Hell-Cat band plays psychobilly music, think rockabilly meets the Misfits. This sound is completely unique, which is very rare in a punk scene where so many bands sound the same. Nick 13, the singer and guitarist, has a great voice for the haunting sounds of Tiger Army. The songs have distinct sounds from one another, but the album doesn't feel schizophrenic at all. Lyrical themes and an overall tone of sorrow gives the record a cohesive feel, right down to the artwork. Some songs are more punk, while others are almost completely country (musically) with slide and pedal steel guitars. AFI's Davey Havok and Rancid's Matt Freeman and Lars Frederikson contribute guest vocals. This is definitely one of my favorite CDs at the moment.

The Unseen-Lower Class Crucifixtion

Simply amazing. This is 13 tracks of pissed off and political street punk. The quality of the songwriting sets this apart from most of the genre. There is a great diversity throughout the album, unlike many CDs that seem to have the same song with different lyrics. Also, the songs are extremely catchy and the lyrics aren't umclear as most streetpunk is. Every chorus has a kick ass message that makes you sing along. Essential album.

The Unseen-The Anger and the Truth

This CD is a masterful call to get pissed off at the lies of society. Needless to say, the lyrics deal with hating the government, injustice, and the punk scene. They seem more jaded and less idealistic than previous Unseen songs, though. Musically this is similar to Lower Class Crucifixtion. The musicianship and quality of the recording is much better, though. An absolute must-have.

Various-BYO Records-Sample this Too

So I got this and had high expectations. Most of the material is unreleased stuff from upcoming albums, always a plus for a sampler. On top of that, four bands I normally like a lot, the Unseen, the Forgotten, Anti-Flag, and the Beltones are on it. Unfortunately, none of the songs stand out at all. The Unseen song isn't really catchy like a lot of their stuff, it's mostly fast undecipherable screaming. The Anti-Flag song sounds like all their newer stuff, too poppy for my taste and of course plagued by cheesy lyrics. "Come Back," the Beltones offering, sounds like growled vocals over guitars without hooks. The Forgotten track is all right, the vocal style reminds of me of Agnostic Front's slower stuff. The Bouncing Souls offering was surprisingly fast and hard. NOFX's cover of Rancid's "Corazon de Oro" also surprised me, the lyrics and music blended together really damn well. The other notable track was Youth Brigade's "No Difference Anyway." I'd say none of the CD absolutely sucks except for Rancid's cover of "Vanilla Sex," but only a few songs are worth hearing.

The Virus-Nowhere to Hide

Hell yeah! Good lyrics, good music. Not the most unique or innovative material, but it's pulled off really damn well. The tracks are generally streetpunk tunes, with a bit of 77 influence showing up now and then. Most of the songs are fast and pissed off sounding, some of them are on the catchier end of the spectrum with singalong choruses. The songwritings pretty good and a there's some nice guitar solos thrown in too. This blows away the older Virus material, I recommend checking it out.

Home