Various - Read Army Faction 7" (No Idea / AK Press Audio / NIR 091 / AKA 018)
A collection of covers cept, strangely, from Discount who do a song of their own. Hot Water Music open up with Springtime by Leatherface which was a bit of a staple of the 2001 European tour. Amazingly, they keep the spirit of the original whilst almost making it their own. Avail annoy the hell out of me with their cover of Suspicious Minds (is that an Elvis song?). It just sounds WRONG although it is maddeningly toe-tapping. I think I would scream if I heard this more than a few times….
Discount are next with “Trouble In The Sky” which is a good song but sounds a little lost and ordinary on its own here. Discount songs always sound better in pairs :-) Still, it rocks and an average Discount song is better than a LOT of bands best stuff in my opinion. The Weakerthans finish us off with Phil Ochs “The Ringing of Revolution”, a fantastic choice of song and the best thing here. It’s nice to see a band take a chance on something and this sounds great. Having heard this AND seen the Weakerthans play live recently, I really should check out their albums!
--Chris (30th Oct 2001)