Various Artists
Smash the States
Suicide Watch Records

In the long and great tradition of regional comps like Flex Your Head, This Is Boston Not LA and No Core we have Smash the States, a compilation featuring one track each from 35 bands from across the southeastern United States. As just about every review I read of a new compilation notes, the comp LP has all but died over the past decade, but Smash the States proves that comps can still be relevant; they just have to be more than just a "sampler."

Despite the extremely wide disparity in geographic location, skill level and just about every other factor that you can think of, there's something about Smash the States that just hangs together. I think that at least part of the reason for that (another part might just be a good mastering job) is that the southern US is one of the few parts of the country in which we still have a relatively intact regional identity. Sure, that identity is constantly being whittled away by television and other mass media, but pull up to the drive-thru at your local fast food chain in North Carolina and it's likely that you'll still hear a relatively twangy accent asking you for your order.

Part of the reason we've been able to maintain this regional identity in the south is that we're somewhat isolated from the rest of the country. While I won't get into this too deeply since trying to support such a generality is a losing battle, I find that it tends to be a double-edged sword for underground bands. Putting aside for a second the fact that great bands will be great bands wherever they happen to live, being isolated from the latest underground trends is good in the sense that bands from this part of the country don't shamelessly follow trends. You won't find any trendy late 80s thrash metal bands on Smash the States and you won't find any contrived rock/hardcore bands or new wave bands either. On the other hand, being oblivious to national and international trends means that you don't realize when certain styles and conventions are played out, and there are a number of bands on Smash the States who are guilty of ripping off no-longer-that-cool bands like Anti-Flag or even Less than Jake a little too shamelessly.

Amazingly, though, despite the length of this compilation the good far, far outweighs the bad. Nearly every single band on Smash the States has the kind of quirky charm that seems unique to bands not from major metropolitain areas. In addition, uniformly solid recording quality and attention to details like sequencing and packaging (Chris Piegler's liner notes are a must-read!) make this record a keeper. I'm not sure how much this comp can or should be of interest to people outside of the south, but I'm pretty sure that if you do pick it up you won't regret having it in your collection.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM

Gratitude
Self-titled
Atlantic Records

When emo was first invented it should have been obvious that it would eventually be co-opted by corporations. Emotion is the stuff in which corporations—particularly their marketing departments—really deal; after all, most of the time they certainly aren't dealing with logic. Advertising has a way of making us feel an emotional pain at the prospect of wanting something, and when corporate America gives us something that allows us to re-enact that pain they win twice.

I'm not trying to say that Gratitude are really guys in business suits who hatched their band as a project for their marketing class. No, I think that it's something much more insidious than that. Bands that adopt this over-earnest style in which they cast themselves as the sentimental, feeling man have simply bought into this system. After all, who could blame them? Once they're a producer and not a consumer they're on the supply side and are allowed to skim a little of cream off the crop.

I'm not trying to say that I'm above all of this and that I'm better than anyone (after all, lusting after Japanese hardcore records really isn't too different from lusting after Springsteen tickets when you get down to it), merely that I find Gratitude's music such a painfully obvious, pre-scripted and utterly predictable rerun of this relationship between music corporation and music consumer that I can't stand to listen to it. I know that I've been conditioned into this response by the bands I listen to and the magazines I read, but odds are if you're reading this site then you have too. So put this CD down, go and buy the latest issue of Maximum Rock and Roll and rest safely in the knowledge that you're a little bit less evil than everyone else.

Posted by Daniel at 09:00 AM

Generators
Excess Betrayal... and our Dearly Departed
Fiend Music

A few months ago I went to see Social Distortion when their tour came through Raleigh. Never having seen them, I was pretty excited when I saw that they were coming to town; I used to like their records a lot several years ago and I still listen to their early singles and Mommy's Little Monster fairly frequently. However, when Mike Ness finally took the stage and the band launched into their set I just couldn't get over how much they sucked. I wondered how I ever listened to this crap; the music was lifeless, the words were corny and the schtick was so overwrought as to be nauseating. Were I a bit more assertive I probably would have demanded my money back.

The Generators, to whom I was first introduced several years ago through their brilliant Tyranny LP, are everything that I wish that Social Distortion was. They write great, anthemic songs; they have a great country twang; they unite several different subgenres (most notably punk, early rock and roll and country) in their style extremely well; they're not afraid to try new things with their sound or their songwriting. While I wouldn't quite be willing to place Tyranny above Mommy's Little Monster in my great ordered list of the best punk rock albums of all time, everything the Generators have done blows away everything Social Distortion did after their first LP, and what's more it beats that legendary band at their own game.

Nowhere is this more obvious than on Excess Betrayal. While Tyranny was pretty much straight-up singalong punk, Excess Betrayal pushes in a zillion different directions. Not everything works precisely as one might hope it would, but almost all of it does. Regardless of any minor flaws, though, Excess Betrayal succeeds in its mission of sounding massive, impassioned and ambitious.

In addition to the original nine-track running order (the disc was first released in Europe 2 years ago) this US version adds 5 bonus tracks. Ordinarily bonus tracks aren't much to write home about, but I believe that these are newly-recorded tracks that could have just as easily gone toward a brand new Generators EP. These 5 tracks definitely pick up where Excess Betrayal left off, though they infuse a bit more of Tyranny's straight-up punk rock into the mix. I dare say that I like these five tracks more than any on the original album, so in some ways it is a shame that these songs are buried on here as bonus tracks rather than getting the attention they deserve on their own.

In short, anything you may have heard about the Generators losing their fire or starting to suck is patently untrue. Sure, they're not the band that they were on Tyranny, but if they were still trying to be that band they probably would suck. Instead, Excess Betrayal finds them pushing their songwriting into uncharted waters while still hanging onto all of the things that made them so great in the first place.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM

Scarecrow
La Morte Vivante
Devil Shitburner Records

Italy's Scarecrow play some pretty decent horror-influenced stuff that falls somewhere between the goth-punk of more recent AFI and melodic black metal. Unlike a lot of bands who are into the horror thing, they keep things melodic, but these guys are definitely no Walk Among Us-era Misfits. Not only is there a lack of melodies that catchy, but the playing is kind of loose and the guitar sound is a bit too metallic and modern to really pull this style of music off.

However, if you're into non-Misfits horror punk at all you've probably gotten over these issues long ago, so if you're a fan of bands like Balzac and the post-Danzig Misfits I'd check this out. However, if you're only really interested in the original (as I am) you would do well to ignore this when someone inevitably tells you about Scarecrow and compares them to the Misfits.

Posted by Daniel at 09:00 AM

Bang Bang
Self-titled
Black Iris

I first heard Detroit's Bang Bang when I reviewed a single from them on the site a while back and when I went nuts over that single in my review the band was nice enough to send me a copy of this, their debut full-length. While the scores of Killed by Death comps out there prove that most decent bands have at least one good single in them, this self-titled LP is a fucking rager all the way through, one of those records that you just can't figure out any reason why it should be as overlooked as it is.

Perhaps it's because Bang Bang doesn't really fall into any pre-defined subgenre category. There is definitely a very, very prominent Detroit/garage rock vibe running throughout the disc (which makes sense given the band's home town), but there are also bits that sound like heavier melodic punk like Leatherface or Hot Water Music and there are also bits that have a bit more of a metallic crunch than your normal garage-inspired band.

The one thing that links together every song here, though, is the over-the-top energy conveyed on every single track. The record was recorded live in the studio and it definitely shows; not only does the record sound live, but it sounds like the band was live and jacked up on half a pound of speed each. This is exactly the type of energy that all punk rock should have, but in reality very little does.

Unless you've consciously decided that you aren't going to like any music that falls outside your particular favorite subgenre there's no reason why everyone who reads this site shouldn't check out Bang Bang. They're energetic, heavy, melodic, original and fucking passionate, and when you get down to it those are pretty much all of the qualities you need in order to qualify as great music in my book.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM

Black Cougar Shock Unit
Hello Black Cougar Shock Unit
The Newest Industry

I was always torn on Panthro UK United 13 and I remain torn about Black Cougar Shock Unit. On the one hand the way that they fuse these weird cock rock and mosh metal riffs with Hot Water Music-style punk/emo is, on occasion, absolutely exhiliarating. It's an undoubtedly unique combination, and when it's working there's no band in the world like Black Cougar Shock Unit. However, when it's not working it sounds really corny and almost gimmicky, or maybe like one guy wanted to start a metal band, another an emo band and another a punk band so they decided to throw all three styles in a broken-down blender.

What's even more frustrating is that you can't pin these trends down to what happens over the course of a single song; that would be too easy, since you could just make a mix tape of the good ones and chuck the rest. No, Black Cougar Shock Unit's songs seem to vary widely in quality (or at least my subjective perception of it) from part to part within each song. I'm not quite sure how that can be, but I find myself alternating between distaste and enthusiasm in much the same way this image seems to alternate between looking like a duck and looking like a rabbit.

The three covers that pad out this EP only exacerbate the problem. The Devo cover ("Freedom of Choice") has some amazing moments, particularly when BCSU jam on the song's famous main riff. However, their cover of the Buzzcocks' "Lipstick" is all wrong; the concept (turning one of the Buzzcocks' pop songs into one of their jittery post-punk songs) sounds like a good idea, but it just doesn't work for whatever reason. And the cover of Steve Martin's "King Tut..." well, it's at the same time exactly like what you'd expect and nothing like what you'd expect at all.

So, there you have it: Black Cougar Shock Unit are a study in contradictions. Well, at least to me; I'm sure there are people out there who listen to this and pump their fist like they're seeing Motorhead circa 1980, but when I listen to Hello Black Cougar Shock Unit I feel like I'm taking a rorschach test. However, I have a feeling my reaction to this band is utterly bizarre and idiosyncratic, so maybe you're better off listening to an mp3 and trying them out for yourself.

Posted by Daniel at 09:00 AM

Locust, the
Safety Second, Body Last
Ipecac

We must be coming up on a decade into the Locust's recording career but if you're thinking that these weirdos are changing their attack stance/musical style in any way whatsoever you're dead wrong. The Locust's music is still based in power violence's over-the-top blast beats and jerky, unnatural changes in tempo, but they have, over the years, gradually accentuated the always-discernable ambient elements of their sound more and more.

However, Safety Second, Body Last isn't just about making neat sounds, it's about fitting those sounds together in a new (for hardcore at least) way. The idea behind this disc is that it consists of four distinct movements (like in classical music), each of which contains one or more less distinct (but distinctly-named) parts. It would sound very ambitious if only for the facts that 1. Green Day did something very similar on their new record and 2. the disc is only about ten minutes long, so they're not exactly taking the listener on an epic journey.

As for the music itself, independent of the "concept," as always with the Locust I'm inclined to like it. Unlike most bands who go for a total assault on the ears they know that if you want it to stay interesting you need to keep hammering away with new idea after new idea (rather than coming back to the same riffs again and again) and you need to keep the whole thing short and concise. Safety Second, Body Last does both of these things quite well, though I'm still not completely convinced what makes the Locust worthy, above any other screamo, powerviolence or intense hardcore band, of the kind of critical praise that gets heaped upon them.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM

Secret Lives of the Freemasons
This Was Built to Make You Dance
Astro Magnetics

With the word "dance" plastered all over this little package I thought that Secret Lives yadda yadda yadda were about a year and a half late on the dance/post-punk trend, but it turns out that these guys are straight-up, emo-ish mall punk, screamy metalcore breakdowns at all.

As I can see it, there are two things that set this record apart from the 765478547361312324 other records that you could buy that sound exactly like it. One, there are a bunch of little 30-second noise/tape loop interludes sprinkled throughout the record. This might be of interest did those things not complete suck, but they do. Secondly, they have three guitarists, which places them in a very small club that also includes Bad Religion and Iron Maiden. The record's blurb on interpunk says something about this setup being used "properly," but unless by "properly" they mean "such that it sounds exactly like every other mall-punk band that only has one or two guitarists" I'm going to have to give them the 'ol negativo on that one.

All told, there ain't much here for the average DFB reader, so turn off your computer, skate down to your local record store and pick up an Angry Samoans record instead.

Posted by Daniel at 09:00 AM

More to Pride
This Is Life
Rivalry Records

I've read a handful of glowing reviews of this record over the past few weeks so I was looking forward to hearing it. I'd heard that these guys were bringing back the '88 youth crew hardcore sound a la Chain of Strength in the 80s and In My Eyes in the 90s, but honestly I'm hearing a lot more early 90s New York moshcore. I guess that I can hear the youth crew in their sound, but coming to This Is Life expecting that it hardly seems like More to Pride's most prominent influence, especially given the record's ridiculous intro, which is so corny it could have been blurted out by Harley Flanagan himself.

Adding to the lack of a "posi" vibe on this one are the lyrics, which play out all of the traditional straight edge cliches with particular banality. Want to hear my least favorite couplet on the record? "Shut the fuck up you fuckin' pussy / You're only tough when your homies are around." Now, if only one of the band members were to write me after reading this review and physically threaten me the great circle of straight edge irony/stupidy would be complete.

Still, I should cut More to Pride some slack because it's always nice to hear people playing fast hardcore, I just don't know why they have to run through all of these ridiculous cliches, in particular the one that involves acting "hard" while writing obviously bullshit lyrics about how tough guys suck.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM

Index for Potential Suicide
Sex, Violence, Whatever: The Complete Recordings
Alone Records

Index for Potential Suicide were from Charleston, South Carolina and existed for roughly two years in 1998-99, which placed them very much on the cusp of the screamo scene that was about to explode in basements all over North America and Europe. However, thanks to a string of bad luck with releases and touring they never really got to be very well-known, though Alone Records is attempting to fix that somewhat with the release of this discography CD.

As someone who can tolerate and occasionally enjoy screamo but by no means feels the need to collect every scrap of it that's released, my primary interest in Index for Potential Suicide is historical. While Sex, Violence, Whatever doesn't follow a chronological progression, you can still hear them basically inventing (for themselves, at least) screamo over the course of their first few releases. Starting out as a noisy hardcore/metal band, IFPS added synths and trumpet to their sound very early on. From what I can hear, it seems like these added instruments opened up their songwriting process somewhat in order to make room for them and when the trumpet-player left they kept those holes and filled them instead with increasingly epic and artistic hardcore.

I think these transitional bits of IFPS's discography are absolutely fascinating to listen to; they sound slightly unsure of themselves but you get the impression that they're really pushing themselves to come up with something new. Unfortunately, thousands of bands have copied what they ultimately came up with, so the more fully-formed material can sound slightly generic when you listen to it today, but it's not bad by any means. So, if you're a screamo completist you'll definitely need this, and for anyone else this could still be worth keeping around for the weird bits.

Posted by Daniel at 09:00 AM