Reviews

Tony Party

Already Dead Something Like a War CD

The first track starts off musically similar to a SOCIAL DISTORTION tune, while vocally, it has a street punk Oi! vibe. This is fine USA-styled blue collar Oi! with a little HOT WATER MUSIC and most of the No Idea Records catalog in a blender. I hear some mid-period DWARVES and Dave Hause influence as well. They have been a band for five years and have consistently put out this working class flavor of driving street punk and singing on the downstrokes. The CD has fourteen songs, some are shorter and some are longer. I think that if these folks were forced into a room for three days to write ten songs, throw all ten in the trash, and repeat this until they have written and garbage-binned thirty songs, that the next ten songs we hear could be the kind of record that inspires. That next record could be on a best of the decade(s) list, but this record, even with its memorable chunks, still has the feeling of a reporter talking about observable events, whereas they could be the stroke that makes the spectator take action, or whatever.

Shelter Cat 66 Percent Strength LP

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, LEATHERFACE, and almost-Lookout! bands like ONE MAN RUNNING and M-BLANKET are bands I think of when I listen to this. It is hitting in all the right spots but, for me, I have a difficulty with their song “Toothlessness.” The song “Toothlessness” sounds remarkably similar to a THORNS OF LIFE (Daniel Sea, Blake Schwarzenbach, Aaron Cometbus) song called “New York is Giving Me the Creeps.” I get that there are only so many guitar chords, but this goes further than parallel thinking. The band seems to swipe the changes, the vocal cadence, and even lyrics from the song “New York is Giving Me the Creeps.” Maybe because THORNS OF LIFE didn’t ever officially record anything, it seemed open to grab. But,come on, all three of the people in THORNS OF LIFE were in some of the most known Bay Area bands of the punk scene, ranging from G’RUPS, to CRIMPSHRINE, to JAWBREAKER. Each person in the band has their own Wikipedia and IMDb page, for gosh sakes. This entire record feels a bit dishonest to me. I don’t want to be cruel, but fuck it, something smells funny. I now question every song on this LP, and I can’t un-smell it.

Norcos y Horchata Unkind Sometimes / Don’t Come Crying to Me 7″

“Unkind Sometimes” starts off with such gross, distorted, driving bass that it could be the dumpster baby of your favorite FEEDTIME or NO BAILS tune. When the song kicks in, the vocals remind me of the darker NAKED RAYGUN songs, with a little NOMEANSNO seasoning for that extra aural punch. The flipside of this lil’ spinner hits with some guitar feedback/pedal knob-twisting that pulls me back to the TRANS MEGETTI’s 1999 opening track “Rio Nexpa,” wherein it builds a tension that makes my legs sweat. It bursts into a ’77-style thug bar pounder, and out of nowhere Annie comes in delivering “Everyone hide your head, everyone will soon be dead.” She only plops in once to deliver this, which emphasizes the band’s attuned craftsmanship to impact and craving more. I mean, come on, a great song with a greater hook only one time in the song! It is both genius and irritating. I don’t know if this song is about the end of the world or the end of a friendship, but either way, it is worth a spin. This is the perfect two-sider that makes me bummed that I slept on getting their LP. I think I should mention this has folks that were in BILL BONDSMAN, BUMP-N-UGLIES, DEVIOUS ONES, the PUTZ, and many others.

Turnarounds Turnarounds LP

Musically, I hear FACE TO FACE and PROPAGANDHI in the best ways possible, if you can imagine. Although saying that this could be an Epitaph or Fat Records release will deter some readers, I believe that this record lends itself to the better side of those label’s releases. Unlike many of the bands that step into any genre of DIY, these TURNAROUNDS seem less like they are trying to purposely pattern themselves around a sound as much as they are compelled to make music that sounds like this (e.g. ASEXUALS, DOUGHBOYS, NILS, STATUES). Ten songs total, and each song feels honest and musically thoughtful in a very Canadian way that only Canadians take the time to do, methinks. I can see this record making a 2024 top ten list.