Ringers - Detention Halls (2007)

Without fear of sounding melodramtic I can confidently say that listening to this Ringers record a lot like the first time I heard Rancid. There has been such an avalanche of "real" punk rock bands that for me all of these bands have started to blend together as Dillinger Four without the good songs. Yikes. To be honest, I haven't liked a new-ish punk band (not pop-punk, not indie-punk, not lo-fi punk but puuuuunk punk) in quite some time.

Remember how the first time you listened to Rancid, you understood why people put them above the rest of the pack during the hey day of Epitaph bands? Well, I have no idea why people have not given Ringers more credit than they have. While it isn't reinventing the wheel, this record takes all the best elements of street punk, beard-rock punk and pop-punk, throw in really good hooks and catchy melodies in every song and it just comes out on top. Although they aren't treading new ground, this record is far from boring. There is an energy here that grabs ya from the speakers and beckons you to turn it louder and louder and louder and louder. Then all of a sudden your girlfriend comes in and says "hey, you know this is really loud, right?"

Yup.

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride (2008)

Since listening to this record for the first time ever at 11 AM, I have been listening to it all morning. For me, it is a very welcome change from the softly introspective Get Lonely which at many moments was just too tiringly moody for its own good. The powerful opener "Sax Rohmer #1" welcomes the listener with a jagged poppy stomp and the catchiest song Darnielle has written since "This Year."

After three mostly autobiographical records, Darnielle has gone back to writing stories about other folks and after such an emotionally harrowing record, the life that is bursting from all seams of Heretic Pride feels quite vindicating. This record lacks a singular concept for the first time since Tallahassee which takes some getting used to, mostly because instead of the lo-fi folk of old Goats records, the production on this record is as clear as a bell.

Hearing songs that could belong on All Hail West Texas played by pizzicato strings instead of an tape-overdrive-soaked acoustic guitar and vocals puts a new perspective on the Mountain Goats. The production makes the reserved moments in album closer "Michael Myers Resplendent" as powerful as the opening track and everything in between.

I guess what I find strangest about this record is that the Mountain Goats have really treaded new ground constantly since they've been putting out records with 4AD. It's nearly impossible to match an effort as impressive as Tallahassee and this record still doesn't do it, but for the first time it doesn't seem like Darnielle is trying to match it. Instead, Heretic Pride just has great song after great song after great song. Although there is not much element of danger or surprise, that appears to leave Darnielle comfortable enough to have written thirteen songs that will stick with ya for a long long time.

Blood Brothers - Young Machetes (2006)

The Blood Brothers have had a really really weird career. They have been on the unfortunate end of many label bankruptcies (first Artist Direct and later V2) and they have also been fortunate enough to be one of the most abrasive bands to ever have mass success (this record even debuted in the Billboard Top 100) They forced the homophobic hardcore scene to embrace a little femininity which sassiness and fashion.

So it is a bummer this band broke up, and it is a little bit more of a bummer that their last record Young Machetes didn't have the singular visions of their previous records, however, this may be indicative of why the band broke up. The much revered Burn, Piano Island, Burn was a constant blasts of all members playing all notes all the time and the better selling but fan repellent Crimes was a more focused, simpler and at times poppy execution of the strange and terrifying caterwauls about fucked-up shit. After the introduction of more keyboard oriented songs with beats you could dance to, the exact opposite, it was exciting to think of where the Blood Brothers could go from there.

"Set Fire to the Face on Fire" starts the album off brilliantly with a chant of "Fire! Fire! Fire!" before giving way to an awkward pogo drum beat and single-note shredding on the guitar. This makes for one of the best songs on the record, which often goes down similar paths as this song but often times so disjointedly that the songs lose their personality. There are a lot of songs on this record, and the Blood Brothers have gone back to displaying all of their technical powers full force on a lot of them, so by track fourteen they blend together a little bit.

There are a handful of Crimes-esque bizarre pop-gems on this record and for the most part they are pretty good but they aren't treading any new ground. "Spit Shine Your Black Lungs" is the clear stand out of these songs, with its stomping drum beat and both vocalists letting their respective catty and snotty voices do everything accomplish what bands with normal sounding singers never could. Young Machetes also brings a lot more quiet and atmospheric elements than we're used to hearing from the Blood Brothers which may be the new sound that they were planning to focus this record around. While there are hits and misses, it is amazing to hear a band actually bring true dynamic to such abrasive music; the slow build-up to the My-Bloody-Valentine-meets-a-million-bulldozers drone at the end of "Lift the Veil, Kiss the Tank" shines as one of the best moments in this band's career.

Unfortunately, the schizophrenia of this album causes it to be ultimately a bit too long. It seems as if singers Jordan and Johnny's side projects (the ferocious Head Wound City and the grooving swaggering Neon Blonde) have lead this album to be divided between the intense and the accessible. The problem is that people loved this band because they were intense and accessible, and dividing the two 'causes a lot of these songs not to match up with ones on previous records. One has to wonder if the plan was to unite to make a quiet moody record, but fears of more fan backlash invited the elements of their previous work.

But probably not. The Blood Brothers never seemed like a band that could give a flying fuck. Another reason people loved this band, probably the main reason, is that they didn't sound a thing like anything that ever came before it, and many imitators have failed at continuing the bands legacy. While this record being TOO much might make a little lower on the totem pole than the last two records, it is light years ahead of what anyone of this genre was ever thinking. It is a shame that two labels going bankrupt may have ruptured what was probably the brightest hope of the hardcore scene. I just hope someday someone can grab the torch from these guys, but by the end they had really run so far past their competition that it's gonna be tough.

Self - Breakfast With Girls (1999)

It really makes the world seem Godless, soulless and completely fucking stupid when flaky pop groups like Len, Smash Mouth and Citizen King can pull of huge singles (even if they are only one-hit wonders) but once you add a little bit of depth to something equally as poppy and snappy and catchy, you lose that appeal. I might as well say right now that I knew nothing about Self when first hearing this record. I eventually learned that Matt Mahaffey plays most of the instruments and does most of the production and that Self started out his home recordings.

This record is their major label debut, and it sounds like it. The guitars are huge, the bass is deeeep and you can hear the crack of every drum hit. The layers and layers of keyboards, horns, strings, etc. can easily dismantle into clearly audible instruments which is not very common in such arrangement-intensive music. What I like most about Breakfast With Girls is that it's pretty tough to put this into a genre. There is so much going on in all of these songs, and what generally shines is that dichotomy of crisp electronic instruments and warm deep analog instruments recorded and played perfectly. My only real trouble with this record is that Mahaffey's voice is a bit of a hurdle to get over... at times the throaty rasp can sound better placed in a Color Me Badd song. The initial shininess of his voice is CRAZY overshadowed by the brilliant production choices on this record... the two-second hip-hop breakdown in "Kill the Barflies", the nintendo-esque keyboard riff in the chorus of the single "Meg Ryan", the horn samples in "What Are You Thinking?!" are all moments where you just wanna throw up your hands and shout "OH SHIT!" and rewind it a few times 'cause ya can't believe someone could think of shit that perfect.

There are a handful of bad decisions made on this record, but it was pointed out to me that those all had to do with Dreamworks who kept trying to bleed this record for a single, holding it for two years (which probably made it sound dated once released) and constantly sending Mahaffey back into the studio to record a "single" for the record. "Uno Girls" is so poppy it almost hurts to listen to, but in the context of "FUCK YOU RECORD LABEL, HERE'S A FUCKING POP SONG. FUCK YOU." it's a bit easier to swallow. There are also a few others that sound a little overwroughtly poppy for this record, and according to my friend Joel the Brunch EP has a bunch of songs that would have filled these spots way more appropriately, but those are now pretty out of print and hard to find. Oh well. Who would have thought a major label could fuck up an album!

--Jeff