Review Archive: N

Through Silver in Blood  

I spent 70 minutes out of my life listening to Through Silver in Blood, and I want them back. Neurosis play some sort of metal that goes on for what seems like forever. Five of these 9 songs are over nine minutes long each; two break the 12-minute mark. It's definitely not my kind of thing, but if you like slow, heavy music (and have a lot of patience), it might be yours.

Scared Straight  

New Bomb Turks' first Epitaph release shouldn't disappoint old fans, and most likely will find plenty of new ones. NBT keep things pretty simple and basically blast out high-energy rock & roll that begs to be played loud. "Professional Againster" sounds influenced by 50's rock and "Wrest Your Hands" has a Stones feel to it, but all have the energy of 90's punk. "Hammerless Nail", "Jeers of a Clown", and "Bachelor's High" are some of the high points. Scared Straight flat-out rocks; not much else needs to be said.

Supersound Speedway  

This isn't like most music I've heard recently; New Sweet Breath have a simple and effective approach to their "brand" of pop/punk/alt rock. On both their full length (Supersound Speedway ) and their new 3-song 7", the guitar is kinda jangly, the bass is present but not overpowering, the vocals are a bit distorted, and overall "low-fi" is the phrase that pops into your mind when listening to them. If that sounds negative, it's not supposed to; I can't really put my finger on why New Sweet Breath is so good, they just are.

Demolition Theater  

The second album by New Sweet Breath doesn't disappoint. The Seattle trio have a sound comparable (although not really similar) to earlier Superchunk, and although I can't explain their music very well, they do play it well. They're poppy but not cheesy or trite, noisy without total cacophony, punk without mohawks and leather, and indie rock-y without taking themselves too seriously. Distortion continues to have a recurring role in their music — especially with the vocals — though not to a point where it's hiding anything. And that's good, considering Demolition Theater has some pretty catchy songs.

Get This!  

The new one from the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time, ska or not. NYSJE play my favorite style of ska: 60's old school (mainly instrumentals) updated for today; very smooth, catchy songs, good solos, and overall great musicians (with a small but killer horn section made up of a couple Toasters). Although most of NYSJE's songs have a Skatalites-like sound ("Tilt-a-Whirl" — an amazing song — is very reminscent of the Skatalites' "Latin Goes Ska"), they also toss in some other styles: for example, "Buttah" (with vocals supplied by the Toasters' Jack Ruby Jr.) leans more towards reggae and "Morningside" has a very peppy calypso sound. Other definite favorites are "Filthy McNasty", "Get This", "Agenda", and "Arachnid". Only "See Saw" is a song I tend to skip over, mainly because of the hokey lyrics, but the other 13 tracks on the album are clear winners. Forget anything else — Get This! is real ska at its best.

Heavy Petting Zoo  

Though I thought their last album was hit-or-miss in parts, Heavy Petting Zoo is a more consistent effort. It's what you'd expect from NOFX: fast, tight punk with a good dose of humor. Something I've always liked about NOFX is that not all their songs sound alike: they continue to have a mix of poppy punk, powerful one-minute blasts, slower songs, and a few with some hardcore and ska mixed in here and there. But you already know all this so I'll just shut up.

So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes  

I realize that I'm not exactly being cutting-edge by choosing NOFX for Album of the Month (December 1997), but what can I say: it's a great album. I also realize that it's not "punk" to like a band so widely-accepted, but I never claim or try to be punk. But if you like NOFX (or any of the thousands of sound-alike bands influenced by them) So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes is a fantastic record. It's much more focused than Heavy Petting Zoo or Punk in Drublic, as the first four songs (clocking in at a total 5 minutes, 15 seconds) quickly demonstrate: they're short, fast and tight with a generous helping of humor and sarcasm ("It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite", "Murder the Government", "Monosyllabic Girl"). NOFX also continue to throw in some ska-core here and there...and do it much better than "real" ska-core bands like Reel Lame Fish.
   There are also a couple attacks on some prominent figures in the punk community: "I'm Telling Tim" is a funny rant about MRR's Tim Yohannan ("You better watch out, you better not cry, you better put out records DIY...if you fuck up I'm telling Tim. You're gonna get ostracized like Lawrence when I tell Tim"), and "Kill Rock Stars" is pretty much an open letter to Kathleen Hannna. Out of the 16 songs on SLATFATS, only one is mediocre: "Dad's Bad News" sound like one of Bad Religion's lamer, slower songs. But the rest of the album completely overshadow that one song. The "hidden" clip from the Howard Stern show is pretty damn funny, too!

BYO Split Vol. 3