Review Archive: S

Jennie Bomb  

Sahara Hotnights is another great punk rock band (all female, if that matters) from Sweden who play catchy poppy punk. It's solid rock, well-written with nice, unexpected key changes occasionally thrown in to keep it interesting. Every song is excellent, with "Alright Alright", "On Top Of Your World", "With Or Without Control", and "Only the Fakes Survive" standing out. But where The Hives (here come the comparisons...) have a couple ultra-catchy songs on "Veni Vidi Vicious" that pushed them into the spotlight, Jennie Bomb lacks one, which can be the only explanation why more people haven't heard this CD.

You Are Freaking Me Out  

I've been waiting for this album to come out in the U.S. for months; reading about its European release last year not only got me salivating for it, but also got me a little upset at how long it was taking. Needless to say I was expecting a lot from this record, and while it doesn't let me down, it's not as amazing as I had hoped. Maybe the long wait raised my expectations too high; maybe it was all the good things I heard about it from friends in the UK; or maybe it's the part of me that hopes that someday they'll actually be able to top Soar.
    But You Are Freaking Me Out is a great album, nothing short of what you'd expect from probably the best rock-punk bands around (especially now that Jawbreaker is gone...damn). The first three songs ("Full On", "She Found You", "Factory") are some of the best they've ever recorded; tracks 4 and 5 slow things down before mixing it up (fast and slow) over the course of the last 8 songs. The music is energetic and powerful, catchy and well-produced, while the lyrical content is similar to past material — kind of on the bleak, depressing side. The album ends with a great cover of the Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry", a pretty bold move (in my opinion) since I rarely hear a band do justice to a Beatles original.

Ska in Hi Fi  

I was in a crappy mood when I came from work recently, but my moods quickly picked up when I pulled Ska in Hi Fi out of my mailbox--The Scofflaws are back with more music designed for dancing. If you've heard them, you know what makes them good; they have their own style that really grooves. I think The Scofflaw style is most easily heard on their instrumentals (like "Parish," "Groovin' Lowe," "Bela"), but if lyrics are your thing, they got those, too. Overall this is another good album.

You Are Not the Boss of Me!  

Sicko is one of those bands that make me feel like a kid: happy, hyper, and running on a serious sugar high. (It helps that their lyrics are sometimes about their childhood, which sometimes sounds eerily similar to mine...) What other band can get away with singing a rocking song about Peter Rabbit? Not many. Overall You Are Not the Boss of Me is not cutting much new ground for the band — they're still hitting you with the same catchy, short (not one of their songs passes the 2:30 mark and most are around a minute and a half), pop-punk-rock style as their earlier releases (with bigger production). Of course, what's wrong with that? ("If it ain't broke...") There's obviously something to it — I can't stop listening to this record! Seventeen tracks and not a bad one among them...well, I can usually skip the Iron Maiden cover, but you metalheads will get a kick out of it.

Call to Arms   

I don't listen to much hardcore these days, but I have to say that NYC-style HC was what I listened to most (outside of early SST & Dischord stuff), so I still enjoy it once in a while. Call to Arms is as good as my old beat up Blood Sweat & No Tears tape. Hard & fast music (without crossing the metal line), serious lyrics screamed & shouted, anthemic choruses — what else did you expect? I'm not sure how their fans reacted to their last album — which was on a major label — but since I didn't even know they left the indie world, I can say with ears ununtainted by "sellout hearing" that Call to Arms rocks.

Core Sample  

The new album from Ringing Ear's flagship band is another good effort — a little stonger than their last one, actually (more on par with Groping for Trout). Jon and Eliot continue to do more singing, this time leaving Chris (who sang most of their debut album) singing lead on only two songs here. A couple songs on Core Sample have more of a "poppy rock" than "pop punk" feel to them (kind of in the same category as Big Drill Car), like "Donut" (which would fit well as a b-side to last album's "Anyhow Anyway"). Others are faster: "Mush-Mouth," "Cherry" (my favorite), and "Dogstein" (which has a "classic Sinkhole sound").

Retrospectacles  

In my opinion (and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way), Sinkhole was one of the best punk bands to come out of Boston — or New Hampshire, depending on who you asked... Retrospectacles is partially a "best of" collection from their first three albums: 12 songs that are a great introduction to the band (if you're a latecomer) as well as a nice mix for those of us who already own the records. "Waterbug", "Fudge Bar", "Wreck on the Highway", and "Never is Now" are just a couple of what Sinkhole fans voted as must-haves on this compilation. But the first seven songs on Retrospectacles areÊ new (well, recorded in 1997 and previously unreleased) — mostly with Jon on vocals — and continue to build on their previous releases. "Anything and Everything", "My Life II", and "Mom's Rules" are just as catchy as anything they've ever written. Damn shame they're gone...

Last Call  

Skanic play some 2-tone style ska with a good mix of rock thrown in for good measure — it's catchy and dancable, but has a bit of an edge. Although I wouldn't rate them as one of the best ska bands around today, they're decent, and Last Call has some good cuts on it: "Yard Duty", "Chaos", "Last Call", and the instrumental "Song #13" are some of the highlights. There's also a cover of Nirvana's "Breed" which, although not as good as the original, at least won't make Kurt roll over in his grave...

The Green Album  

You can't miss this CD — it's the unmarked, all-green CD found under 'S' in the ska bin at your local record store. The idea behind this CD was a covers album, with each member of Skankin' Pickle choosing a song to cover (and singing it!) But since many stores would charge full-price for an EP anyway, The Green Album evolved into an LP: six cover songs and seven SP originals. The original tunes are what you'd expect from Pickle: ska/core/punk/fun. The bands SP cover include Gorilla Biscuits ("Start Today"), Devo ("Gates of Steel"), Oingo Boingo ("Violent Love"), and Bad Brains (a great version of "Pay to Cum"). One final note: this was Mike "Bruce Lee" Park's final album with Skankin' Pickle (he now fronts his own band — the Bruce Lee band).

Ripe  

Those crazy boys from Newton, MA are back at it! Fun, goofy ska in a modern style with influences ranging from jazz, big band, and (of course) 60's ska. And there's nothing like a good horn section to fuse these styles together like glue, and they've got it. "Japanese Robot", "Aquaman", "The Plague", and "Phobus" are just a few examples that'll convince you why Skavoovie & the Epitones is one of the hottest bands to come out of the Boston ska scene.

The Growler   

Skavoovie & the Epitones return with another set of horn-filled ska tunes on their latest, The Growler. The album as a whole is a bit stronger than their last, Ripe, and there's a great mix of vocal songs and instrumentals, fast and slow. "Boyo" and "The Coffee Connection" (their anti-coffee song) get things jumping right away before slowing things down with the gooving "Soul Searcher". Where some ska bands continue doing the same old stuff over & over, Skavoovie keeps it interesting by blending old-school ska with third-wave ska, and adding rock, jazz and big band to the mix. (Having a large and talented horn section is a big help.) The result is a solid set of songs: "Sharp Teeth" is one of the best instrumentals I've ever heard from any band; other highlights include "Tiny Machines", "Desert Gold", "Foster's Ghost", and "Salad Days".

"Roots and Suits" is a split single from a couple of ska/oi bands. The Skoidats start things off with a quality third-wave ska tune; their second offering, the fast political punk "Patriot Decay", sounds like a totally different band (decent song, though). New Jersey's Inspecter (yes, that's how they spell it) 7 also serve up two sides to their style: "Asbury Park" kinda reminds me a little of early Skunks, and "Junior Guzzler" is a faster, harder tune (which, like the Skoidats' punk song, makes up for its lack of originality with energy). Nice split.

The Times  

This ain't the boring ska-core you've come to know and hate (read: Reel Lame Fish, Goldfinger). The Skoidats serve up a big stein of ska/oi on their latest, The Times. The music mixes up ska (kind of a combination of fast third-wave and horn-driven traditional), oi, and rock/punk — the variety of the album will please fans of any of those genres. The Times is a real fun record and is a good mix of vocal tunes ("Saturday Skins", "Last Night", the Skatalites-inspired "Rootsawalkin") and instrumentals ("Whirlwind", "Josh & John's Revenge"). The Skoidats don't take things too seriously, which is quite apparent when you get to the last song — "Beer, Beer, Beer", which is a pub-song tribute to the inventor of beer. Have a sing-along with your favorite straight-edgers! And don't forget to stick around for the CD's hidden track at the end...

No Apologies  

It seems that really good ska is fewer and farther between than I'd like it to be. Luckily, something really good will come along and break my dry spell, and I'm not surprised that the Skunks did it. They've always put out really good music, and No Apologies is no exception. By blending ska, reggae/dub, rock, and a dash of punk/hardcore, the Skunks keep things interesting throughout the album — fast, slow, instrumentals. This CD includes 13 new songs, a couple covers ("Simmer Down" and "Yesterday's Heroes"), and a couple re-releases of older songs ("Carnival" and "Monoskat 7" — which includes a great Police Squad sample where Dick Clark asks Johnny the shoeshine guy what ska is).

Lookit!  

Good Illinois ska-core. You like Op Ivy, Skankin' Pickle, VGS? Chances are it's safe to add Slapstick to that list. Fourteen songs under half hour should tell you something about the songs' lengths. After a while the singer's voice, with his raspy/gravely almost-trying-too-hard-to-be-cool voice, can kinda grate on your nerves, but overall Lookit is good fun stuff.

Memory-Minus  

The term discography is usually applied to a band's complete catalog of recorded material and is often released following the said band's demise. But for Virginia's Sleepytime Trio, the term discography can only be applied loosely.

On the 54 minute cd, memory-minus, the Sleepytime Trio compile all of their recorded material to date plus five live songs from Germany. But... the band stresses the fact their catalog of songs will increase with time and that they are not broken up; just resting. And they wanted their songs available to those without a record player. In case you're not familiar with the Trio, who are actually a four piece, their sound captures the quiet intensity of Hoover and combines that with the fall-down frantic-ness of Merel and Frodus. It's a very catchy mix. And as a bonus, the live songs add another dimension to their intensity that's too good to pass up. [Brian Tunney]

What late comers to the small factory table have never realized is that back in the happy acoustic days of this trio, Dave Auchenbach was singing more than 50% of the songs. The two later albums Alex would emerge as the lead singer. These poppy tunes collected here compile all their singles and compilation tracks on one convenient compact disc. The tracks sound slightly different from their vinyl predecessors, some slight vocal adjustments here and there, but just listening once will have you wanting to drive off to someplace cheap and amazing. [Jamie Quinn]

FYULABA  

Those Canadians are back with another album, FYULABA, which is a step up from The One Voted Most Likely to Succeed. The music is what you'd expect from SNFU, and Mr. Chi Pig continues to come up with strange lyrics. Some of them are clever ("You Make Me Thick", "Don't Have the Cow"), some are silly ("Dean Martian", "Michelle Pfeiffer's Diaper"), and some are stupid ("Bobbitt", "The Kwellada Kid"), but his voice didn't bother me like it tended to do on Succeed. I'm not a huge SNFU fan, but this is a decent album.

Spiffy members include Descendents alumni Tony Lombardo and Ray Cooper, and unfortunately they have a sort of disadvantage of being compared (probably unfairly) to their earlier band. But that's life. You can probably guess how Spiffy sounds (in case you can't: think pop-punk). On it's own, this 3-song single is okay: "In the Mail" is a good song that conjures up memories of the better parts of TonyAll; "Make It" is okay; and "Secret" is relatively catchy. The vocals (Joel Bratton) sound a little on the weak side (but to be fair, it could just be my crappy turntable). You're not going to find a Descendents rebirth here, but it's not a bad record.

It's All Over  

Raw, energetic, female-fronted punk rock. I didn't like it much my first listen; the music was okay, but the vocals were kinda grating and sometimes off-key. But it grew on me — not to the point where I was really digging it, but enough so that I wasn't wanting to fast-forward.

I happened to come across this 4-song EP in the Velocity Girl bin: Starry Eyes is made up of Sarah, Jim and Kelly from VG; they also get a little help from some other musicians (including Bad Religion/Dag Nasty guitarist Brian Baker). Starry Eyes sound a lot like Velocity Girl (as I expected — especially "Nervous" — although they do lack a little compared their earilier band, partly due to the missing second guitarist. The songs are light and poppy, and Sarah's voice is as great as ever — very good stuff. My only complaint: it's too short. I'm hoping a full-length will appear someday.

"Astral Pilot" is kind of a mix of pop-punk/indie-rock; it's slow and not overly impressive. The b-side picks things up with "Whole" and "Fly-Bye", which are a little poppier and more energetic. The production sounds a little muddy, but that just may be my circa-1966 turntable...

Speedy straight edge hardcore. I don't appreciate the lyrics but the music is appealing. "To an End" has a fast "chugga chugga" style that reminds me a lot of old Victory and New Age stuff. The B-side, "Grey" is a bit slower and loses me halfway through. [Brian Chapman]

Open Season  

What do you get when members of Fishbone, The Skatalites, Skinnerbox NYC and The Toasters get together? An all-star band playing some smooth ska with a serious old school flavor. There's really not a whole lot that needs to be said about this album: if you like the traditional ska sound, you'll definitely want this. Open Season gets better each time I listen to it. I just don't get the whole cowboy thing...

Wrongville  

Sweet Diesel play hard-rocking music with a good variety of tempos — the songs range from slow to punk-fast (sometimes in the same song), though most are mid-tempo. All have a full, heavy guitar sound that reminds me of Quicksand, but unlike Quicksand, Sweet Diesel's slower songs come off sounding too heavy-metal. The singing is intense and slightly gravely, similar in style to Henry Rollins. I like this kind of music, and for the most part Sweet Diesel do it pretty well, but unfortunately 15 songs seem to be too much — the album starts to drag about halfway through. "I Know Who You Ain't," "Assout," "Mark," and "Work So Hard" are the standouts on Wrongville.

The Streets of San Francisco  

I haven't been able to stop listening to this since my brother hooked my up with the CD for my birthday. The Swingin' Utters have an obvious Clash influence, much like Rancid--not so coincidentally, Lars Frederickson produced The Streets of San Francisco. Out of the 19 tracks, there's only one that I regularly skip (the bar song "Catastrophe"), but that still leaves 18 highly addictive punk songs--and it's not very often I come across an album with that many good songs on it.

A Juvenile Product of the Working Class  

Yes, the Utters were the first band to get eWire's Album of the Month with The Streets of San Francisco, and their followup is every bit as good as that album. A Juveline Product of the Working Class still has their very Clash-like sound — the Utters and Rancid are two of the best Clash clones around. (Not that there's anything wrong with that — if you're gonna be influenced by a band, the Clash is a damn good one to emulate.) Fast, high energy punk ("The Next in Line" starts off slow and acoustic, but that doesn't last long), with some pretty memorable hooks. However, there are a couple songs on this album ("One in All, "London Drunk") that also seem to have a bit of the Pogues mixed in, thanks to the accordion. A damn good record.

Five Lessons Learned  

I'm a big fan of Clash-inspired punk bands, and few do it as well as the Swingin' Utters. Their latest full-length, Five Lessons Learned, continues their maturing sound beyond straight punk, though "I Need Feedback" is a fun Ramones/Queers-influenced tune (complete with hand claps). "A Promise to Distinction" adds some mandolin for a very Pogues-y sound; "Unpopular Again" (with Fat Mike on bass) is the Utters' experiment with ska; and several songs seamlessly blend accordian, piano, organ, and horns into the whole mix. But the majority of these fifteen tracks rock as hard as their earlier stuff. An album with not one bad song on it is a damn good thing to have.