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Showing posts from May, 2009

Review: Trencher - "When Dracula Thinks 'Look at Me'"

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When one thinks of oft-imitated bands, the Locust usually isn’t the first one to come to mind. Yet that’s exactly what seems to be dealing a large dose of influence in the direction of London, England’s Trencher. True, Trencher dons infinitely less full-body, skintight nylon suits and operates as a trio sans guitar unlike the full-band, four-piece Locust…but let’s be real: Their ultra-short, noisy blasts of keyboard grind with cringingly creepy lyrical themes (“Horse Race Amputee,” “Erotica of Flies,” “Wounds Cordon Bleu”) roll extremely close in the game of musical marbles to their U.S. tourmates….yeah, the Locust. While this entire review could probably be spent comparing and contrasting the two bands, let’s pretend for a moment that there’s no basis for association and describe Trencher as is. First observation: no guitar. Distorted bass, shrieks and screams abound, and a Casio keyboard help fill in the sound, that succeeds in at least not sounding lacking at all, and fairly convinc

Review: Last Lights - "No Past No Present No Future"

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When Last Lights opened for Four Year Strong at BU Central on December 5th, 2008, the band was celebrating their signing to blossoming punk label Think Fast! just two days prior, and singer Dominic Mallary was as energetic as ever, hurling himself about on the stage, screaming his lungs out and twisting the microphone cord around his neck, as he did nearly every show. A few hours later, his health began rapidly spiraling downwards, as he lost feeling in his legs and eventually convulsed in seizures after being taken to the hospital where he lost consciousness. Some 15 hours after performing what would be his final set, the last lights went out for Dominic Mallary, dying of a brain aneurysm before he could witness the full fruition of all his hard work and talent. Though the band decided not to go on without Dominic, their recent contract with Think Fast! allowed them a proper sendoff, giving widespread release to their entire discography consolidated onto one album. From their initial

Review: Roll Call - "Sotto il suo Cielo"

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Finally! A European punk band that doesn’t feel like they have to sing in awkward, grammatically-massacred English! It’s a breath of fresh air, but alas, it’s also one of the more exciting things about this album. Roll Call hails from Italy and plays a standard style of slow Oi! punk and/or roughed-up rock and roll. Though the first track “Preludio” is an intensity-building angry mob clip like the beginning of Refused’s “Rather Be Dead” or Leftover Crack’s “So You Wanna Be a Cop?”, the album that follows thoroughly lacks the intensity to match. The main problem is with the pacing. Slower songs aren’t inherently bad, but the sluggishness heard here is almost distracting. Songs like “Ricco Annoiato” (or “Bored Rich”) and “Fiero” (“Proud”) aren’t really bad, but with the average song somewhere around four minutes in length, they just spend too much time not really going anywhere. “No Mi Tzicheddi” is the fastest song, and at 3:44, nearly the shortest, which would generally make for the be

Interview: Agnostic Front

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The New York Hardcore institution known as Agnostic Front has been around in consistent form since 1983, making it one of the longest-running hardcore bands that hasn’t splintered into some unrecognizable faction or faux-legacy of reunions and hostile takeovers (see “Dead Kennedys,” “Misfits,” “Gang Green,” etc). Nearly thirty years after their formation, I (GlassPipeMurder) had the chance to sit down with founding guitarist Vinnie Stigma, Joseph James, Mike Gallo, and drummer Pokey Mo, who had just joined Agnostic Front last month. I don’t feel like I pulled any punches in this interview, and the band was very forthcoming, sincere, and appreciative of the interest in Agnostic Front. The band released Warriors in 2007 and talked about the past, present, and future of Agnostic Front backstage before their show at Minneapolis’ Triple Rock Social Club. You can click Read More for the details. How are you guys doing? How does it feel to be alive and on tour in 2009? Vinnie Stigma: Feels gr

Review: Roll the Tanks - "Suffer City"

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First impressions aren’t nearly as important as everyone makes them out to be. If they were, I would be much more smitten over this album than I actually am. And even though (spoiler alert) it’s not bad, my initial enthusiasm faded quickly. With a pretty good band name, cool CD booklet artwork, a clever title take on David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” and a good introductory song chosen randomly by the “shuffle” option on my CD player, this disc seemed to have a lot going for it. But by the end of the cycle, I found myself not only less impressed with Roll the Tanks -- I couldn’t even find the first song I really liked again! Either I was hyping up my own enjoyment, or the rest of the album’s patchiness washed away the early delight. Based on re-listens, I would have to guess it was either “Police Me,” a catchy mid-tempo power-popper of threats to “Crash down on your Crown Vic,” or “Defense Mecca,” a choppy garage tune that must have been the one I liked because I remember muttering some