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Showing posts from May, 2010

Review: The Manix - "Van Activities" [7-inch]

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Pop-punk should not be this fun! Wait a minute, yes it should. It’s just that since melodic masochists like Alkaline Trio and all their equally distraught copycats exploded a few years back, it seems like everyone outside of the Ramones-core crowd has been singing about heartbreak and empty bottles. Not so, with the Manix. Like the rusted rickshaw of its namesake, Van Activities burns rubber on a solid foundation of four on the floor. From ribbing Val Kilmer on the spry sing-along “Madmartigan” to shoulder-shrugging agnostics on “Metal Endings,” the quartet carves out a niche that’s increasingly their own despite well-deserved comparisons to Dillinger Four and Toys That Kill. Intro paragraph notwithstanding, Van Activities isn't all smiles and chuckles, as the EP’s sole comedown “Reach for the Sky” asserts, “Thanks again, this is goodbye / You should hear yourself sometimes / You’re nothing more that I’d pursue / 'Cause you’re not pulling through this fine.” The blistering inso

Review: Attitude Adjustment - "The Collection"

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Attitude Adjustment is one of those moderately obscure bands that never received the attention they deserved and stayed fairly below the radar despite their relatively high profile on a local level. Proof is in both this re-release compilation on punk archive experts Taang! and the smattering of fliers across the liner notes that document billing alongside such immortal acts in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as DRI, Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, Discharge, RKL, Poison Idea and even NOFX. The Collection is a three-piece assemblage of Attitude Adjustment’s full-length studio discography spanning 1986’s American Paranoia, 1988’s No More Mr. Nice Guy and 1991’s Out of Hand. In what looks on paper like somewhat of a revolving-door lineup, the only constant in the group is drummer Chris K., while guitarists, bassists and even singers drift in and out. AA’s snotty thrash-punk does nothing to belie their juvenile lyrics and half-baked ideas. But this is without a doubt the charm of the 16 s