The RadioActivist

London, England’s legendary Oi! boys the Business have been cranking out working-class punk rock longer than many of us have been alive, and despite periodic bouts of inactivity, have remained a productive musical force for 30 years. Doing the Business is the band’s first release on Sailor’s Grave, a union that seemed bound to happen and is, frankly, a little surprising it took this long. Obvious statements aside, this release combines a four-track studio EP with six live tracks, five of which were recorded at the London’s Marquee Club in 1982. Why they didn't feature all the live tracks from the same show is anyone’s guess, but the live tracks here aren't the main thrust of the release anyway. The studio portion of the disc is made up entirely of covers, which is surprising since the release hasn't been marketed as a covers album at all. First, English rock band Status Quo has some punk energy injected into their 1973 single “Mean Girl,” which makes for a pretty good openi...

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...