The RadioActivist

I haven’t heard any of Johnny Rev’s previous material, but based on past reflections, it would seem that they have at least made some improvement in the quality of their musical output. Whereas the afore-linked Not Your Scene featured the production of sought-after mainstay Matt Allison (Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio, the Copyrights), the Kill the Lights EP was produced by Dan Precision (Much the Same, Shot Baker, Flatfoot 56), of Rise Against, Break the Silence, and 88 Fingers Louie fame. And while the music still resembles loose, formulaic skatepunk, at least the lyrics seem more coherent and perhaps a bit less amateur. In the three tracks that make up the Dropcard EP, the band assembles mildly capable sounding melodic punk that sounds more like early 2000s Drive-Thru than the mid-'90s EpiFat they claim as influence. The vocals are strained and fairly weenie, making their Bad Religion influence sound more like the Benjamins, only much less endearing. Furthermore, the songs are all...

Providence, Rhode Island’s the Down and Outs are bringing the mid-'90s skatepunk style back on their debut LP, Cacophony. Though this disc isn't really a cacophony by any stretch of the imagination, the '90s EpiFat influences are unmistakable. Rolling rhythms, lightning palm mutes, and gang "whoa"s populate this album, which at 40 minutes runs on the longer side of such a style, though several of said minutes are dead air leading to the four-minute “secret” track, a cover of Paula Abdul’s 1988 hit single “Straight Up.” Excessiveness seems to be the only real problem on an otherwise nice debut effort by the Down and Outs. The opening track “Villain” clocks in at 3:46, taking a minute-and-a-half to build before it finally gets going. On “Numbers” it takes nearly a minute, while on both “Bridges and Breakdowns” and “Hanging Up” there’s 45 seconds of chords progressions and drums before any vocals kick in. It’s not a huge complaint, but it’s kind of boring to listen t...