Labels: Sub City
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is a neat idea, a sampler CD which benefits a cause rather than simply the record label, which, in this case, is Subcity. The cause is an American foundation fighting blindness. There is even some braille on the neat card packaging.
Listo time! A bunch of these tracks are unreleased by the way.
- Fifteen – contribute 2 songs, pretty solid melodic punk rock with odd vocals. decent, better than many who do this standard style – the 2nd song is highly catchy and toe-tapping, reminds a bit of Pinhead Circus
- Scared of Chaka – also give 2 songs. lo-fi punk, which i guess means it sounds like it was recorded live, next to a speaker through which all the instruments are piped through. ragged punk rock. cool
- FYP – sloppy, stoopid pop punk
- the Weakerthans – one of the bands i was looking forward to hearing most on here, and they don’t disappoint with this slow, tinkly, dreamy indie rock gem. wowee, this is just awesome
- Dillinger Four – ooh, dunno where this was previously released – it’s called “Inquiring Minds” – but i ain’t heard it before. what else is there to say about everyones favourite punk rock band? they have the best guitars, they have the best drums. you ought to like them
- Against All Authority – fastpunk with sneery vocals and ska breakdowns. yawn, although sounds better louder
- Falling Sickness – acoustic version of some other song. sounds like an acoustic song performed by a band that isn’t normally acoustic. why bother?
- Algebra One – sound a bit like that new breed of emoish melodic hardcore bands like the Broadways and Alkaline Trio, i.e. they have that nasally kind of singer, and jangly bits are littered between the noisy parts, and the lyrics are like “you are my shining sun”. hey, it’s good, but i can’t listen to an album of this stuff. you’d probably love it, i would have 6 months ago
- Funeral Oration – a dutch band that sound like bad religion except their singer has a shaky voice
- Kid Dynamite – one of the songs from their split EP with 88 Fingers Louie, starts out a bit like generic melodic hardcore, but quickly gets better because the singer is so cool, and it slows down completely for a while. best band of this type
- Heckle – piss off to epitaph or something
- Damnation – fast hardcore which retains a tune, sounds like some bands, but i don’t know which. pilfers the riff from “ace of spades” – solid stuff
- the Rabies – moderate fatcore, like – what is the point?
Standout songs from D4 and the Weakerthans (definitely the best) then. There’s loadsa cool samples and effects in between the songs too. And some young kids read out the track listing at the end. Fun! Worth picking up, supports a good cause, and it’s cheapy too.