So before the review can begin, here’s a quick history lesson. Minor Threat was a hardcore punk pioneering band from Washington DC, two of them started Dischord Records to put out their music and their friends’ music. The guitarist from the later Minor Threat line up is a guy called Brian Baker, this guy pretty much invented the melodic hardcore genre in his post Minor Threat band Dag Nasty. The original singer (although not on vinyl until recently) was a guy called Shawn Brown. He was kicked out of Dag Nasty and replaced with, now right wing and reformer and ruiner of bands, Dave Smalley. Brown surfaced a few years later with a new band of young second generation DC hardcore kids with Swiz. They were fucking great because they mixed the heavy metallic infused hardcore of the time and classic DC sounds to great effect. Swiz did two albums and a bunch of singles and split up. They then reformed as Sweetbelly Freakdown, while guitarist and songwriter Jason Farrell was on a break from his DC post-hardcore icons Bluetip. This was not a repeat of Swiz, but featured all original members (similar to what Owls is to Cap’n Jazz), this wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but is highly respectable either way. Then they moved on did other bands such as Retisonic and Jesuseater.
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with a surprise reformation once again of Swiz, but without original drummer, instead replaced by Garden Variety (underrated early 90s punk band) drummer Joe Gorelick, who also played in Retisonic.
Confused yet? OK, we now we arrive with Red Hare, who put the first track off their LP up on Youtube just after the original lineup reformation of Dag Nasty and blew minds. I was really excited to hear this record and was really happy with how it’s come out. It sounds exactly like I wanted and more. Brown’s personal and scathing vocals are on form, covering the topics we are used to: alienation, the breakdown of personal relationships, anxiety and all that good stuff. The vocals are often backed up with Farrell’s vocal style used in Bluetip and Retisonic, layered perfectly with no ‘lead vocal’ often. Farrell’s guitar is on fucking form: chugging and jangling in equal measures with tonnes of squeals and squeaks.
Let’s be clear here, this is no old dudes record, this is as hard as Swiz and as melodic as Bluetip. There is no fucking about here. The production is incredibly good, recorded and mixed by J Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, producer of endless great LPs), a benchmark for modern hardcore records in that respect in my eyes.
Yeah go buy this, it’s fucking ace