Good Riddance
Good Riddance My Republic [2/5] The years have not been kind to Good Riddance. While the band’s first three full-lengths are hardcore classics, in the years since, acts such as Strike Anywhere have taken the group’s melodic-hardcore hybrid to new levels, while Santa Cruz’s finest have stayed relatively stagnant. My Republic isn’t much different: A...
Dead To Me
Dead To Me Cuban Ballerina Jack Dalrymple’s former band, One Man Army, gathered plenty of over-exultant comparisons over the years (Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash), but at the band’s heart was an unmistakable wellspring of California punk-pop. Dalrymple’s new foursome, co-fronted by Western Addiction bassist Chicken, are just as rooted to that same regional bloodline....
Catch 22
Catch 22 Permanent Revolution [3/5] With Permanent Revolution, veteran ska-punks Catch 22 have written a concept album revolving around Marxist theorist Leon Trotsky. Yeah, I don’t know why, either, but musically speaking, it’s the band’s best effort in nearly six years, and it’s got the most “roots” track Catch 22 have ever written in “The...
The Bronx
The Bronx The Bronx [4/5] Ironically, with their major-label debut, the Bronx make you realize how far even the most obscure bands in this scene have fallen into commercialism. In an era when most “punk” bands spend months in the studio polishing the edge off their songs and Auto Tuning their vocals until they sound...
Bouncing Souls - The Gold Record
Bouncing Souls The Gold Record Although they don’t technically have a gold album, the Bouncing Souls do have almost 20 years in the game; and on The Gold Record, the band once again capture the heart and essence of punk rock with a set of sing-along anthems whose enthusiasm and sincerity simply can’t be forced...
Valient Thorr
Valient Thorr Legend Of The World [4/5] It’s sort of ironic that a band who aren’t even from Earth could make the most poignant political statement of 2006. But with Legend Of The World, Valient Thorr channel the countercultural spirit of the MC5 and support it with some of the most kickass guitar riffs this...
Sound Team
Sound Team Movie Monster [5/5] Sometimes it feels really great to see a band live up to the hype. Case in point: Sound Team, a group of six simple-enough-looking dudes from Texas who masterfully mash up dance-punk, Americana, rock and pop. The success of a few home-pressed releases, a dazzling EP last year and packed...
The Pink Spiders
The Pink Spiders Teenage Graffiti [4/5] By now, you probably already know the Pink Spiders’ Cinderella story, which finds the band being transformed from obscurity to full-blown rock stardom (at least in their heads) literally overnight. However, while that fairy tale may be a cliché, the music on the band’s major-label debut, Teenage Graffiti, is...
Muse
Muse Black Holes And Revelations [5/5] After spending years trying to shake the Radiohead comparisons that dogged them from their 1999 debut, Showbiz, Muse prove with Black Holes And Revelations that they have at least one major thing in common with Thom Yorke & Co.: self-reinvention. “Take A Bow” features pulsating electro beats with overtones...