None More Black

None More Black

This Is Satire

[5/5] Bursting with huge guitars, catchy-as-hell choruses and songwriting that thumbs its nose at practically all of punk’s stylistic orthodoxy, None More Black’s sophomore full-length shreds the punk rulebook by going where most albums of its genre never dare to venture. Which is to say, This Is Satire finds the New Jersey quartet at long last sounding completely and utterly like themselves. This Is Satire flirts with the past 40-odd years of (good) rock ’n’ roll, taking in everything from pogo punk to doo-wop to classic Americana, while the band sound as fearless and revolutionary as the Clash did circa London Calling in 1979. The funny thing is that people didn’t get London Calling for about 10 years after its initial release, and one suspects the same thing might happen to the first wave of people who hear This Is Satire. Be one of the cool ones to appreciate it now before your kids make it an undisputed “desert island disc” years later.
(FAT WRECK CHORDS)




Rock’s Like:

Against Me!’s Searching For A Former Clarity • Jawbreaker’s Dear You • Bracket’s Novelty Forever




IN-STORE SESSION With None More Black vocalist/guitarist Jason Shevchuk




Do you think you’ve safely gotten away from the association that None More Black is “the singer from Kid Dynamite’s new band?”


Yes, but it doesn’t help that Kid Dynamite keeps releasing things. The KD DVD [Four Years In One Gulp] finally came out, and finishing that was such a long process. But that’s it: Kid Dynamite is definitely a dead horse now.




Is the None More Black solidified? You went through some serious personnel changes.


Yes, and we finally have real chemistry now. We went through so many changes [that] we were starting to get down and out, and we were even on the verge of breaking up. Since starting the band in 2001, we’ve never had band chemistry, really, until this record. It shows live, and I think it comes across on the record, too.




Does the record title This Is Satire refer to something specifically?


It’s been around since I started writing material for this record. The whole idea is we’re doing all these “professional” things that we don’t want to do that make the band become, like, a corporation or a business. But we have no choice. If you want to play in a band that plays a lot of shows and records albums, you have to do it. So, This Is Satire is essentially what we do when we play. We’re pretending to be businessmen when we’re doing all these things for the biz that we don’t want to do just so that we can play in a band.




What’s with the title of track two: “Slytherin? My Ass!”?


Actually, that’s funny, because I had to change that title [for the official release]. Now, it’s called “Under My Feet,” and that’s the single. Fat approached me and said that I had to sign some paperwork saying that I was liable just in case J.K. Rowling went into her local independent record store and picked up our record, so I changed it. The “Slytherin” title came from something on harrypotter.com. You can get sorted [by the Sorting Hat] on the site, so I typed in my name and answered some questions, and I got put in the Slytherin House. I got pissed off, so it was more like “Slytherin? My ass!”




You mention being frustrated at the business of being in a punk band. What’s the most annoying thing about the punk or indie scene to you?


How it pretends to be indie, but it’s absolutely no different then the mainstream. True indie is Ian MacKaye. Certain bands will always be that way, but the ironic thing is that for most indie bands to survive and play, they have to do things that non-indie bands do.



What do you think of the screamo/eyeliner movement?


I hate it. There’s actually a lyric in one of our songs saying, “I’m not the type for the white-belt red-tie life.” The funny thing is these are the kids that were wearing camos and straight-edge shirts before. I mean, really, who needs to spend money on makeup?–Casey Lynch

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