"Mid-Way Through 2009" Roundup

Ok, it's July, 7 months into the year. So, I decided I'd give my opinions on what's been good and what's been bad this year.
Here goes nothing.

GOOD:
Bomb The Music Industry-Scrambles(Quote Unquote/Asian Man): I have a real obsession with this band, but for good reason. Sure this album is kind of drifting from the ska sound a little, but I like the new sound more. This is certainly picking up where 2007's Get Warmer left off and going even further. A great (free) record.

NOFX-Coaster/Frisbee(Fat Wreck Chords): NOFX is NOFX. They're always great. "Creeping Out Sara" is hilarious, they still sound great this far in, they aren't stopping anytime soon, so get it.

Carry the Torch: A Tribute to Kid Dynamite(Black Numbers): Come on! It's some of the coolest bands ever covering songs by THE coolest band ever. Can you go wrong? No.

Paint It Black-Salem(Bridge Nine): You read my review. You bought the vinyl. You know it rules. The end.

Gallows-Grey Britain(Warner Bros.): PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME ANY FLACK! So what they're on a major label? The Ramones were on Warner Bros.! This album is a pretty solid continuation of 2006's Orchestra of Wolves, and from what I can see so far, they aren't milking it for singles this time. That got annoying, there must have been a 45 of every song on Orchestra. It's pretty good, enjoy it with a glass of tea (they were not going to avoid an English joke!).

Shinobu-Strange Spring Air(Quote Unquote): Shinobu is a really great band. Not to sound like a stereotypical journalist, but Shinobu really DOES sound like the "new Pavement." They manage to sound pretty....and cause a ruckus at the same time. If you like Pavement or Dinosaur Jr. or Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, try Shinobu out.

Nightmares For A Week-A Flood Tommorrow EP(Music For End Times): Like Red and Blue, I'm from Kingston (god, that was cheesy). Since I'm from Kingston, I should support the local punk bands, right? Well, there aren't really too many, they've all dissolved, most of the punk is in Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls now and it's really gross hardcore about forties and blunts, too. My opinion of local punk changed with the arrival of Nightmares For A Week. Their name alone shows that they share a favorite band with me, Jawbreaker. I've also seen them play "Want." They kinda threw me off writing an original song called "Tour Song," though. I think the best song on the EP has to be "Bear Mountain," in my opinion anyway. They are a very good live band, and a very good band in general. I highly recommend seeing them live and while you're there you should get this disc. Seriously. They're playing with Frankie and His Fingers at the Basement on Broadway in Kingston, NY on the 26th of July. It's all ages kiddies, so be there.

BAD:
Big D and the Kids Table-Fluent In Stroll(Side One Dummy): You knew this would be here. What a disappointment? What would the Specials think? What would the Mighty Mighty Bosstones think? This isn't a ska album, not even in a traditional way. It's just garbage. I think what we need to do as Big D fans is walk from our respective hometowns to Allston Village, Massachusetts and picket until we get a good, old fashioned Big D record just like Big D used to make.

(Authors Note: I'm very sarcastic in my writing very often. I don't think we should really walk to Boston. Why do you think they invented cars?)

NOFX-Coaster/Frisbee(Fat Wreck Chords): The album is just as brilliant as it is similar to every other album. I guess we have no right to demand "The Decline 2." It's gotta be hard to write an 18 minute skate-punk song.

SilversteinA Shipwreck In The Sand(Victory): I shouldn't even mention this band on this blog, but I've liked Silverstein since I was in the eighth grade, didn't have a girlfriend, had a lot of angst, and skateboarded so much it could have been a social disorder. I kinda thought this would redeem them after what they did with Arrivals and Departures but my assumption was only based on a few songs. Those few songs are great, the rest? Not so much.

I don't really have anymore complaints this year. Not yet, anyway.
Stay tuned for more reviews and such, and thanks for following a solid month of mediocre music journalism.

Paint It Black "Amnesia" 7" review

Paint It Black seem to be up to something currently. A few months ago, they announced that they would be releasing 7"s on various labels for the "foreseeable future." Not long after that, they announced that the first of these EPs was going to be released on vinyl and digital only by Bridge Nine Records, the fine lads who have released records from recent greats like Crime In Stereo, Verse, Have Heart, Polar Bear Club, and even the most recent album from NY's own H2O. Just yesterday (June 16, 2009), "Amnesia" was released. My vinyl hasn't come in yet, as I only ordered it last night, but it's available in three colors (300 in muddy rainbow, 700 in grey marble, and 1000 in white) and there is a free download when you order the vinyl.

The second I placed my order, I downloaded the EP and loaded it into iTunes, and my, oh my! THIS RECORD IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST EVIL THING DAN YEMIN HAS EVER MADE!!! I'm not even kidding. For all intensive purposes, "Amnesia" is to Dan Yemin as Skewbald/Grand Union is to Ian Mackaye. The songs are grittier and louder than anything PIB has put out so far.

As soon as the EP's first track, "Salem," comes on, you're hit with one of those eery sounding, distorted bass lines a la "Atticus Finch." Dan's voice, in this song particularly, sounds so shredded and abrasive that you may think that it isn't Dan, but it is. His voice certainly dragged me in on this cut.

"Homecoming" is a fun sounding major-key jam. It reminds me of a few of the songs off New Lexicon. This is my favorite track on side 1.

"Nicotine" continues in the fashion of "Salem" with it's bass-heavy riff and it's slow, doomy meter.

Side 2 comes out swinging with the record's title track, which is probably my favorite on the record altogether. It's probably going to end up being a good crowd-pumping song in PIB's live show.

Anyone who's checked Punknews.org in the past month or so will remember reading that the band described the last track "Bliss" as "Fugazi having a 3 way with Jawbreaker and Nirvana." You know? That's about right. Only complaint I have about this song is that musically, there's a lot going on, and the vocals are quite droning in comparison. Before I end up getting e-mails or whatever, I realize this is hardcore but Andy Nelson is a pretty good singer, and his voice has been on quite a few sing-alongs in PIB's catalog, why couldn't he have done anything here?

That's really my only complaint about the whole record, there's no "sing-alongs," which every Paint It Black record has at least one (actually, way more than that) of. It's still a good cut, but that's one thing I noticed during my first listen.

I'll admit, I'm a HUGE fan of Dan Yemin's work. Whether it's Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, PIB, Armalite or even Resurrection, I've always been a fan. If you're as much of a Dan Yemin devotee as I am, I think you should get this record. If you're a vinyl nerd, you should get this record. If you're an EXTREME vinyl nerd, you should get all three colors. If you're going to get this record at all, I recommend you do it soon before B9 runs out.

Get on over to b9store.com right away to get this, you won't be disappointed.

I'll give this a 4 out of 5

B9store.com
Bridge9.com
Paintitblack.org
Myspace.com/paintitblack