Heavy Rotation Across the Nation (Or At Least This Website)
Finally, some good records to listen to. It’s been a long few months with little to get excited about in the way of music, but we’re happy to report we’ve been rocking the below releases loudly in the YuppiePunk Music & Mustache Emporium™ for the past few weeks now. And just in time. We were moments away from unearthing our double gatefold copy of Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” and playing side 4 until the Apocalypse.
The Gaslight Anthem - “The ‘59 Sound”
Though they share a home state with Springsteen and are frequently compared to him, the biggest similarity between the Boss and the Anthem is their working class story songs which blend gruff vocals and punk rock tempos with an arena rock sensibility. Not arena rock in a Scorpions kind of way, but more like John Mellencamp or The Hold Steady, which is partially due to the fact that they lay off the distortion more than most of their punk rock peers, and partially because you want to throw your fist into the air and pump it in time to the snare.
The Gaslight Anthem - “Meet Me By the River’s Edge”
Dillinger Four - “Civil War”
The long-delayed, much ballyhooed about new record from Minneapolis’ D4 was worth the six-year wait between albums. Call it the “Chinese Democracy” of punk rock (and not just because it shares the name of a Guns ‘N’ Roses epic), the record provides tough, non-preachy polito-punk with great song titles like “Clown Cars on Cinder Blocks,” “The Art of Whore” and “Parishiltonisametaphor.” It’s social commentary stuffed into three-minute blasts of sheer brute force.
Dillinger Four - “A Jingle For the Product”
Ben Folds - “Way to Normal”
The reliable Folds gives us another dozen songs of well-crafted, articulate piano-driven power pop — personal, intimate and awkward. Many songs are about love gone wrong (”Bitch Went Nuts,” “Cologne”), there’s a response to a former friend’s fuck-off song about him (”Brainwascht”), and even a song about falling off the stage (”Hiroshima”). The piano troubadour has yet to disappoint. Witty and wonderful.
Ben Folds - “Bitch Went Nuts”
Star Fucking Hipsters - “Until We’re Dead”
From the ashes of Leftover Crack comes a new group with an equally terrible name, but an enjoyable batch of sloppy, poppy don’t-give-a-fuck punk rock songs spanning several styles including ska-punk and metal. They also have that dueling male-female vocals thing going on with Nico De Gaillo sounding like Brody Dalle of The Distillers and Sturg sounding like sandpaper. They go a little heavy on the political thing, but it’s an honest, old-school punk rock record, the kind you just don’t hear all that often.
Star Fucking Hipsters - “Immigrants and Hypocrites”
