The whole female/male dual vocals found in crust punk is incredibly difficult to pull off. The general idea is to take the usually harsh dude’s vocals and have it melodically mix in with the (slightly) less harsh and dudette’s voice. The problem is too many bands simply switch vocal duties in a call/shout back manner rather then blending the voices, giving the band more of a B-52s vibe than anything with melody. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but once in a while it would be nice to hear some harmonies.

Philly’s Witch Hunt used to do a more switching role back on “Blood Red States”, however on their latest release “Burning Bridges To Nowhere”, they’ve got the melodic crust (how’s that for an oxymoron) down to a god damned science.

I really dug “Blood Red States”, but let me say, “Burning Bridges To Nowhere” blows that album out of the water. The music remains dreary and heavy, but much more catchy this time around as heard on songs such as Everyday, Silence, and the title track. They haven’t completely abandoned their crusty noisy roots, with songs like Blind Eyes Lead Blind Lives and Septa Death bringing the brutality to full gear.

Lyrically, I usually have a hard time relating to crust punk. Sure, I agree with the politics, but usually the words are so impersonal and simply shout empty anti-globalization slogans without putting any real meaning behind the lyrics.

Witch Hunt truly captures the frustration of living in such a fucked up world where religion kills, corporations rule, and that capitalist Obama is considered a socialist. Anyone pretty much fed up with nothing changing could easily relate to the title track’s chorus: “if I had a choice/I’d give up my voice/who wants to scream forever” or for those of us who only know how to express ourselves through music, Silence’s chorus “my words won’t hurt you/but my songs will us”.

One hell of a solid album, and even if you don’t usually like crust punk, you should definitely give Witch Hunt’s “Burning Bridges To Nowhere” a chance, as it still remains heavy as fuck but melodic as hell.

MP3:
Witch Hunt – Burning Bridges To Nowhere

More Music You’ll Dig (or else…):
Witch Hunt – Blood Red States
Aus Rotten – And Now Back To Our Programming
Star Fucking Hipsters – Never Rest In Peace
Disfear – Live The Storm

Buy:
Alternative Tentacles

Haha holy shit, we’re getting hammered! No, not in the getting wasted variety… but I thought winter was pretty much over then end of January due to the warmer weather we were getting on the east coast. But then February comes ripping in and snows all the damn time…not like a wimpy inch or two, we’re getting hit with 2 feet at a time. And like a bad case of your sister’s herpes, it just keeps coming back.

Of course, this has all the conservatives running around yelling “See! Global Warming isn’t happening! I showed you Al Gore.” Dumbasses.

MP3:
Melt Banana – Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold
Atom and His Package – Snowshoe BBQ

More Mixes:
Your Job Sucks Mix
Everytime it Rains, The Bus Is Late Just To Spite Me
Four Square, Speeding Tickets, and West Virginia

Buy:
Interpunk

Holy shit, they’ve done it again. Bomb The Music Industry, without notice or any warning what so ever, go and release a 7 song (well one is a 30 second interlude) EP “Adults!!! Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!”.

Recorded and mixed within 5 days, “Adults” is exactly what you would expect from Bomb The Music Industry by now, high energy ska influenced songs mixed in with some slower ballads. I usually skip over some of the slower songs in past releases, but “All Ages Shows” is actually one of the better slower jams BTMI released.

The faster, majority of the album would sit somewhere between “Get Warmer” and “Scrambles”. For example, “You Still Believe In Me?” reminds me a lot of “Stuff That I Like” while “Slumlord” actually sounds like it was recorded during the “Get Warmer” sessions. Meanwhile “The First Time I Met Sanawon” sounds like an Arrogant Sons of Bitches song (which is never a bad thing).

Does “Adults” hold up to the pinnacle release of “Scrambles”? Not exactly, but it comes pretty close. Oh, and they release it donation-based, so even if you think it sucks, then just download it for free.

MP3:
Bomb the Music Industry – The First Time I Met Sanawon

Bomb the Housewives:
Bomb The Music Industry – Album Minus Band
Bomb the Music Industry – Scrambles
Arrogant Sons Of Bitches – Discography
Mustard Plug – In Black and White
Hub City Stompers – Ska Ska Black Sheep

Buy:
Quote Unquote

I’ve been waiting for this show for way too long. On Saturday, I headed out to Philly’s sickest hangout living room around, The Terrordome to catch pogo kings Blanks 77 with street punk legends Violent Society. The place was jam packed with mohawks, studded jackets, and 40s, and it’s a damn good thing alcohol isn’t absorbed through the skin…

The Unpatriotics
First up were Philly/Reading PA’s The Unpatriotics. Playing solid street punk in the veins of The Unseen, these guys had a slow opening, but the crowd eventually warmed up and had a pit going for the majority of the set. The lead singer was the majority of their stage (err… floor?) presence, and kept running into the crowd with the microphone. I thought their set was a bit long, but there seemed to be enough time for all the bands to play a decent amount. I don’t know how their recorded material is, but live, these guys killed it.

Combat Crisis

Holy shit! How have I never heard these dudes before? Female fronted, brutal as shit street punk. It was obvious the majority of the crowd was there for them, as they had the biggest pit all night (although quite honestly, all the bands had people going apeshit). The vocals reminded me a lot of F-Minus, and if they come around your area, check them out. I definitely was made a fan that night.

Violent Society
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExLyGqFwcXk]
Yes! One of the two reasons I came to this show to begin with. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing these guys before, and was beyond stoked. Opening up with my personal favorite “I Wanna Know” and blasting straight into my other favorite “It’s Only Your Life”, Violent Society kept the crowd (and myself) rowdy throughout the entire set. They claimed that this was their last show ever, but I’m pretty sure they were full of shit (or at least, I really, really hope so). I was surprised by how tight a street punk band could actually play.

Blanks 77
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbHSCPtVUfo]
Ahh… NJ pogo kings. Another band that doesn’t play nearly enough… Somehow, I’ve never managed to catch their rare show before and it was made extra awesome by the fact it was played in a living room, which they claimed “we haven’t played a house in a really, really, really, long time”.

Their set was plagued with sound problems, such as the microphone not even working for the first song at all, and then the guitar kept cutting out the majority of the set, but that didn’t stop the place being a complete rowdy shitstorm. I was hoping to hear more off of C.B.H than they played, but hey, any Blanks 77 was solid enough for me (although, boo on them for actually having “Radio Hits” on their setlist, and skipping it!). A good show, and hopefully get to see them live again before they call it quits for good.

Highlight of the show: when Blanks 77 got the majority of the crowd to sing Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance…

Setlist:
Losing My Brain
I Don’t Wanna Be
Drag
Sick
Party Train
We Don’t Need You
Void
Up The System
Police Attack
Let’s Riot
Suburbia
Love Sick (New)
Pills (New)
No Big Deal
Chelsea Girls
We Are The Punks
I Wanna Be A Punk

MP3:
Blanks 77 – Radio Hits (since they didn’t fucking play it)
Violent Society – I Wanna Know

These Are Relevant To My Interests:
Blanks 77 (A Haiku)
Violent Society
The Unseen – Lower Class Crucifixion
The Virus – Nowhere to Hide

Buy:
interpunk

Man, The Casualties get a lot of shit from the punk scene. I’ve heard complaints ranging from they just recycle riffs (Ramones anyone?) , they care too much about their hair (I’m not looking at them on CD buddy), their fans are all younger (we all start somewhere…listen, no one comes out of the womb blasting Crass) and that their lyrics tend to be stupid (ok… I can’t argue that).

Regardless of the criticism, and although I don’t listen to them all that often anymore, The Casualties album “Die Hards” is one hell of an album that gets way too much shit. Sure, they sing about “upping the punks” a bit much, but the music is damn solid. This is some of the finest street punk around, regardless of how popular the band may be. High energy and aggressive, mixed with Jorge’s defiant and pissed snarls, songs like “Get Off My Back” and “Ugly Bastards” remind me why i fell in love with punk rock to begin with.

I listen to a decent amount of street punk, and The Casualties “Die Hards” will always have a special place in my punk rock heart. Who cares if it’s the “mainstream” of street punk? Wouldn’t you rather have kids listening to this, going on the right track as opposed to some Passion Pit or Vampire Weekend bullshit?

MP3:
The Casualties – Get Off My Back

More Street Punk:
The Virus – Nowhere to Hide
Against All Authority
46 Short
Action
Adolf And The Piss Artists
Violent Society

Buy:
Interpunk

Last Friday when I went to go see Off With Their Heads, I wound up running late and unfortunately missed the Philly/NJ local openers, The Ruining. After the show, I stopped by their merch table just to see what the band was all about, and one of the dude’s gave me some stickers and their EP “This Is An Ambush”.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… I thought they were a hardcore band too by their name, but I was waaay off homie. I’ve heard them described as Jawbreaker or The Replacements, but when I popped the EP in for a listen, Whatever It Takes and None More Black immediately came to mind. Catchy melodic punk rock is what The Ruining is all about. My only complaint? “This Is An Ambush” is only 3 songs long, so you should probably just go check it out for yourself.

Mp3:
The Ruining – There’s A Roller coaster In My Head

More Reading:
Over Stars and Gutters
Smoke or Fire – This Sinking Ship
Mean Jeans
Friends of Friends

Buy:
The Ruining

Ever since the demise of Atom and His Package, there has been quite the rising of quirky as dancy synth driven music in punk. Sure, I guess you can argue it started with New Wave, but those were the 80s, and everyone was smoking crack then anyway.

Just ask Nancy.

Team Robespierre is the punk rock answer to Matt and Kim: catchy electronic dance music with a bit of a punk rock bite. Their quick hitting full legth “Everything’s Perfect” is jammed packed high energy slightly pissed off sing-alongs. If other contemporaries such as Totally Michael and Matt and Kim were the happy, level 1 music of Super Mario Bros, Team Robespierre would be Bowser’s spooky ass castle.

“I would have gotten away with it to, if it wasn’t for you no friend loser and that pesky Game Genie”

Team Robespierre’s melodies tend to be a lot darker than many in this genre as heard on tracks such as “Laika” and “Solid Gold”. That doesn’t mean the songs aren’t catchy as hell, and they even dip into the more melodic territory with the jesus-christ-this-is-gonna-be-in-my-head-all-fucking-day “Ha Ha Ha”.

The music is fun, and good if you just are looking for something light hearted. I personally find that there’s a lot of crap in the whole dance punk genre, but Team Robespierre is definitely worth checking out.

MP3:
Team Robespierre – Ha Ha Ha

Team Housewives:
Intro5pect
Atom and his Package vs Fugazi
Atom and His Package – Society Of People Named Elihu
Totally Michael Debut

Buy:
Team Robespierre

On Friday night, I took the 1 and a half hour drive out to punk rock bowling alley Asbury Lanes in my home state of New Jersey to catch one of my favorite sing a long bands, Off With Their Heads.

Cloak/Dagger

I arrived in the middle of these guys set, but the very little that I did see made me interested in checking out more by these Richmond hardcore dudes. Cloak/Dagger didn’t fuck around. Just listening to them play a few tracks reminded me a lot of hardcore band Bars. Definitely need to check out more by these guys.

Slow Death (Pretty Boy Thorson)

Ok, it took me forever to figure out who the fuck these guys were, since lead singer just kept making drunken NJ jokes “Hi we’re The Ergs!” “Hey, glad you all could come see us, the Hudson Falcons”. Regardless of their name, they killed it live. Playing high energy punk rock mixed with a touch of pyschobility, I was hooked. I checked out some of their recorded work and it’s a lot more laid back, kind of like Against Me’s recorded stuff vs. live. Finally at the end of the set, they finally clued us into who they were: Bruce Springsteen.

House Boat

These guys were added on the bill at the last minute, and weren’t on the lineup at all. The crowd seemed to love them, singing along to all the of the words. The band played pop-punk, and wow, did the lead singer like to hear himself talk. He talked throughout the whole set, taking a pause between each song in order to talk. For the most part, these guys were good musically, but I just can’t get over the New Found Glory wannabe vocals. Still, the crowd ate it up.

Off With Their Heads

Finally, the reason I drove from Philly! For those who don’t know (and really, what reader of the Midwestern Housewives doesn’t know this), Off With Their Heads play punk rock in the veins of Dillinger Four. Jumping right into “I Am You”, the crowd sang along to every word, and danced their ass off (ok, that last part was just me actually). Playing a decent portion off of “All Things Move Towards Their End” and a bit of material “From The Bottom”, Off With Their Heads also played a new song (which killed it, so I’m looking forward to whatever they put out next).

Unfortunately, Off With Their Heads’ set was over way too soon, and although the crowd demanded an encore, the band refused to play one, which makes it seem like the band is simply going through the motion as opposed to actually enjoy being onstage (and in all honesty, I can’t say I blame them with the amount they tour). Still, a killer set as usual.

Some Highlights:

I Am You
Until The Day
Fuck This I’m Out
For The Four
New Song
Janie

MP3:
Off With Their Heads – Until The Day…

Off With The Housewives:
Off With Their Heads – From The Bottom
Over Stars and Gutters – Consider This Your Curse
The Soviettes – LP

Buy:
interpunk

Give Up The Ghost or American Nightmare… whatever the fuck you want to call them, they saved my life. These Boston hardcore kids were one of the most hard hitting hardcore bands around. “Year One” isn’t a true album per say… but includes early out of print EPs and other rarities, and is the best release from the band.

I was lucky enough to catch the band back in 2003 in Richmond when they were on tour with The Hope Conspiracy, and while I wasn’t too familiar with all of Give Up The Ghost’s songs, I remember that t0 this day, it was the most insane show I’ve ever been to. Year One captures the energy (well, as much as you can bottle lightning) on Year One, and a listen to songs such as “I’ve Shared Your Lips” or “The Ice Age Is Coming” gives you a rough idea what you would expect at their show.

Lyrically, the band separates themselves from other hardcore bands, digging deeper than most and dealing with personal issues as opposed to most hardcore bands talking about the scene. Wes is one hell of a writer, and the songs often come out as poems.

Give Up The Ghost has been one of my favorite hardcore bands since that day I saw them in Richmond, and Year One is definitely their hardest hitting album.

MP3:
Give Up The Ghost – Fuck What Fireworks Stand For
Give Up The Ghost – The Ice Age Is Coming!

More Hardcore:
Scenester 101: How To Be An Old School Hardcore Kid In 10 Easy Steps!
Give Up The Ghost
Kids Like Us
Bane

Buy:
interpunk

Photo By publik15

Life would be so much better, if it wasn’t for jobs taking up a huge fucking chunk of your day. It would be sweet if we could all just get up and quit our jobs, unfortunately the bills don’t stop because we stopped working.

So, like most of you, I have a job to pay bills, and the job completely sucks. Especially now that they’re getting on my ass about coming in a little late (reliant on public transportation) and they’re itching to fire me over it. Funny how bosses have an aneurysm if you’re a few minutes late to work, but they have no problem asking you to stay late.

So, why not have a mix about the topic?

MP3:
Bouncing Souls – Monday Morning Ant Brigade
Bomb The Music Industry – Jobs Schmobs
Atom and His Package – Mission #1: Avoid Job Working With Assholes
Strike Anywhere – You’re Fired
The Slackers – Work Song
The Virus – Working For The Company

More Mixes:
Songs to Piss Off The Personal Fitness Trainer Below Me Mix
Drunken Yuppies Breaking Into My House Mix

Buy:
interpunk.com