I hate to admit it, but these days, it’s getting really hard to find good ska. Over are the third wave ska hey days of the 90s, and ska bands seem to be dropping left and right or releasing sub-par albums (*cough* Fluent In Stroll *cough*) , and I’ve got to admit, it makes me gravitate away and not really want to check out any ska releases anymore. However, every now and then a ska band comes around and plays ska from the heart, and always pulls me back into orbit. This time around it was Ruder Than You’s “Creation Sounds”.

While I did enjoy their previous release “God’s Ghetto”, it didn’t really bring Ruder Than You’s traditional blend of ska, soul, punk, and funk to the table like their older material. Like the album title suggests, “Creation Sounds” brings Ruder Than You back to their more traditional style, rekindling memories of “Big Step” and earlier releases.

Songs such as “Baby Tonight” and the slightly controversial “Yo Ho Down” bring the energetic ska beats to the table while “Give The People What They Need” and “Faith” have a more rocksteady beat to them. For the most part, all of these songs are really solid (the only one I’m not a huge fan of is Faith), and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re starting to lose hope in ska music.

MP3:
Ruder Than You – Baby Tonight

Housewives Ska:
Ruder Than You – Big Step
The Slackers – Self Medication
Hub City Stompers – Ska Ska Black Sheep
Bomb the Music Industry – Scrambles

Buy:
Ruder Than You

When I went to see Hub City Stompers about 2 and a half weeks ago, they referenced a Crucial Unit song and the only thing running through my mind was “holy shit, I haven’t listened to those dudes in a while”. On the drive home, I popped in Crucial Unit’s “These Colors Get The Runs”, and had a complete thrash-fest for my entire ride from NJ to Killadelphia.

Crucial Unit plays unconventional, tongue in cheek thrash with the spirit of bands such as DRI and Municipal Waste in mind. The vocals are what sets Crucial Unit apart from your other run of the mill thrash bands. I’ve heard Justin’s vocals described as “gagging poodle” or “Muppet like”, but I’m going to go with gagging Muppet poodle gargling with nothing but nitric acid and shards of glass.

These Colors Get The Runs was Crucial Unit’s last release before being lame and breaking up (although I have to give the dude’s props, what band keeps up their website years after quitting? ……That wasn’t a rhetorical question you ass hats! What band does it? That’s right, Crucial fucking Unit).

Check it out, even if you’re not a fan of the music for the hilarious lyrics and song titles such as “Cleanliness is Next To Godliness, Too Bad We’re All Atheist”. Also, it’s free on their website, so you really have no excuse.

MP3:
Crucial Unit – Crucial Unit’s Friendship Picnic

Thrashin Is Our Business:
Crucial Unit (For fans of Municipal Waste)
Massive Aggressive
Tango And Thrash EP (Tribute to Kurt Russell)
Hazardous Mutations

Buy:
Crucial Unit

Take a good long hard look at the cover of Bones Brigade’s “Endless Bummer”, that pretty much sums up how I feel as of late. Two weeks ago, I thought it was finally starting to get warmer, then Mother Nature goes and takes a huge, cold, white shit on us and something about some groundhog now sees his shadow and there’s supposed to be 6 more weeks of winter (what the fuck? I thought groundhogs were blind).

Sure, I guess I can go snowboarding, but I fucked up my knee and can’t do much of anything lately, and I’m sure as hell damn fucking sick of this cold. Dear diary, I also… oh right, this is a music blog.

For those who don’t know, Boston’s Bones Brigade (say that 3 times fast suckas) played fast, thrashy punk rock that is completely perfect to go shred to, regardless of your method of shredding: aggressive inline, skateboarding, documents. Endless Bummer was their final release before calling it a day, and let me assure you, it completely dominates. Lyrically, the band deals with uhh… skateboarding, and when they’re not yelling about skating directly, their other songs allude to it. Take the song “Rock to Fakie” for example, which lyrically deals with all the bands that are in music for the money.

The music is sincere, heavy and definitely needs to be checked out if you like punk rock and thrash at all.

MP3:
Bones Brigade – We Will Destroy You

Housewives Brigade:
LxExAxRxNx – Till Death (For fans of Bones Brigade, Paint it Black, The Steal)
Aneurysm Rats
Paint it Black – Surrender
The Steal – Bright Grey
Lighten Up! – Absolutely Not!

Buy:
Pretty Sure It’s Out of Print. Sorry Homies.

Go check your record collection (or mp3 library) real quick and see if you have any of the following bands: The Ramones, Teenage Bottlerocket, Screeching Weasel, The Vapids, The Queers. If you do, then you’ll definitely dig Mean Jeans “Are You Serious”. If you don’t have any of those albums, what the hell is wrong with you?

Oregon’s Mean Jeans play Ramones influenced punk rock (in case you didn’t get that from the above paragraph) and… well, ok, calling it “Ramones influenced” would be an understatement. These dudes dish out straight Ramones punk, with even the vocals sounding very much like Joey Ramone. Does that mean you should skip right over Mean Jeans and just go listen to the Ramones? Hell no, as “Are You Serious” has plenty of catchy songs and Mean Jeans manage to mix their own energetic sound with their influences.

Sure, it’s nothing groundbreaking, but Mean Jeans “Are You Serious” is one hell of a fun listen.

MP3:
Mean Jeans – Rats Roaches And Jeans

1 2 3 4:
The Lillingtons – Too Late Show
Teenage Bottlerocket – Another Way
The Copyrights
The High School Dropouts
The Vapids – Most Underrated Ramones-Esque Band Around
Teenage Bottlerocket – They Came From The Shadows

Buy:
Dirtnap Records