‘Taker Thunderbolt’ / ‘The Bucket Brigade Kills’ split by Fools Rush / Abolitionist (Portland, Oregon)
The weirdly lo-fi ‘Taker Thunderbolt‘ starts off with a very Titus Andronicus-sounding intro strum of an electric guitar, which drives the listener into a wholesome American punk-rock pulse. Then the vocals kick in, and it sounds like Bobcat Goldthwait is singing. To be fair, the seasoned comedian’s cougar-esque, gag reflexive screech would be perfect for punk music. It’s hard to say if Fools Rush are really a punk rock band, though.
Fools Rush are fairly imitative of more mainstream (and inherently un-punk) pop-punk acts that skew in the direction of Blink 182. The bassist seems to have some very New Wave sensibilities, and a particular riff that keeps popping up throughout ‘Taker Thunderbolt’ is probably my favorite thing about the track. Tonally, this songs falls softly and a little dull, but it speaks to the efforts of a scene where live music is still key, and split singles are meant as more of an invitation to local shows than legitimate forays into recording artistry. Fools Rush get the point across quite clearly: they’re worth keeping in mind if you’re interested in some very “all-out” pop-punk satisfaction.
get physical if…
-it’s Absolute Punk-approved or bust for you
-you want the cast of One Crazy Summer to record and release an album of millennial pop-punk
just stream it if…
-you were born before 1980
-it’s Pitchfork-approved or bust for you
I’m going to call this…
“low volume punk”
‘The Bucket Brigade Kills’ is almost hi-fi compared to ‘Taker Thunderbolt’, but Abolitionist’s recorded music is no less a selling point on a live act than Fools Rush’s. Abolitionist is an explicitly political band, much in the same vein as a lot of early punk rock groups, though with a much more nascent and internet-inflicted vibe to the lyrics. The music itself is very, very straightforward: it seems as though it’s almost meant to serve as a platform on which the lyrics (also straightforward, though with undeniably vicious intent) may be delivered.
It’s very difficult to capture the energy of a live show on vinyl, especially when that energy is so much of your music’s appeal. Often the best you can hope for is that your recorded music will make the existence of said live energy clear enough to generate interest in your continued existence, and to that end Abolitionist get their point across quite clearly.
get physical if…
-System of a Down, though well intentioned, are too weird for you
-you could really “get into” thrashing around like a maniac
just stream it if…
-you love the government
-you love anything at all
I’m going to call this…
“anti-(insert injustice) protest punk”
7” by The Blank Postcards (Staten Island, New York)
The first song on The Blank Postcards’ seemingly untitled 7” EP, ‘Dance of the shitheads,’ plays like a perfect homage to early instrumental surf rock groups like The Tornadoes by way of pseudo-cerebral, borderline indie acts like The Replacements and Game Theory. ‘Dance of the shitheads’ is a soothing piece of guitar nostalgia and more than a little bit funny, especially when you consider that it probably sounds exactly like what the kids at Riverdale High are dancing to in pre-1990s Archie comics. Semi-virtuoso guitar playing still has its place in surf pop, and The Blank Postcards are a nice alternative to the hazier, more reverbed-out surf acts of Brooklyn.
On its second track, ‘you’re a swamp,’ the EP takes a strange turn towards Dead Kennedy’s style “talk show host punk,” but the jump is made much less jarring through the continuation of a bouncy, inherently late-80s sonic theme to the music. ‘you’re a swamp’ plays The Blank Postcards’ true hand: that of the beery, barroom-equipped Staten Island bro band. This isn’t meant as derision, though; The Blank Postcards seem to have found a means by which they can intelligently a humorously build small odes to the kind of young adulthood that most of us experience and that is rarely articulated in a competent way.
The jarring, syncopated reverence to sonically meticulous bands like The Fall clashes weirdly with the DIY suburban garage style of the production. In turn, this EP is very similar to what a lot of West Coast punk bands were doing in the late 80s. But The Blank Postcards are hardly intending to be innovative. Instead, they’ve settled into some very nice, very breezy, very danceable surf-punk jams put forth on a very clean, brief piece of vinyl. If this is not “punk music” in the “de facto”, noise-level sense, it is certainly punk music in its intentional discomfiture and in the gawky anti-hipster attitude it attempts to evoke.
get physical if…
-you wish the Monroes had an experimental phase
-you won’t listen to more than 9 minutes of music straight
-Graham Coxon > Jonny Greenwood
just stream it if…
-The Wu Tang Clan is the only Staten Island group you have room in your heart for
-you don’t care who Panda Bear sampled on “Bros” because old music is lame
-you prefer guitar “treatments”
I’m going to call this…
“Surf Rock Revival: Take 20″
@HemlockShaw
Surf Wobble Waves 89 by Space (Los Angeles, California?..)
Punk Mania 107 by Space (Los Angeles, Maybe..)
High and Tight by 
