Banner Pilot - 'Heart Beats Pacific'

With the breakout success of their 2009 effort, Collapser, Minnesotan act Banner Pilot has a lot riding on LP #3. Like their labelmates the Flatliners, the band seems poised for bigger things. These expectations make the group’s follow-up to Collapser, Heart Beats Pacific, something of a disappointment at first, to the extent that it’s a predictable follow-up. For all the Jawbreaker comparisons that follow frontman Nick Johnson’s lyrics, the band has yet to approach that band’s level of stylistic experimentation. At the same time, though, it’s hard to get mad at the band for refining what made Collapser so good. I mean, have you heard that record? It made me choose life.

By the band’s own admission, Pacific is a safe move. It takes everything Collapser did well – the introspective lyrics and the infectious, snotty hooks – and goes bigger. Johnson sounds more assured here. The guitars are denser, heavier and generally more interesting. The production in general is straight up better, clean enough that all of the instruments come through without glossing everything over in studio cheese. One way the band earns their Jawbreaker comparisons is by letting Nate Gangelhoff’s bass anchor so many of the tunes (Also, the intro to “Isolani” sounds like something off of Dear You. Who’s with me?).

Heart Beats Pacific is a really good Midwestern punk record. It’s up there with Dillinger Four’s greatest hits. Sure, it sounds like a bevy of other Midwest bands like Dear Landlord and Off With Their Heads (who, coincidentally, have borrowed Gangelhoff on occasion), but it’s better. It’s in the way the songs bounce effortlessly, constantly propelled by desire and winter despair. It also helps that the guys are good songwriters.

Take “Eraser” for example. It’s a song about drankin’ and missing someone something fierce. A fairly common topic for the punk set, but Johnson injects so much empathy into the track that it defies what’s come before. The whole song is lush with imagery, but lines like “Nothing changes but the time” and “I’m finding out I don’t do very well alone / But I know that you’re not coming home” hit hard. I don’t care if you’re straight edge, this one goes for the heart. In the great pop-punk tradition, it’s also catchy as hell despite being pretty darn depressing.

The last few years have been good for Banner Pilot. Collapser rocked faces, the 2010 remaster job on Resignation Day proved it was actually a great record all along and now fans have Heart Beats Pacific to memorize. Yeah, all three repeat the same style. But it’s a good one.

Banner Pilot - 'Resignation Day' re-release

Generally speaking, remastering albums is a bad idea. Either the source material doesn’t change discernibly (Four Minute Mile) or it changes way too much (Let It Be… Naked). Either way, they can feel like a middle finger to fans. The recent re-release of Banner Pilot’s full-length debut, Resignation Day, defies this notion.

To be honest, I didn’t come around on Banner Pilot until last year’s Collapser. Before that album, I wrote them off as another Dillinger Four clone. It didn’t help that Resignation Day kind of, sort of, well, sounded like ass. By the band’s own admission, the record wasn’t properly mastered, so even calling this re-release a remaster is a misnomer. This is more like how the album should have sounded all along. The guitars are crunchier, the vocals are more distinct in the mix, and the songs just sound better and fuller overall. This is Midwestern drunk punk done right.

The new sheen also highlights what was already good about the songs. Guitar leads are revealed to be much more intricate than originally thought. Nick Johnson’s lyrics are clearer too. Banner Pilot has gotten a lot of Jawbreaker comparisons, which I don’t agree with musically, but Johnson is definitely one of the better, more descriptive lyricists in punk rock today. On that level, he’s shaping up to be a Blake Schwarzenbach, although it remains to be seen if he has a 24 Hour Revenge Therapy or Dear You in him. I actually get a mild Green Day influence. Nate Gangelhoff’s bass lines have a bounciness reminiscent of Mike Dirnt’s playing circa the ’90s, and the opening riff of “No Transfer” kind of sounds like a reworking of “American Idiot.”

Even if you’re not sold on rebuying Resignation Day for the fidelity, the album does come with two bonus tracks, “Spit Out” and “Deadender,” originally from a split with Monikers. But for those looking to expand on their library of Midwestern punk, now’s the time to buy Resignation Day. If you enjoy punk rock songs about being disappointed, cold, and probably drunk, Resignation Day is for you. It’s right there in the title! Then get Collapser. Well, assuming you already own Versus God and The Greatest Story Ever Told. Oh, and Alkaline Trio’s records for Asian Man. And ya know what, I’m gonna throw the Soviettes in there, because I always liked them and they don’t get enough love.

Banner Pilot - 'Collapser'

Go buy Banner Pilot’s new album Collapser. Because it’s gonna be a while before those drunks in Dillinger Four drop another gravelly, Midwestern pop punk masterpiece.

OK, let me expound on that. This Minnesotan gang of band sluts dropped their Fat Wreck debut this month (second album overall, give or take a few EPs), and it’s arguably their strongest release to date. Sound engineers Jacques Wait and Dave Gardner buff out the band’s rough edges a bit. Vocalist Nick Johnson still sounds gruff, but Banner Pilot doesn’t resemble the Lawrence Arms and Jawbreaker circa Unfun so much anymore. What’s left is not unlike D4 circa their Fat years – catchy and rocking.

I’m a big fan of the two-hit combo; records that open with two tracks so utterly awesome that you want to passionately embrace something ridiculous, like a bear or the moon. Collapser hits listeners with the Dragon Punch that is “Central Standard” and then catches them Hadōken-style with “Pensacola.” Granted, they’re both about falling out with friends, but they still got the beat to move yer feet. It almost doesn’t matter what happens after these two songs. They’re everything pop punk should be – short (“Central Standard” is less than three minutes long; “Pensacola” less than two) ‘n’ sweet.

“Greenwood” carries those good vibes some more before Collapser starts to hit an early fatigue. “Starting at an Ending” is a little slower, and therefore a little less awesome. All the D4 elements are still in play – gruff vox, a hook or two, and lyrics about drankin’ – but the tempo kind of kills the album’s momentum. “Skeleton Key” similarly doesn’t start out balls-to-the-wall-blasting, but it soon kicks the bpms back up. And then the record pretty much goes back to bliss.

There’s not a single dud on the album’s back half. “Farewell to Bastards” has an infectious opening guitar hook. “Write It Down” is a perfect closing track, building itself into a fury. If anything, its final 90 seconds might be indicative of a knack for more expansive songwriting. If these guys turn out to have a Bivouac in them, I will be thoroughly excited. Thoroughly. “Empty Lot” is wicked fast. “Hold Me Up” is just straight up delicious.

So anyway, like I was saying…D4 yes please buy now.