Gatorface - 'Wasted Monuments'

Back in 2008, Gatorface dropped a promising EP entitled Sick and Stupid. It recalled Descendents, Rehasher and early Propagandhi. It ruled. Now in 2010, Gatorface has finally gotten around to releasing a follow-up. The group’s first full-length, Wasted Monuments, takes everything great about Sick and Stupid and essentially redoes it for 24 minutes.

While nothing here quite matches the pop-punk heights of “Kid in a Candy Store,” an uber-infectious track from the group’s debut, Wasted Monuments is still a fun, compelling listen from start to finish. So if you bought the EP, congrats, here are 13 more songs that rock (Well, 12 after the intro track).

For those who are new to this whole G-face thing, here’s a walkthrough. Wasted Monuments is a jolly ol’ record about topics like religion (it sucks!) and people (they’re stupid!). After a brief intro track, “The Cleaner” opens the album properly, and from that point on it’s pop-punk ahoy. The songs each have a sociopolitical point to push, and while they lack a certain eloquence, they still function well. The title track, for example, talks about how people get so caught up in society’s pettier aspects without considering what really matters. It’s like if Henry David Thoreau listened to surf-punk. Or as Gatorface would say, “Fuck wasted monuments / We all end up as dust.”

The record’s genius lies in its brevity. Gatorface was founded for fun by ex-members of New Mexican Disaster Squad, and to that end, the band succeeds. While the songs aren’t the most technically complex compositions, they’re certainly catchy and enjoyable. I’m a sucker for any song that works in a good “whoa-oh,” and on tracks like “Burning Crosses” and “Kids Stealing Kids,” Gatorface does just that. The band doesn’t invent anything new, but they take a formula so forehead-slappingly perfect that there’s little point in deviation.

Vinyl Vednesday 10/6/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. Here’s part one of a two-part installment about 10-inches, in honor of 10/10/10. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: AFI’s “Miss Murder” (2006) on picture disc, Gatorface’s Sick and Stupid (2008) on gold with an etching on the B-side, and Get Laid’s Pretty Solid (2010) on clear red.

Place of Purchase: AFI came from Hot Topic. Gatorface was mailordered through No Idea Records on a whim. Get Laid actually sent me their EP for review.

Thoughts: Eric Crack was one of my college roommates, and he is the biggest Davey Havok fan ever. I have fond memories of 2006, and many of them relate back to Decemberunderground. Eric and I loved lead single “Miss Murder.” Yeah, the lyrics are cheesy, but that stomping beat is so dang rollicking that we got caught up in it every time. And the song overlaps with Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” so well that we’d often start combining the two and… aw shucks, it’s just a big ol’ gothic bag fun for us. I feel bad for “Rabbits are Roadkill on Rt. 37.” It’s a great B-side, it just doesn’t really belong on any AFI record. It was written too late for The Art of Drowning, and maybe it would have fit in on Crash Love, but it had the misfortune of being a catchy song that just didn’t sit well with what the band was doing at this particular time. I guess this one was always destined to be a B-side. Of course, what’s funny is that Decemberunderground ended up using all that rabbit imagery in its artwork.

I never got into New Mexican Disaster Squad, which is more out of ignorance than any sort of active disliking, but Gatorface’s Sick and Stupid EP is thoroughly catchy. It’s basically a bunch of hardcore dudes playing pop punk, which means it’s infectious while still carrying more grit and less nasally whine. “Kid in a Candy Store” is just so got-damn awesome from start to finish. I almost wish that song was 10 minutes long, so I could luxuriate in its every measure. They’ve got flecks of Anti-Flag and Descendents in their sound, and hopefully one day Gatorface will be considered just as influential. I finally got around to ordering their full-length that came out earlier this year; I’m expecting good things.

I get a lot of e-mails asking me to review albums, but they’re mostly for Punknews.org and, if people are really out of touch, Wonka Vision Magazine. I rarely get stuff targeted at my blog, so I was flattered when Get Laid asked to mail me a copy of their EP Pretty Solid. I was double-flattered when it turned out that Pretty Solid was one of the best EPs of the year, packing in all types of thrashy goodness that oscillates from punk to metal and back. The music is so harsh that I can only assume Get Laid is super tough. I mean, the album reeked of cigarettes when it came in the mail.

Gatorface - 'Sick and Stupid'

Things Gatorface Taught Me

1. Like my gran-pappy used to say (or was it Mike Park?), mail order is still fun.

Thanks to a sampler that No Idea Records included with a previous purchase, I got turned on to Gatorface. Along with Virgins, Gatorface is a spin-off from the former Floridian hardcore group New Mexican Disaster Squad by ex-members Alex Goldfarb and Richard Minino. Intrigued by what No Idea sent me, I opted to order the group’s debut EP, Sick and Stupid. Vinyl-only, my baby came on translucent gold wax, one-sided, with a nifty etching of a needle injecting a tentacle during a thunderstorm. It’s very Lovecraftian.

2. If all else fails, you can always play pop punk.

The differences between New Mexican Disaster Squad and Gatorface are ultimately minimal. While NMDS might recall Strike Anywhere or Government Issue’s blistering yet snotty hardcore/punk, Gatorface skews ever so slightly towards punk of the pop variety. This is the sort of lifestyle change that will be a big deal to maybe 0.000001 percent of the world’s population at most. The rest of us can revel in how infectious Sick and Stupid sounds. It recalls Descendents, or maybe even Propagandhi circa How to Clean Everything.

3. Sick and Stupid is jawesome.

Offering six cuts (one of ‘em a DI cover!) in less than 13 minutes, Sick and Stupid blends early ’80s hardcore and early ’90s pop punk, with high quality results. The knock-out of the collection is “Kid in a Candy Store.” Fast drums and a quick guitar strum kick it off, but it’s when the whoas kick off in the pre-chorus that things start to tingle the spider sense. The song builds into this thrilling explosion of pop punk euphoria (in cut time!). Goldfarb sounds remarkably assured throughout, but he really cuts his teeth on the lines “It’s only time, before we end up like the others / The difference now is that the stakes have grown much higher.” Everything gets pounded out for a few bars before the rhythm section drops out. Even with just guitar and a few more whoas, the vocals still come off as anthemic.

“Kid in a Candy Store” follows the pop punk rule of vague lyrics, but listeners won’t be able to build their own meanings quite as easily with songs like “Flak Jacket.” Goldfarb takes to task Americans who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still support military involvement in the Middle East. At 83 seconds in length, the song cuts straight to the point – “Flak jacket / Would you wear it?”

Regardless of how much one likes to read into lyrics, though, there’s no denying Sick and Stupid’s delicious slabs o’ punk. It’s a catchy, rocking romp throughout, and since it’s one-sided, there’s no need to flip the record. Digital fans get some love courtesy of a download code. New Mexican Disaster Squad isn’t really dead; just call ‘em Gatorface now.