Vinyl Vednesday 2/16/2011

[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. I just got back from a business trip to D.C., so all of the picks this week come from Washington/Virginia. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Cloak/Dagger’s “Kamikazes” seven-inch (2007) on black, Fugazi’s Steady Diet of Nothing (1991) on black, and Strike Anywhere’s Iron Front EP (2009) on clear green.

Place of Purchase: Cloak/Dagger came from Smash Records in D.C. Fugazi was a Repo purchase. Strike Anywhere was ordered directly from Bridge Nine Records.

Thoughts: Even though I only had 24 hours to conduct business in D.C., I still found time to hit up a record store. I picked Smash Records since it was only a few blocks from my hotel (Later I found even more stores nearby. Clearly I need to investigate). One of my picks was this seven-inch from Cloak/Dagger. The A-side, “Kamikaze,” comes from the band’s Jade Tree debut, We Are. The B-side, “She Cracked,” is just as good. Both tunes are very much in the Black Flag/Stooges vein, which has always been C/D’s strength. Not that I’m trying to be hyperbolic, but these tunes sum up rock ‘n’ roll’s entire history.

Any post about music from D.C. needs to mention Ian MacKaye. So here you go. A Steady Diet of Nothing took me a little longer to get into than 13 Songs or Repeater, if only because it’s a little bit slower and more dissonant. But it’s still Fugazi –post-hardcore starts here. MacKaye’s song “Reclamation” always stayed with me: “There are our demands / We want control of your bodies / Decisions will now be ours / You carry out your noble actions / We will carry our noble scars.” Mix those words with shredding guitar.

Good God I listened to so much Strike Anywhere yesterday. The one thing I was missing, though, was Iron Front EP, a collection of two songs from the band’s last full-length of the same name and two left off. All four rock face hard. What I loved about Strike Anywhere is two-fold. 1). Their songs are so fast and melodic and loud. Frontman Thomas Barnett sings every line with the utmost urgency and sincerity. 2). No matter how bad the world seems in the band’s songs, there’s always a tinge of hope for a better tomorrow.

Strike Anywhere - 'Iron Front'

In a year where bands like the Bouncing Souls and Paint It Black avoided full-lengths in favor of short seven-inch bursts, Strike Anywhere rallied ahead with their fourth full-length, Bridge Nine debut, and possibly best album ever with Iron Front. Maybe it’s fitting, given that the Iron Front, the circle with three declining lines that decries communism, monarchism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and pretty much any other jerk belief system ever, has always been Strike Anywhere’s symbol. Iron Front describes the band’s aesthetic more than even an eponymous title ever could.

Iron Front revitalizes the band’s melodic hardcore sound. Things seemed a little dark there for a while – Exit English was merely solid; Dead FM would’ve been the best EP of 2006 if the band had just stopped recording – but this new release finds Strike Anywhere combining their trademark socio-political insight with their most infectious hooks yet. Catchy yet informative (hereafter known as the Avail Principle), the songs take on globalism, child soldiers, racism, and environmental policy, among other issues.

The elements seem so simple – keep it short and fast, rock the gang vox, and maybe try to change the world while you’re at it. Yet no one else seems to be knocking out songs like Iron Front’s 13 tracks. Those who purchased the preview EP will already know and love “Failed State” and “Hand of Glory,” but they’ll be shocked to see those aren’t even the strongest cuts on the album. Album opener “Invisible Colony” blasts through civil discourse in the U.S. in 78 seconds, giving way to the uber-catchy “I’m Your Opposite Number.” Frontman Thomas Barnett is fed up with trying to get along, taking the violent right to task, singing, “Lower the flags / Raise up the earth / Freedom ’til death / Death until birth / We’re still fighting each other / I’m your opposite number.” He even throws in a “Fuck you” for good measure. And when someone as literate as Barnett tells you to fuck off, you know he means it.

Outside of picking “Invisible Colony” as the opener, I imagine little thought was needed to sequence Iron Front, because the songs are all so got-damned awesome. As excited as I am to sing along with deep cuts like “Omega Footprint” (Love the chorus) or “Summerpunks” (Best whoas of 2009, hereafter known as Whoa-Nine?), I can’t bring myself to skip a single track of this 30-minute masterpiece. I mean, I wouldn’t want to miss “The Crossing” (Another catchy chorus ‘n’ whoa concoction, natch). But then again, I always want to hear “First Will and Testament,” a love letter to lost friends, coursing through my ears and blood. Barnett takes inspiration from the deceased, vowing to “Wait for the day / Work of the day.” He’s going to live and then “shine in this song even when my body’s gone.”

“Postcards From Home” closes out the record brilliantly with its tale of child soldiers who can’t break out of a cycle of violence (“You can’t walk away / This land will follow you / You can’t walk away / ’Cause this is home”), which is a shame. See, as wonderful as the song is, Iron Front demands to be on repeat. The songs need to be blurred together and boiled down and bonded with your DNA, just like with Chorus of One and Change is a Sound. I know it’s October and all, but this is the punk album to beat for 2009.