The Flatliners - 'Monumental'

With all due respect to their ska years, 2010 marks the height of the Flatliners’ powers. Cavalcade remains one of the best punk albums to come out this year, a refreshing burst of anthemic rock in the vein of fellow Fat bands Smoke or Fire and Dead to Me. The “Monumental” single delivers two B-sides taken from the Cavalcade sessions, revealing that the band has plenty more excellent tunes in their songbooks.

“Monumental” opens the seven-inch, and in case you forgot, it’s a pretty kickass song with a slight Gaslight Anthem vibe. Solid chorus, crunchy guitar, just awesome for everyone involved. Good times. The flipside offers “Christ Punchers” and “Cut Your Teeth,” which would have fit in perfectly on Cavalcade. “Christ Punchers” has a catchy chorus that doubles as a political statement (“I believe in reality”). It’s a short and sweet missive with a strong backbeat. “Cut Your Teeth” is a little rawer. Not as infectious, but still good.

I get why “Cut Your Teeth” didn’t make it on to Cavalcade. It’s good but not great, and the final album’s 12 tracks outclass it. “Christ Punchers,” meanwhile, is so fine it almost makes me angry. I’d be mad at the Flatliners for sitting on this song, except it just makes me more excited for their eventual fourth full-length. If “Christ Punchers” is what the band relegates to B-side status, then what they pick for their album must be gold.

The Cold Beat - 'Get Safe'

Hailing from Allston, Mass., the guys in the Cold Beat deal in simple but fun rock. Containing flecks of punk and alt-country and falling somewhere in between the Replacements, the Get Up Kids and late period Nada Surf, the group’s new record Get Safe is a breezy, infectious listen. It’s catchy mood music.

Opener “Play to Win” is a midtempo, horn-driven rocker that skirts the edge of melancholy and pop. It’s not the catchiest or fastest song on the record, which makes it a somewhat questionable choice for a first track, but it gets things going regardless. “Copper Green” is a little peppier in an Old 97s way, but it isn’t until track three, “Snake Oil,” that the record starts to take off. It’s a rolling rocker that just keeps dropping big hooks like they’re nothing. The chorus is so huge and simple it’s perfect – “I could be the one” – and then the group throws in a coda that’s even better than that. Yeah, the lyrics aren’t particularly revelatory, but it’s so dang catchy.

The record goes in a similar sing-song fashion, which is perhaps one of its shortcomings. Get Safe’s 11 tracks are all pretty similar. The record isn’t exactly the most inventive musical document. It’s not deep on a lyrical level and feels a little tossed off in places. The production lacks punch. I’m not sure if this album needs to be glossier or grittier, but right now it’s in this awkward middle ground where it just sounds tinny. But it’s a fun album, dammit.

Get Safe is a good alt-rock record. It’s modest in ambition but effortlessly enjoyable. It’s just good.

Vinyl Vednesday 9/29/2010

[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. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm (2005) on black, The Hadituptoheres’ Wild City Honest Dancing (2010) on maroon marble, and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) on black.

Place of Purchase: Bloc Party came from eBay. Hadituptoheres was mailed to me for review. Pulp Fiction came from Disc World (R.I.P.) in Conshohocken.

Thoughts: I have this stupid habit of doubling up on vinyl and CD for records I love, and I sure do love Silent Alarm. I got it extra cheap on eBay since it’s missing the bonus Dim Mak remix 12-inch, which I honestly don’t miss. I have a bevy of Bloc Party singles, and I rarely listen to the remixes (although the Streets’ version of “Banquet” is pretty good). Silent Alarm is great on its own, a nervous British indie rock/post-punk collection of anthems about longing and/or dancing and/or getting high. It reminds me a lot about being young, and it’s weird thinking that this record came out five years ago. In my memory, it’s still a relatively recent release, and my girlfriend and I are still making out to “This Modern Love” for the first time.

I rarely keep promos lately. I’m trying to scale down my music collection, so I don’t feel like holding on to records that I only kind of like. Wild City Honest Dancing is an exception; this album packs a solid garage rock punch in the vein of many a great Detroit band. And the vinyl sure is perty.

It’s an unfortunate coincidence that I picked the Pulp Fiction soundtrack the same week that Sally Menke, Quentin Tarantino’s editor, passed away, but here goes. Music has always played a key role in Tarantino’s films, and attitudes towards his music selections tend to mirror attitudes towards his movies in general: Is he honoring or ripping off obscure works? Either way, he has great taste. Pulp Fiction is all over the place musically, and beautifully so. It packs funk/soul (Kool & The Gang, Al Green), original rock ‘n’ roll (Chuck Berry, Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, who perform “Misirlou,” which you probably know as the Pulp Fiction theme. You know the one, with the guitar part), and even some country courtesy of Ricky Wilson and Dusty Springfield. Sprinkled throughout the soundtrack are the most popular lines from the movie. “Royale with cheese.” “Zed’s dead, baby.” And of course, the “Ezekiel 25:17” speech by Samuel L. Jackson.

Fake Problems - 'Real Ghosts Caught on Tape'

Dear Fake Problems,

I'm breaking up with you. Please don't write me.

Signed,

Joseph T. Pelone

P.S. - We'll always have How Far Our Bodies Go.

Overnight Lows - 'City of Rotten Eyes'

It took 16 years for Overnight Lows to finally release a full-length. Consisting of 22 minutes of ho-hum standard punk songs, City of Rotten Eyes has little to offer in originality. Within seconds, it’s clear that the record took so long to come together because the band couldn’t be bothered. While there’s something to be said for unassuming punk rock and all its freedom and whatever, Rotten Eyes does so little to deviate from the low tech, adrenaline-fueled songs of yesteryear that for all its rapid fire bluster, it still comes out boring.

The title track opens the record with a distorted riff, really, really fast drums and co-ed vocals. It’s snotty and speedy and has been done plenty of times before. The 11 songs that follow “City of Rotten Eyes” sound about the same. Again, it’s in keeping with the original punk sound, but it means fuck-all. The tracks could run in any order with the same result. And while that was a liberating in the ’70s, it’s dull for those of us who have since progressed from that sound. Rotten Eyes isn’t exactly bad, but there are so many more interesting punk records that came out this year. Why bother?

Grub Animal - 'Grub Animal'

Grub Animal just wasn’t made for these times. The Brooklyn quartet deals in jittery post-punk/new wave, resurrecting sounds long since mined by the likes of Talking Heads, the Call and the Bongos. The group’s self-titled full-length proves tiresome well before its 30-minute running time concludes.

Here’s the thing, a key part of rock ‘n’ roll comes from thievery. There are only so many chords, so many beats, so many ways to say “whoa” and “yeah” and “hunger dunger dang.” But Grub Animal can’t figure out how to use what they’ve stolen. Sure, some of their songs sound like they came from 77, but none of them captures the fire or wit of that record. The songs are often so inane lyrically and midtempo musically that the whole thing just feels cheap.

Frontman Randa Eid often slips into pre-verbal ramblings during the songs, like the second halves of “I Am Quite Unable” or “Day Brings New Love.” And while most bands will slip in the occasional “la la la” to attract listeners, here it just feels like she has nothing else to say. Sometimes the jibberish pays off – the caterwauling Fulci-fest “Zombi at My Door” is an awesome indie rocker in the vein of Modest Mouse/U.S. Funk Team. But moments like that are lacking. Grub Animal’s successes are few; its failures many.

Vinyl Vednesday 9/22/2010

[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. This week’s entry celebrates Blake Schwarzenbach’s return to music with PUNS. IT’S SCHWARZENBACH SCHEVEN-INCHES DAYYYYYYY.

…e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds...]

Records: forgetters’ forgetters double seven-inch (2010) on black, the Jawbreaker/Samiam split (1992) on clear red, and Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1993) on black 12-inch with a clear yellow seven-inch, featuring Jawbreaker, Jawbox, and a lot of bands who butcher R.E.M.

Place of Purchase: forgetters was pre-ordered through Interpunk.com. No Idea “found” a box of Jawbreaker/Samiam splits earlier this year and sold for half the price they go for on eBay, which is funny to me since this seven-inch was originally included for free with a copy of No Idea Magazine. No Vinyl Vednesday feature would be complete without a reference to Siren Records in Doylestown, which just so happens to be where I found Surprise Your Pig.

Thoughts: I have listened to forgetters about 40 or 50 times since I got it in the mail on Monday. That means I’ve dedicated about 11 hours to listening to four songs. I really, really like this EP, and it means so much to me that Schwarzenbach is still making music. “Too Small to Fail” has been stuck in my head; it was one of the two songs that stood out for me during their set at the Barbary last year, along with “Vampire Lessons.” That bit at the end when he screams “Someone’s gonna love me someday” is quite cathartic. I had a lot of trouble trying to focus my feelings into a review, and I’m not entirely happy with what came out, but Schwarzenbach is just one of those writers that has shaped my life for so many years that it’s hard for me to find new ways to explain how much he means to me. I’ve been a fan since I heard Four-Cornered Night in 2001. I guess the best way I can put this is, “Too Small to Fail” and “Vampire Lessons” mean as much to me as “Accident Prone” or “You’re the One I Want.”

I bought the other two records featured today simply because they were available to me. I generally don’t pursue rarities like this, especially since in this case, Jawbreaker’s songs “Split” and “Pretty Persuasion” are both available on their rarities compilation Etc.. Stilll, when No Idea offered me a rare Jawbreaker seven-inch, I couldn’t help myself. And hey, it turned me on to Samiam, a punk band that blends a lot of different styles into their sound. I guess my short description would be that people who like NOFX’s snot and Sunny Day Real Estate’s guitars could both enjoy this band. Overall, a good purchase.

Surprise Your Pig, however, was a bad idea. It’s telling that the liner notes for Etc. say “Our first and last tribute record. It seemed like a bad idea at the time. And it was.” Most of the compilation consists of terrible indie rock and punk. Of the 17 bands featured three come out looking OK. Jawbreaker and Jawbox, who covered “Low,” went on to include their renditions on their respective rarities comps, Etc. and My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidents. That leaves The Mr. T Experience. Poor, poor MTX. I like their version of “Can’t Get There From Here,”, but not enough to try to find its groove for the needle. The only thing keeping me from selling this back is the bonus colored seven-inch with Jawbreaker on it. When I inevitably start scaling down my vinyl collection, this’ll be one of the first records to go. Argh.

I LOVES YOU BLAKE SCHWARZENBACH.