Underground Communique 4/20/07

1. Subhumans - What's Your Number - Unfinished Business - Bluurg
2. Articles of Faith - I've Got Mine - Complete Vol. 2 - Alt. Tent
3. Choking Victim - Infested - Squatta's Paradise - Tent City
4. Clorox Girls - Pop Codeine - This Dimension - Smart Guy Records
5. Briefs - Silver Bullet - Hit After Hit - Dirtnap
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6. Stooges - TV Eye - Fun House - Elektra
7. Kraut - Arming the World - An Adjustment to Society - New Red Archives
8. Regress - Your Vote Counts (For Nothing) - Look Who's Pulling the Strings EP - Lengua Armada
9. Project X - Shut Down - Straight Edge Revenge - Bridge Nine
10. Burning Image - The Lower Walks - 1983-1987 - Alt Tent
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11. Retching Red - Dispatch - Get Your Red Wings - BBR
12. Naked Aggression - Revelution on the Way - March Along - Mighty
13. Cross Laws - Vengence - Midwest Tour Demo - S/R
14. I Object - Seek More - 2005 Tour Demo - S/R
15. Black Flag - Depression - Everything Went Black - SST
16. Skafish - Maybe One Time - S/T - IRS
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17. Deadfall - Counting - Keep Telling Yourself It's OK 7" - Tankcrime Records
18. Formaldahyde Junkies - Religious Molester - Public Safety Comp - MRR
19. Propaghandi - Anti Manifesto - How to Clean Everything - Fat
20. Aggression - Intense Energy - Someone's Gonna Get Their Head to Believe in Something Comp. - BYO
21. No Slogan - Retro Kids - National Threat 7" - Southkore
22. Klaus Nomi - Lightning Strikes - Eclipsed Collection - Razor Tie
23. Firehose - O'er of the Town Pedro - S/T 7" - ?
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24. The Ergs! - 2nd Foundation - Upstairs/Downstairs - Dirtnap
25. Pink Razors - Spring Fevers - Waiting to Wash Up - Robotic Empire
26. Modern Machines - Pay Off the Hangman - Take It, Somebody - Dirtnap
27. Connie Dungs - Used to Be Cool - Songs for Swinging Nice Guys - Mutant Pop
28. Queers - Ben Weasel - Beat Off - Lookout!
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29. The Spits - Spit Me Out - S/T - Slovernly
30. Ramones - We're a Happy Family - Rocket to Russia - Sire
31. Knugen Faller - For Sverige I Tiden - Inte Son Ni 7"
32. The Dicks - Dicks Hate Police - 1980-1986 - Alternative Tentacles
33. Los Crudos - Levantante - Discographia - Beat Generation
34. The Ex - Human Car - Singles. Period. - Touch and Go
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35. Teen Generate - My GTO - Savage - SFTRI
36. Mohammed Rafi - Jaan Pehechaan Ho - Ghost World Soundtrack - Shanachie
37. Ventures - Journey to the Stars - Journey to the Stars Single
38. Guitar Wolf - Murder by Rock - Rock N Roll Etiquette - Narnack
39. Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Sex and Drugs and Rock N Roll - Sex and Drugs and Rock N Roll
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40. No Empathy - Oi Across America - Freedom of Flesh - Roadkill Records
41. Dead Milkmen - Nitro Burning Funny Cars - Bucky Fellini - Enigma
42. Poison Idea - Jihad Love - Latest Will and Testament - Farewell Records
43. Gila Bend - Smile - S/T 7" - Liberty Park Recordings
44. Bad Brains - Sailin' On - S/T - ROIR
45. Medveds - She Won't Shave Her Legs - 3rd Nipple From the Sun 7" - Pill Party Records
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46. Lifetime - All Nite Long - S/T - Decaydencefuckfalloutboy records
47. Sludgeworth - Someday - Losers of the Year - Lookout
48. Low Budgets - El Hombre - Go for Broke
49. Abe Froman - I Got Sick of Waiting For You - S/T - Plan It X
50. Automatics - Fortune Teller - Fortune Teller 7" - Killer Records
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51. Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was - Inflammable Materials - Restless
52. New York Dolls - Jet Boy - Rock N Roll - Mercury
53. Discharge - Protest and Survive - Never Again - Earmark
54. Born Against - Mount the Pavement - Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children
55. Tragedy - Call to Arms - Vengence - S/R
56. Disassociate - Reign of the Super Powers - Imperfect World - MIA Records
57. Hewhocorrupts - Master of Profits (Live)- the Discographer - bunch of labels
58. Coliseum - Detached - S/T - Level Plane
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59. Negative Approach - Your Mistake - Tied Down - Touch and Go
60. Victims - No Regrets - In Blood - Havoc
61. Less Than Jake - Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sell Outs - Pezcore - Asian Man
62. No Choice - If Logic's First (We're Coming Second) - Dry River Fishing - No Idea
63. Shellac - Dog and Pony Show - At Action Park - Touch and Go
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64. Crimpshrine - Summertime - Duct Tape Soup LP - Lookout!
65. Alkaline Trio - Mr Chainsaw - From Here to Infermary - Vagrant
66. Bouncing Souls - True Believers - How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Epitaph
67. Off With Their Heads - Your Child is Dead - Hospitals - Recess Records

Good Ole Fashioned Pop Punk

I'm currently listening to the lastest Ergs! album, "Upstairs/Downstairs," which was put out by one of my favorite record labels, Dirtnap. I'm a big fan of this band and I really like that they take a basic formula and give it a new twist. The intersting thing about the Ergs! is that their influences are so ridiculously obvious, yet they sound completely fresh and like nothing else out there. It's sort of the same situation with the Modern Machines. In both cases, both bands give a big fat tip of the hat to Screeching Weasel, but once you get past that, you see a huge Replacements influence and in the case of the Ergs!, you sometimes see a little bit of Dinosaur Jr. It's very obvious these kids grew up on a heavy dose of 80's and 90's American indie rock, which I fully support. The Modern Machines was on my top ten of '06 and I can tell you right now that the Ergs! will be on my top ten of '07.
While on the subject of pop punk, I recently purchased the re-release of the first Riverdales album. When I bought the original version of this album, I wasn't all that into it and I can't give an honest reason for not liking it. I listened to the reissue several times since Saturday and all the songs that I thought were mediocre were all of a sudden incredible. Just to make sure it was my engineering ears playing tricks on me, I tossed on the original LP and I liked the original version even more than the reissue! It's a weird phenominon. Putting down an album because you didn't like it that much and then several years later listening to it and realizing that it's an incredible release. The songs are catchy as hell and the combination of Weasel, Vapid and Panic really shows why Screeching Weasel was an incredible band and why the Riverdales really did pick up where they left off.
I've always been a fan of pop punk and power pop, so this resurrgence of the genre has been really exciting for me. There are so many bands coming up right now playing pop punk the way it's meant to be played that it's getting difficult to keep up. Here's a quick list of bands worth checking out:
the Ergs!, Modern Machines, Dateless, Busy Signals, the Copyrights, Teenage Bottlerocket, This is My Fist, Canadian Rifle, the Unlovables, the Merkurs, the Steinways, Retarded, the Teenage Harlets, the Methadones, Chinese Telephones, the Bayonettes, the Dangerloves, Off With Their Heads... this list can go on for a very long time.
Off With Their Heads put out what could be one of the best pop punk records of this decade. "Hospitals" is extremely catchy, yet dark and depressing. I've got my fingers crossed that this band doesn't self destruct, because the two times I saw them, they were absolutely incredible. Do yourself a favor and check out this band while you still can. Good things never last.

1. Vacation Bible School - Longest Day of the Year - In Defense of Myself - Lake County Collective
2. Vindictives - Time of My Life - Many Moods... - Lookout!
3. Screeching Weasel - Murder in the Brady House - S/T - VML
4. Arrivals - Chinese New Year - Goodbye New World - Thick
5. Avail - Tuning - Dixie - Lookout!
6. Shot Baker - Friendship - Awake - Underground Communique
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7. Ambition Mission - Cutie Pie - S/T - Government Music
8. Latterman - If Batman Were Real, He'd Kick the Crap Out of My Friends - We Are Still Alive - Deep Elm
9. Abe Froman - Citizen's Arrest - S/T - Plan-It-X
10. J Church - Foreign Films - Prophylaxis - Allied
11. Descendents - Suburban Home - Milo Goes to College - SST
12. Naked Raygun - New Dreams - All Rise - 1/4 Stick
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13. Exploding Hearts - Rumours in Town - Guitar Romantic - Dirtnap
14. Dead Boys - What Love Is - Young, Loud and Snotty - Sire
15. Damned - Born to Kill - Damned Damned Damned - Stiff
16. The Maggots - (Let's Get, Let's Get) Tammy Wynette - Killed By Death #5- Redrum
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17. Ergs - Radio K - Jersey's Best Prancers - Don Giovanni
18. Teen Idols - Let's Make Noise - S/T - Honest Don's
19. Dillinger Four - Music is None of My Business - Versus God - Hopeless
20. Dead Milkmen - Stuart - Beelzebubba - Restless
21. Operation Cliff Clavin - One Last Shot - Discography - Plan It X
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22. Clash - Janie Jones - S/T - Epic
23. Devo - Freedom of Choice - Freedom of Choice - Warner
24. Bad Brains - Banned in DC - S/T - ROIR
25. Big Boys - Mutant Rock - Skinny Elvis - Touch and Go
26. Dicks - Dicks Hate Police - 1980-1986 - Alt. Tent.
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27. Hot Water Music - Free Radio Gainsville - No Division - No Idea
28. Tilt - Yellow Bellies - Play Cell - Lookout!
29. X - Riding With Mary - Under the Big Black Sun - Elektra
30. O Pioneers!!! - Enemies on Speed Dial - Black Mambas - Underground Communique
31. Cramps - What's Inside a Girl - A Date With Elvis - Vengence
32. Nite Hawks - Chicken Grabber - Pink Flamingos Soundtrack - Hip-O Records
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33. Misfits - Hybrid Moments/Spinal Remains - Legacy of Brutality - Plan 9
34. Regulations - Laugh at Me (Ha Ha) - Electric Guitar - Havoc
35. Koro - Government - Speed Kills - Sorry State
36. Assuck - Corners - Misery Index - Sound Pollution
37. The Great Clearing Off - Othello -
38. Retainers - Teenage Regrets - Tour 7" - S/R
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39. Dictators - Baby Let's Twist - Bloodbrothers - Wounded Bird
40. Catburglars - S.P. - Holy Shit EP - Tooth Decay
41. Screeching Weasel - Cindy's on Methadone - My Brain Hurts - Lookout!
42. American Steel - Long Day - S/T - New Disorder
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43. Youth Brigade - Sink With California - Sink With Kalifornija - BYO
44. Copyrights - Button Smasher - Button Smasher 7" - It's Alive Records
45. Choking Victim - 500 Channels - No Gods, No Managers - Hell Cat
46. Low Budgets - Fin - Aim Low, Get High - Schulykill Records
47. Man... or Astro Man? - Escape Velocity - Project Infinity - Estrus
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48. Cross Laws - Burried Alive - Behind the Curve EP - S/R
49. SNFU - Victims of the Womanizer - Someone's Gotta Get Their Head to Believe in Something - BYO
50. Drunken Boat - Stop Everything - S/T - 1234...Go! Records
51. Boris the Sprinkler - Kill the Ramones - Mega Anal. - Bulge
52. Descendents - Weinerschnitzel - FAT - SST
53. Crimpshrine - In My Mind - Sleep, What's That? 7" - Lookout!
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54. World/Inferno Friendship Society - Fiend in Wien - Me Vs. Angry Mob - Label With the Golden Arm
55. Dead to Me - Don't Lie - Cuban Ballerina - Fat
56. Banner Pilot - Bender - Pass the Poison - Arsenic Records
57. Love and Squalor - Pretty Names Improved by Either - New Blood, New Songs - Tour Sampler
58. Tiltwheel - All I Care About is Me, My Rum and You - Hairbrained Scheme Addicts - Self Re-released
59. Melvins - The Talking Horse - A Senile Animal - Ipecac
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60. Deadfall - Counting - Keep Telling Yourself It's OK 7" - Tankcrimes
61. I Object - Burn/Hate Words - Split w/FPO - Dead Tank
62. Acid Reflux - Does Your Mom Know You're a Ramone? - S/T EP
63. Cringer - Two Friends - Live in Europe 7" - Vinyl COmmunications
64. Bananas - A Slippery Subject - A Slippery Subject - Plan It X

FIN!