More Reviews!

Look at that, I'm posting more reviews! I'm chipping away at the backlog as well as taking care of a couple new records that came in.

Copyrights - Make Sound - Red Scare Records
The Copyrights, hail from Carbondale Il., a small college town in Southern Illinois. It's also home to the Lost Cross, one of the oldest punk houses in the country. Some people go to Southern Illinois University there and never leave, some people go to school there and never come back. Others grow up there and become townies. Then there's the Copyrights. They carry the C-Dale flag with pride, much like Chicago punks who get Chicago flag tattoos and put patches on their messenger bags. Although the Copyrights live nowhere near Chicago, their music is a very "Chicago" flavored pop punk. When I listen to their records, I think of a golden time in punk's history, where "Dookie" hadn't come out yet and everyone was completely stoked about everything. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying here, they're not a nostalgia band, their sound is very fresh, current and relevant.
Their influences are very clearly Screeching Weasel and the Vindictives and I'm pretty sure Sludgeworth and Winepress are somewhere in their record collections as well. Once you get passed the innitial "Weasel-mania," you realize that the Copyrights are very much so their own band.
Previous to the release of "Make Sound," the Copyrights released "Mutiny Pop," which wasn't nearly as inspiring as "Make Sound," or their first full length, "We Didn't Come Here to Die," which I've considered one of the best pop-punk records to come out in the last ten years. "Make Sound" ranks right up there with their first album and feels like a much more proper follow up than "Mutiny Pop." Every song on this record is gold and will most definitely be a sing-a-long on road trips this summer.
The lead off track, "Kids of the Blackhole," is a midwestern punk anthem, as much about their home town of Carbondale as it is about growing up in the midwest in general. It expresses every sentiment I've ever had about living here and dealing with the stigma of being a midwesterner. Every song that follows is a gem, but the stand out track is "Planet Earth - Nineteen Ninety-Four." A song as much about living through the pop punk explosion that followed "Dookie," as it is a message to live right now and not wrap yourself up in nostalgia, which is something I've been saying and thinking about the last few years.
It's a great sign seeing an explosion of pop-punk bands around the country with strong convictions. Every region has it's super stars. This is My Fist out of California's Bay Area, Canadian Rifle, the Methadones and the Copyrights here in the midwest, the Ergs out in New Jersey; it's an exciting time to part of this scene. I highly encourage you to go out and buy this record. It'll be worth every penny. While you're at it, pick up the "Button Smasher" 7" and rest of their catalog.
The Copyrights

Totalitar - Vi Ar Eliten - Prank
Totalitar is one of the longest running hardcore bands to come out of Sweden and "Vi Ar Eliten" is (I believe) their nineteenth release since their formation in 1985. I was first exposed to Totalitar in the way many people were and that was through their split 7" with Portland Oregon's Tragedy. After listening to that split for a couple weeks straight, I was depressed and pretty convinced that we were living in "end times." This variety of crust is pretty dark and brooding, while still being fast as hell. But we're not talking about that record, we're talking about the most recent Totalitar release. This is, in theory, their final album, which was written and recorded back in 2003, finally to be released state side via Prank.
This release is the equivalent of what I'd assume a wrecking ball impacting a brick wall sounds like... except there's no safety catch on this album. Every track on this record is a desperate blitz of raw d-beat hardcore, starting with the title track, "Vi Ar Eliten," (which translates to "We are the Elite"), to the final cut, "In I Ruset" ("In the Drunkeness"). I really wouldn't expect any less from a band that has been pummeling people for over twenty years. The Swedish are really good at two things when it comes to music, dressing well and playing fast. I've never seen Totalitar, but they cover the fast part of the equation really really well.
Prank Records

Signal Lost - Prosthetic Screams - Prank Records
Everytime I listen to Storm the Tower, I think "why is this band a side project?!" My friend and cohort, John expressed this sentiment about this band as clearly as I have. The members of this band are also in, aside from Storm the Tower, Balance of Terror, J Church, Deathreat and Severed Head of State, but Signal Lost sounds nothing like the sum of it's parts. The cut sheet that came with this record compared them to Wipers and the Avengers, which I guess I can sort of see. What I hear is more of a Peace Punk/TSOL hybrid. Honestly, upon my first listen, I didn't like this at all. I felt like the vocals were a little too dramatic, but to be fair, it was a very passive listen. After putting this on a couple more times and listening a little closer, the songs come together a bit better and the vocals actually sound stronger and more confident and less dramatic. My first impression was that they were an embodiment of everything that I don't like about Chicago's Holy Roman Empire, without reclaiming the things I do like about that band. Now, what I hear is a very strong, well assembled unified frontal punk rock attack. Now, Ashley's voice reminds me more of Mariam from Condenada or Annie from This is My Fist as opposed to my innitial impression. This record is a pretty solid, dark punk rock record, worth checking out. I will say though, even though this is really good, Storm the Tower shouldn't be a side project.
Signal Lost
Prank Records

DOA - Punk Rock Singles 1978-1999 - Sudden Death
Back in 1978, there was a Canadian hardcore band called the Skulls and from it's ruins that year, formed one of the greatest bands to come out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. DOA, fronted by the ever famous and out right rad Joey Shithead took Canada and rest of the world by storm with a brutal punk rock attack which wasn't quite as fast as DC's Minor Threat or Bad Brains, but equally venomous and political. Having probably more in common with the Dead Kennedys and Naked Raygun, DOA took a more creative approach to hardcore.
The first time I heard them was in 1989. They were on a mix tape put together by a friend. The song was "World War 3" and what I noticed the most was the rock solid drumming. I remember asking if it was a drum machine. My friend laughed, because that record came out in 1979 and drum machines were far too expensive and didn't sound nearly as "drum like" as they do nowadays.
This record is pretty much what the title says. All of the 7" singles they put out between 1978 and 1999, which is good, because it saves me some time recording those old 7"s to my computer. Aside from convenience, this is a really good primer and introduction to one of the most important hardcore bands in the genre's history. If you have a little brother with goofy hair and girl pants, who thinks From Autumn to Ashes in hardcore, smack him upside the head and make him listen to this record. If he doesn't shave his head and buy a pair of combat boots, there's no hope for him. If you're an old fan and have all of this stuff, the only reason to pick it up is to save some time burning the singles to CD.
Sudden Death Records