Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Off With Their Heads

I feel like a news site up in here or something. Anyway! According to their Twitter, and this here article, Minneapolis’s favorite manic-depressive punks, Off With Their Heads, have signed to Epitaph Records, home of Bad Religion, Alkaline Trio, the Weakerthans, Frank Turner, and a shit-ton of really terrible bands. I’m looking at you, Escape the Fate.

The move is somewhat surprising. I kinda figured them for a Fat Wreck-bound act, maybe doing one more on No Idea before moving on up. But hey, regardless, good for them! They’re one of the best bands out there now, and deserve to get as big as possible.

According to the linked article, they’ve got a new record dropping June 1st. It’s looking to be a good year.

Spring Heeled Jack

I almost never use the “News” category, because, well, this isn’t a news site, but if you haven’t heard the news:

Connecticut-based ska heroes Spring Heeled Jack are doing some reunion shows! And reissuing their albums Static World View and Songs From Suburbia on vinyl! If you’re not familiar with the band, they were awesome, and home to such fine folks as Chris Rhodes, who plays in the Mighty Mighty Bosstones these days, and JR of Less Than Jake before he was snorting PEZ with those lads.

Speaking of JR, he writes about the history of the band briefly in his blog, before making the big announcement. You can check out that post here.

Get stoked!

Update: Punknews.org has the story now, too. Only new detail is that Connecticut’s Asbestos Records will be handling the aforementioned re-releases. Check the story here. And while you’re at it, go take a look at the Asbestos Records site, and their offerings. The vinyl reissue of Big Daddy Multitude, in particular, is excellent.

Harvey Danger - Little By Little

So several months ago, I had the pleasure of catching a show on Harvey Danger’s farewell tour, (documented here) which I thoroughly enjoyed. On my way out of the venue, I stopped by the merch booth because, well, this would be my last chance, right? I picked up their last studio album, Little By Little, on vinyl because that’s how I roll.

This album is a solid argument that this band should have been way bigger than they were.

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2010 has begun, and there are several bands of note- to me, anyway- that are working on new albums. So for 2010, I’m stoked for:

• Alkaline Trio – This Addiction
  • The band has released the first single from the new album, the title track, to the Internets for our listening pleasure. I’d already heard it at Riot Fest, but it’s nice to have the studio version, especially since it’s so good. This has me even more stoked for this album. Out on Epitaph/Heart & Skull.
• Bad Religion
• Social Distortion
• The Smoking Popes – It’s Been a Long Day
• The Menzingers
• The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
• The Riot Before
• everything Death to False Hope Records is releasing

So what else? What’s coming this year that you all are excited for?

Watch out for wayward Star Children

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys reading other people’s opinions- and I know you are!- you might be interested to know that the GDTS Best of 2009 list has been posted for your reading pleasure.

You can hit this link right here for an obscenely long list of albums, plus descriptions of the top 10, just in case you forgot how awesome they were.

Also available over on the sidebar are the Best of… lists from 2007 and 2008, if you care to visit those olden days.

Finally, coming soon will be a list of the top 50 albums of the decade. Because, well, when you’re in list-making mode, why stop? And it’s fun to look back and see what came out this decade. 2001’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation seems like a long-ass time ago, huh?

Here’s to 2010!

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/xraphiex/

So here we are, wrapping up twenty-aught-nine, and once again, Boston’s own ska-core heroes The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are throwing their annual (minus some years in there) Hometown Throwdown. HTTD XII took place at Boston’s House of Blues for the first three nights, and wrapped up with a final show at the Middle East downstairs. And now the boys are playing in support of the recently-released Pin Points & Gin Joints. With a pair of reunions opening (Darkbuster on night 2, and Bim Skala Bim on night 3), this Throwdown certainly ranks up with the best that the ‘Tones have played.

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The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Pin Points & Gin Joints

2009 closes out with a new release from one of my all-time favorite bands, the one and only Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Boston’s plaid-clad crew returned from hiatus in late 2007 to bring a handful of new songs (on the b-side compilation Medium Rare) and play another of their legendary end-of-year stands, the Hometown Throwdown. Now, we have an 14 all-new (15 if you bought the vinyl) songs from the boys. The songs they’ve released so far post-hiatus have been solid. How does this stack up to their impressive catalog?

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Cheap Girls - My Roaring 20's

Wow. Where has this band been all my life? I’m so behind on this one; I’d been hearing about Cheap Girls for a while, be it on Punknews.org comments or various message boards, but utterly failed to check them out. And now I’m regretting it, because I could have listened to this album so much more in the last few months. Had I but known! Thankfully, I rectified that mistake, and have come here to help you all do the same.

If you’re not aware of the band, here’s the breakdown: Cheap Girls is a 3-piece from Lansing, MI. They’re currently signed to Paper + Plastick, who released My Roaring 20’s. This album is the follow-up to their 2008 debut, Find Me a Drink Home.

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The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

My dad called me up to tell me that Liam Clancy, the last surviving original member of the Clancy Brothers, died today. Liam was perhaps my favorite singer of all time. If you haven’t heard The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem’s In Person at Carnegie Hall, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. It shows the foursome at its finest, before a live audience.

This is really sad to hear. Liam made some wonderful music, as part of the group and solo, and he will be missed.

Have a strong pint for one of Ireland’s finest troubadours.

Further reading: NPR’s story on Liam.

Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came From the Shadows

Teenage Bottlerocket, hailing from Laramie, Wyoming, are the current standard-bearers for Ramones-core pop-punk. There’s pretty much no band out there who does it quite as well as these four guys. And now they’ve been signed to punk juggernaut, Fat Wreck Chords.

Happily, the jump from Red Scare to Fat hasn’t really impacted the band’s sound at all, at least not negatively. They sound tight as ever here, cranking out 2-3 minute pop-punk anthems left and right. “Skate or Die” delves a bit into skatepunk territory, as would befit such a song, and showcases perhaps a bit more bravado in the lyrics than the band’s previously been known for. This comes to a head in “Bigger Than KISS,” where the band boasts- tongue, one assumes, firmly planted in cheek- that they’re “gonna go down in history as world’s greatest rock ‘n roll band.” Great song, perhaps unless you’re a diehard KISS fan. Who can’t chuckle at the closing line “Ray beat the piss/outta Peter Criss/Now we’re bigger than KISS?”

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