Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

Frank Turner is back with his second album since signing to Epitaph here in the States, and fourth overall. Since he released Poetry of the Deed in 2009, he’s released a collaborative 10″ with Jon Snodgrass and the Rock & Roll EP, as well as closing out The Fest 9 with a masterful solo set that spilled into the parking lot across the street from the venue.

England Keep My Bones finds Frank with more full band arrangements than on previous records, but also he sounds more comfortable in that setting than similarly-arranged songs did on Poetry of the Deed. It helps that, by and large, the songs here are stronger than on his previous full-length, which I admit I didn’t find nearly as compelling as the excellent Love, Ire & Song.

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Football, Etc. - The Draft

I’m not sure when exactly I became aware of Football, etc., an excellent emo/indie band out of Houston, Texas. I think it was when I got to see them play a show here in Boston with P.S. Eliot. At any rate, I was captivated by their sound, calling to mind that of the classic mid-’90s emo bands like Braid, Christie Front Drive, and Sunny Day Real Estate, among others. I had enjoyed their free First Down EP (get it here from If You Make It), and anxiously awaited a full-length. And now, at long last, it is here!

And if you want to read the rest of my review of this record, you can see it over in AMP MAGAZINE! Yes, that’s right, my thoughts have been printed in an honest-to-goodness magazine. How about that?

Anyway, go read more about this great record here!

Balance & Composure - Separation

Balance & Composure, hailing from Doylestown, PA, have finally released their full-length! After dropping a pair of EPs- I Just Want to Be Pure and Only Boundaries- and their well-received split with Tigers Jaw, No Sleep Records delivers this LP from a band that has seemed to improve with great strides over each release.

And Separation is certainly no exception to that.

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Hunx & His Punx - Too Young to Be in Love

I first became aware of Hunx and His Punx at SXSW last year, when I was able to catch their set with Happy Birthday. I was completely blown away by their performance, and immediately picked up a copy of Gay Singles. It made sense when I later learned that Nobunny had helped write a number of the songs from that record. Hunx’s sound has a lot in common with Nobunny: the raw, garage rock sound, and a love for the Ramones (pretty explicitly stated in “You Don’t Like Rock ‘n Roll”), though Hunx infuses his music with more than a little bit of a ’50s/’60s girl group sound. And it’s that latter influence that comes to the fore on the new record, Too Young to Be in Love.

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Screeching Weasel - First World Manifesto

It’s nice to see that Ben Weasel is keeping busy. After the one-two punch of the recent pair of Riverdales releases- Invasion USA in 2009 and last year’s Tarantula- he and a new lineup of the classic Chicago Ramones devotees Screeching Weasel have returned to Fat Wreck and issued First World Manifesto, the first Screeching Weasel album in 2000′s Teen Punks in Heat.

So how has ten years changed Screeching Weasel?

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The Gamits - Parts

So the Gamits are a long-running pop-punk band from Colorado. They put out a few lauded records via the awesome Suburban Home Records before disbanding in 2005. Major bummer, right? But not so! Now, from what I understand, they’ve gotten back together to do some shows- primarily in Japan- and to celebrate that, they’ve cranked out a whole new album for us lucky fans. Huzzah! How does Parts stack up to their earlier releases like Antidote?

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Red City Radio - The Dangers of Standing Still

At long last! Oklahoma’s Red City Radio have unleashed their first full-length record upon the world, by way of Paper + Plastick. After building some substantial hype with their EP, To the Sons and Daughters of Woody Guthrie, and the album teaser “Spinning in Circles is a Gateway Drug” digital single, not to mention their probably-awesome set at The Fest 9, (I wouldn’t know, I was standing in line outside Common Grounds during the whole thing. Not bitter or anything.) the band delivers more of the high-energy, melodic punk rock they’d burst out of the gate with, to hopefully a great deal of fanfare.

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Click here to get into it. Tell your friends! It’s cool, seriously.

Day 2 was a bit more low key overall, in terms of crowd rowdiness, but perhaps even more awesome than the first night.  Somehow I felt more destroyed after this one day than I recall feeling after the entirety of Fest 9. Weird! Some highlights:

• My friend Kevin playing 2nd guitar for locals Ascetic Parade, and being totally awesome
• Red Collar sending the crowd into a frenzy that may have been more out of control than Less Than Jake’s ‘Hello, Rockview’ set.
• Brendan Kelly drunkenly falling over the drum riser, and playing a song he wrote when twelve, entitled “Dicks.” For fans of “Nuts Nuts We Want Nuts.”
• I Was Totally Destroying It overcoming their kinda dumb name and being awesome, particularly their cover of “Big Country.”
• Pink Flag. Wow. Best band I wasn’t very familiar with before, I’d say. More people should listen to this band, because they were awesome. Awesome 3-piece, all female power-pop-punk. I feel that, if there’s any justice in this world, this band will be huge.
• The bodega across the street selling empanadas. I’m sure how I feel now is a direct result of those things, but man if they weren’t delicious.

I want to send thanks to everyone I spent time with at DTFH Fest. It wasn’t long enough, but it was a blast. Thanks to the bands who played and rocked hard. I don’t think there was a single less-than-great performance all weekend. And of course, thanks to Scotty Sandwich from Death to False Hope Records, for putting this whole thing together.

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