• Off With Their Heads‘ last-minute secret show at the Atlantic, playing Hospitals straight through
• The whole Red Collar set. Seriously, wow.
• Frank Turner in my friend’s hotel room late Sunday night
• Seeing Red City Radio’s Garrett perform like a million times
• Mixtapes! Both acoustic at the Holiday Inn and with the full band at Rumrunners. They covered Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise”
• And of course, Dear Landlord decked out like Juggalos for their set.

Being my first Fest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. But now, I’m hooked. I absolutely must return for Fest 10 next year.

So, to those who went, what were the best things you saw?

After the break is a list of bands I saw. Italics for partial set.

THURSDAY
ihatemyself

FRIDAY
No BS! Brass Band
Reverse the Curse
World’s Scariest Police Chases
10-4 Eleanor
Banquet
Jonesin’
Bars of Gold
Red Collar
The Riot Before
Nothington
Red City Radio (acoustic)
Attica Attica!
PJ Bond

SATURDAY
Iron Chic
Dear Landlord
Paul Baribeau
Cobra Skulls
Banner Pilot
Laura Stevenson & the Cans
Toys That Kill
Cheap Girls
Paint it Black
Bridge & Tunnel
Off With Their Heads
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes
Fake Problems (acoustic)
Mixtapes (acoustic)
Garrett Dale (Red City Radio)
Larry & His Flask

SUNDAY
Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck
The Copyrights
Lemuria
The Menzingers
No More
Mixtapes
Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves
Frank Turner
Garrett Dale (Red City Radio)
Mark Allin (Beat Noir)
Franz Nicolay (acoustic)
Frank Turner

Off With Their Heads - In Desolation

I love Off With Their Heads. Their gloomy, gruff, sorta-pop-punk jams are the kind of thing I eat up. And their exposure has sure grown of late; their last album, 2008′s From the Bottom (No Idea Records), was phenomenal, for starters, second only to The ’59 Sound on my short list of best albums of ’08, and got exposure through a fairly awesome placement/pricing at Hot Topic stores around the country. And then, earlier this year, they signed to Epitaph Records, helping to erase the memories of all the shit bands that label had signed over the course of the ’00s (what’s up, Escape the Fate?).

So here they are with a new album, once again going up against the Gaslight Anthem for my heart and mind.

To start, there’s not a whole lot here that’s different since From the Bottom. The band’s basic attack/M.O. hasn’t changed; catchy punk songs with gravelly vocals courtesy of singer/guitarist Ryan Young, and songs about generally morbid topics. Sure, there’s nothing with the attention-grabbing quality of “Fuck This, I’m Out’s” last refrain (“Might as well just kill myself tonight!/I don’t want to/But I don’t see any other way”), but this is still Off With Their Heads. They’re not stoked on life.

Or are they? On a few moments, Young almost sounds… well, not happy. I don’t think real, gleeful happiness is something that happens in the lyrical world of Off With Their Heads. But when they manage to slow it down with the penultimate song “My Episodes,” Ryan goes so far as to say “I’m just happy right now that your arms are around me.” So things aren’t as hopelessly dire this time around; despite the album title, desolation and despair doesn’t necessarily reign supreme. But they’re certainly there an awful lot. And thank goodness for that; I don’t think I’d buy any cheery Sicko-esque songs from these guys.

Musically, things are- with the exception of “My Episodes”- pretty much par for the course, which isn’t a bad thing. These guys are a tight musical outfit (despite an almost rotating cast of players, save for Young), and the tunes here will have you bobbing along and maybe throwing up your fist at your desk/in your car while you sing along, alienating yourself from your coworkers. It’s cool, I don’t judge. I’d do it too. Ryan’s vocals are, in places, a bit cleaner and less gravelly than in the past, but that certainly doesn’t detract from their sound.

If you liked From the Bottom, you will definitely enjoy In Desolation as much if not more so. The songs are well-crafted and played well, and the production sounds good to me. Top 10 material here, for sure. Punknews has it streaming, so go check it out!

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.

We'll Inherit the Earth: A Tribute to the Replacements

Here we go, yet another tribute album. As per usual, the regular disclaimer about tribute records applies: the odds are, over the course of this disc, you will be filled with an uncontrollable urge to break out the original artist’s albums. In this case, you will most likely reach for your worn copy of Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash.

That’s not to say this is a bad effort, by any means. The album, like any good tribute album, emphasizes and throws into sharp focus the strength of the original material; despite being delivered in different (in some cases, radically so) styles, some with more success than others, the songs are still great.

The first thing a listener will notice is that the songs here are almost all contributed by punk bands. Pop-punk bands, more often than not, and that makes sense, since if you were to try to find a genre that was most influenced by the Replacements (in particular, their early material), it would be pop-punk. Or at least, those bands who don’t feel a need to be slavishly devoted to retreading the musical blueprint of Rocket to Russia.

Generally, the takes on the band’s material here is pretty reverent. There are a couple of contributions that venture more into the country territory (“If Only You Were Lonely” sticks out in my mind), and it all works fairly well. And it’s amazing how some of the songs fit the bands they’re being covered by, which I guess shows off how ‘Mats-influenced those bands are. For a specific example, check out Off With Their Heads’ take on “Goddamn Job.” It reminds the listener of the lead song on their Hospitals album, “Die Today.”

Depending on your tolerance for covers of a single artist, the 23 songs contained here may turn out to be a bit over long. But overall, the album is a great tribute to a seminal band, who deserve all the accolades they can get.

Off With Their Heads - Hospitals EP

When one thinks of pop-punk, what comes to mind? It’s probably Ramones-like song structure, breakneck speed, whiny (possibly nasally) vocals, and songs about girls and the problems that the singer has with said girls. Either the one he’s got is no good, or (more likely) he can’t get one no matter how hard he tries. It’s like there’s a formula or something!

Off With Their Heads have come storming out of Minnesota saying “Fuck that shit, and fuck you too.”

These are four of the unhappiest lads ever to jump in a van and play a show. With song titles like “Die Today” and “Your Child is Dead,” clearly there’s a certain cold darkness to the material here. And the lyrics back it up; vocalist Ryan sings about suicide, drug addiction, sickness, being tormented by your peers, and death. Has he experienced all this? I’d like to think not, but I can’t imagine pulling this material off without the personal experience to back it up.

If the material is dark, depressing stuff, then the music is just about the polar opposite. They play a brand of pop-punk that is very reminiscent of fellow Minnesotans Dillinger Four; gruff, gritty, powerful, and immensely catchy. It’s hard not to get moving to tunes like “Theme Song,” “Die Today,” or really any of the EP’s eight songs. The band plays with energy and conviction; these guys know how to write one hell of a punk riff, even on the 20-second “Idiot.”

Off With Their Heads burst onto the scene with this, their first non-split 7″ outing, and it’s a brutal, catchy, even haunting sonic document. The music will get stuck in your head, prompting you to listen repeatedly… and then the words become clearer. This reaction is a bit extreme. But maybe not by much. At any rate, this is a fantastic debut from a band who just continues to get better.

Off With Their Heads - From the Bottom

Off With Their Heads are a fairly new band to come out of the apparently fertile punk land of Minneapolis. They clearly listen to a lot of DIllinger Four, subscribing to the same gritty, darkly humorous take on punk that D4 does so well. From the Bottom is either their debut record, or sophomore effort, depending on if you count the Hospitals 10″ as a proper album. At any rate, this is their first LP, though you might have heard the aforementioned 10″ record, or any of their numerous 7″ releases, split 7″s, or compilation contributions.

The album kicks off with “I Am You,” a track that outlines the band’s pessimistic views, and sets up the themes for the rest of the album with the repeated verse “I’ll tell you why I fuckin’ hate my life and/I’ll tell you why I can’t seem to get it right/I’ll tell you why I entertain the thought of dying all the time.” These guys have to be the least-uplifting pop-punk band to hit in a long time. It’s one thing to moan about girls; in OWTH’s world, everyone seems to be dying. Case in point, the album’s closer “I Hope You Know” is a mournful plea for never having made things right before the person the song is directed to died. And suicide rears its head a few times, in the above “I Am You,” as well as the end of the single “Fuck This, I’m Out.” I don’t know what’s happening up in Minnesota, but it’s made for quartet of dour young men.

And while nothing seems to go right for lead singer/guitarist Ryan over the course of these 12 tracks, the music the band pumps out to back his rough, throaty growl is fast and powerful. Their brand of punk is busy and driving, even when the tempos slow down on songs like “Go On Git Now,” which provides nice breaks in the action, to keep the album from flying by too quickly.

Off With Their Heads have put out a really great record, and it will surely find itself on many punk-oriented best-of lists. Pitchfork will likely not care for it, but that’s their loss. Do yourself a favor and check out this album.