pretazzo

never been into these... every once in a while I listen to Made To be Broken, but I can't make it to the end... they don't even sound like a Midwest band: too polished, the singer hardly ever screams, too classic rock and not enough hc... sure, the Mats were rockers too, but they made Bastards Of Young, Color Me Impressed, Favorite Thing, Seen Your Video, Red Red Wine etc... I don't know if you get what I mean...

But indeed the "school" of Bad Religion is that of the Epitaph + Screeching Weasels groups :-) The Fingers the fathers of Green Day? Put like that, it may sound like a joke, but let's keep in mind that 1979 is one thing, while 1994 is another (15 years in which everything changed, in music, in the world, etc.). The melodicism of the Fingers was quite different from that of pop-punk groups like the Buzzcocks, where the carefree, passionate, and romantic side prevailed in the sense of being in love, but not really with an ideal, rather more prosaically with a girl... the SLF, on the other hand, with their raw melodies, were in love with something more abstract: freedom, justice, peace, etc... regarding the discussion about the "turn" of the subsequent albums, if we listen closely, we realize they have always been "grass-roots" in their melodies; it’s just that the punk fervor and noise kept that hidden in the early albums... what is Wasted Life, if not a ballad overwhelmed by decibels? And what about Here We Are Nowhere? Does it not smell of green fields and Guinness?? (even though, once again, the bewildering execution brings us straight from the fields to the chaos of urban guerrillas)

Oh, what a coincidence... I listened to them today in the car, just this record... what can I say? For me: best punk band ever! BETTER THAN THE CLASH, who in 5 albums haven't put together as many emotionally compelling memorable tracks as those found in this amazing second album of theirs, less fierce than the first but even more passionate... ALL the songs from the first 2 albums of the SLF are anthological (if I really have to choose one, I'll go with Alternative Ulster)... it's surprising that a "45 RPM" genre like punk '77 included among its ranks a band capable of making the first two LPs seem like greatest hits collections! :-) An inexhaustible compositional vein, noise, impact, heart-wrenching melody, transparent honesty, well-crafted songs (never rhetorical like too much OI from East End London, but never intellectualistic like some contemporaneous wave), so much subtly hidden class (not just in the reggae digressions: and there are those who still believe that only the Clash did reggae-punk crossover back in the day!), nice disharmonious constructs masked by a production that is nothing short of raw... in Nobody's Heroes there is a tendency towards the elongated track, based on a few essential lyrics but repeated like a sincere slogan (never cloying ramalama) for even 2 or 3 minutes at the end, with instrumental variations that never bore the fortunate listener... as if to say: no, we don't want to finish our anthem so soon, we don't want to prematurely extinguish our voice, we will shout our ideas at the top of our lungs, repeating them until our reasons fade away... and so: GOTTA GOTTA GETAWAAAAAY ad libitum..................

fear these: them and their music videos :-O black noise...and this is said by someone who doesn't love electronics...

Hello everyone... thanks for the comments... really a memorable live show, too bad for those who were absent... and now onto the Lemonheads, in Mezzago next month... @ Ramona: look, Dando is playing on purpose on Friday, so you can come to the concert too ;-P ah, about Bostrom, who cares: I've never paid attention to the drummer... the Muffs have always been the Kirkwood brothers...

I've never liked them, but if you tell me that this album has tracks that are 2 minutes long, I might just give the Virginia guys another chance... nice psycho! ;-)

reading no-wave alongside brazil, Arto Lindsay came to mind (second manner though) :-)

yes, the sound is too flat... it doesn’t have the depth of angel dust... and then as for the tracks, the first 2 or 3 are okay... after that, it becomes unlistenable, imho...

It's a shame when one gets overly excited about a record's opener, a bit less so for the second, and from the third onward, it's all a slog of scrotum (not in the case of the reviewer, obviously)... and funny enough, the only song that stands out on certain albums is always right at the beginning... I wonder why, huh! ;-) Anyway, the pairing of Lanegan / Sparatutto sounds off to me as well... I could understand the Devo or the Giants, but not an ex-flannel guy with a big voice... by the way, it's been twenty years since the "flannel era" (in Seattle and everywhere in the West), and in the meantime, the West has thrown itself "down in a hole"........ I've never been a huge fan of Lanegan, but I've always admired and respected his class (as well as the expressiveness of his voice)... anyway, this is an excellent review, really... if I remember correctly, I had already admired a review by marypolly some time ago (perhaps it was about a controversial Fugazi mash-up that made me wrinkle my nose, but I might be remembering wrong)... you have a captivating style that reveals a high degree of emotion without neglecting the "mission" of helping the reader understand what the reviewed band actually sounds like :-))) again, congratulations, marypolly!

their best album...forget about that crap Real Thing...it's hard to choose among the masterpieces of Angel Dust, but if I have to pick, I'm going with the metallic-symphonic potpourri of MALPRICTICE!!!