The Distillers
Coral Fang

THE REVIEW

Less than a year after “Sing sing death house”, less than a year since the separation between Brody Armstrong (a.k.a. Dalle) and Tim Armstrong (a.k.a. leader of Rancid as well as the owner of one of the most important independent record labels, Hellcat Records).

Less than a year has passed since I thought I had sufficiently absorbed the second Distillers' CD, and here comes the third one with the eloquent title "CORAL FANG". I wonder what I should think of this CD released by a major (Warner), and acclaimed by the press, the internet, and even by MTV.

An album preceded by sensational news about Brody and Josh Homme (a.k.a. singer of Queens of the Stone Age), worthy of the most trivial gossip from hair salons, preceded by absurd interviews with Brody hoping to dethrone, she, the princess of punk, the princess of pop Britney and even Christina… … preceded by unlikely comparisons with the priestess of punk, that one who was in Seattle… … (they wrote: "l’amica di Courtney Love", "their voices are almost identical" "Courtney convinced her to sing" - "the Distillers better than Hole…").
Premising that the undersigned is also an admirer of Hole, I was wondering why, why this recusatio, this inconsistency, this compromise…. But music is something else compared to these. I take this infamous CD and listen to it… … I like it. Typical punk sometimes with some concessions to the more commercial side of this same genre, see "The hunger" or "Beat your heart out", still beautiful.

Compared to the previous album there are also slower pieces like “For tonight you’re only here to know” a Bon Jovi-style composition in punk style, and “The gallow is god” which now reminds me of our Verdena, now Nirvana or the Smashing Pumpkins. Then, of course, you can't entirely disregard Rancid and their unmistakable mark, hear "Die on a rope" … and still, you feel the influence of Rancid, which always represent a point of reference in punk after the grunge antecedents and the Seattle scene.
In an album so full of references and influences, there's no shortage of the seal, the imprint of the Distillers, which makes this record an original product: "Drain the blood", "Dismantle me", "Coral Fang", the wonderful "Hall of mirrors" are the most effective examples.

Overall a good album. To return to the cited comparisons with Courtney Love's Hole, it must be said that it is truly impossible not to think of that group when listening to any female voice singing punk-rock, yet what the Distillers lack that the Hole had was perhaps that awareness of belonging to a historical period (musically speaking), of representing an era and being able, by virtue of this, to embody certain… values… (if they are values) and ideals, thus interacting with social reality outside the musical context.

The difference is this: the Distillers represent some form of rebellion, the Hole perhaps a revolution. Surely, the truth is that even music today is not considered a form of art with social significance, but simply has a social significance in the selfish sense of the term, a significance for the artist with themselves and for the fan, but for themselves.