The Shotgun Blog
« In defense of Bill 44 | Main | Flooding Bail-Outs »
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
The Summer's Best Album?
If you find yourself starved for new music this summer, you could do a number of things, many of which Knox does on a regular basis to ensure a steady supply of fresh funk. One idea is simply searching I-Tunes or other music sites for rare cuts from artists that I like on the off-chance that I missed something floating around cyberspace. Effective, but hardly imaginative. Another one I use often to varying degrees of success is to watch, or listen to, live clips of bands I like and take note of other bands that they refer to, or whose t-shirts they wear, or stickers they put on their amps. For example, I was turned on to the Waco Brothers by listening to an old Napster bootleg version of "Over The Cliff" by the Old 97's and hearing lead singer Rhett Miller holler "this is a song we stole from the Waco Brothers". I figured "good enough for Rhett - good enough for Knox". I was right. Or the time I found the Four Horsemen by seeing James Hetfield of Metallica wearing a Four Horsemen t-shirt at a live show. Those were the successful outings. Other times I have bought some truly awful albums using this system, but in the search for new music, you take the good with the bad.
Another system that is certainly more reliable than the others is to pay attention to press about bands that you love and to snap up their albums as soon as they come out. Sure, even rock solid bands that you can count on for quality can let you down (see my recent Bruce Springsteen thoughts), but more often than not, you hit pay dirt. Using this philosophy, I picked up the new Rancid album - Let The Dominoes Fall. The thinking was that apart from 2000's self-titled album (which was a horrendously monotonous, barely-listenable work), Rancid has produced great album after great album. However, Dominoes is hardly a great album - it is fan-damn-tastic - and there is a little something for everyone.
The first track "East Bay Night" is a Ramones-esque, straight-ahead rocker that pays homage to the band's Albany, California roots. Other tracks on the album follow suit. Others still blaze a trail seldom traveled by Armstrong et al. Take "Civilian Ways", a largely acoustic song about an Iraq war vet who has returned home and has to battle wartime ghosts and demons in his day to day "normal" life back home. The song is inspired by front-man Tim Armstrong's brother who recently returned home from a tour in Iraq. A mandolin? On a Rancid song? Believe it, and get ready to love it. "Bravest Kids" is another track that supports those who have been sent to Iraq to fight what has been to many, an unpopular war. Other numbers like "Skull City", "That's Just The Way It Is Now" and "Highway" explore new ground and do so with dazzling results. Other powerhouse gems like "New Orleans" and "This Place" remind all that while Rancid went away briefly, they are back with a vengeance and have sought fit to bring hell with them.
You heard it here first (ok, maybe you've read other reviews elsewhere, but let's ignore that for the moment, shall we?) - this is the best album of 2009, or at least the best album of the summer of 2009. As a "head's up" though, those of you out there who pick your music based on your politics (the only reasonable excuse for listening to Libertarian bands like Rush), may find some lyrics here distasteful. Rants like "the workers mislead by corporations that know no boundaries" from "This Place" or "when the middle class breaks up, the working class better wake up" from "Lulu" are annoying indeed, but are really only reflective of the constant confusion displayed by punk bands who seem to think that an anarchist utopia is to be achieved through socialism and an ever-growing state. I choose to ignore such sentiments in music to avoid being stuck listening to Rush. There are also lyrical gems like "opinions are hard to put in prison" from "The Highway" and "out in the open they ain't gonna hide - police
state upon us prepare to collide - they're gonna keep you down, step on your neck can't move no more -the weapon of their choosing is censorship and war" from "Liberty and Freedom". See what I mean? You take the good with the bad.
Anyway, grab this one. It is TOP SHELF.
Posted by Knox Harrington on July 8, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
I'm downloading it now.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-07-14 2:29:21 PM
Have you listened to My Maudlin Career from Camera Obscura? Tracyanne Campbell's singing is great.
Posted by: The Stig | 2009-07-14 2:53:58 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.