Archive for October, 2008

The Ergs “Hindsight Is 20/20, My Friend”

New Jersey’s The Ergs! have proved themselves to be one of the more popular and versatile bands to come out of the pop underground so far in the 00’s, and nowhere is that versatility more apparent than on this comp. While they’re associated by many with the resurgent pop-punk scene, The Ergs! merely use that as a starting base, and over the course of these 33 songs also incorporate SST-style hardcore, country, jazz, dub-influence, thrash, 90’s alternative, some extremely well chosen covers, and just about anything else you can think of! So what we have here is a mammoth, monstrous 33 song singles comp (and we had to cut a bunch of stuff to make this fit on 2 LPs!) comprising of 7″s and comp tracks originally released on a wide variety of some of the most vital underground labels in existence today, including Art Of The Underground, No Idea, Whoah Oh, Toxic Pop, Wallride, and many, many more. Some of these are still in print, others go for way too much money on eBay. A few of these are songs re-worked versions of staple Ergs! tracks, while others will be unknown to all but the most die-hard fan. But all of ’em have been re-mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side, in fact some of these have just now being mastered for the first time, and they sound GREAT, in some cases MUCH better than the original version. (especially on vinyl, hint, hint)

Girls, The “Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes, No”

Seattle quintet, THE GIRLS, deliver a punk-rock sound armed with both the intuition of the better half and the brawn of the other. We’re talking impressively tight, clean punk-rock that clearly recognizes why bands like Devo and the Cars inspired a good chunk of the bands that inspired a good chunk of the bands that people are always loosing-their-shit for these days.Right from the start, THE GIRLS displayed a surplus of indisputably catchy hooks, a tightrope-dancing rhythm section, confident blurts and yelps from frontman Shannon Brown, razor-sharp synths, and the charisma to match. Critics were quick to take notice of the band’s 2004 self-titled Dirtnap debut. Pitchfork proclaimed “this is no fishnet-hawking electroclash fashionista rock; besides having more sexxx appeal than both Coreys combined, The Girls’ve got chops like Ralph Macchio” while OC Weekly described the band as “Early-Cars meets Richard Hell and The Voidoids synthed-up garage punk that any fan of The Briefs, The Spits, or The Lost Sounds (R.I.P.) would gravitate to.” Shannon Brown and guitar-slasher, Zache Davis, survived member changes to lead ?Griff? (bass/back up vox), Derek Mason (keyboard), and Elie Goral on drums into brief and concise displays of new-wave/punk excellence. THE GIRLS, who has at one time or another had members of the Briefs, Spits, Catheters, Steve E Nix And The Cute Lepers, delve even deeper into their well studied set of influences and have emerged with Yes No Yes No Yes No. These 10 twitchy new wave power pop gems continue THE GIRLS? worship at the feet of Richard Hell and The Voidoids, the Cars, Stiv Bators and Devo while venturing into the jagged pep pill-sped abstractions of Wire. The band again enlisted Martin Feveyear (Briefs, Epoxies) to press the buttons at Seattle’s Jupiter studios. From the quirky whirling synthes of Where Wolves Drink and Who Are the Forgetters to the rowdy punk-pop of Not I, Yes No Yes No Yes No captures the energetic hooks and unique anxiousness of the band?s much-heralded live performance which has seen them share stages worldwide with the likes of Graham Coxon, the Black Lips, the Detroit Cobras and the Briefs. Expect much more touring around the globe in support of Yes No Yes No Yes No.