Podcast: Ep. 43 - You are not smarter than the FBI

Lost Tribe Podcast

 

Ep. 43: You are not smarter than the FBI

In this episode the boys discuss the tragedy of the Boston Marathon and all of the heroicness and idiocy surronding it.  They were unsurprisingly impressed with how the city of Boston dealt with such horrific events and continue to believe that it is one of the, if not the best city on this stupid planet.  Sadly, Alex Jones, Twitter, CNN, and conspiracy theory fuckwits had to make a bad situation worse by being some of the most irresponsible, selfish assholes imaginable.  Boston Strong.

Get it on iTunes or here.

Review: Colin of Arabia - Pain Machines

Colin of Arabia

Pain Machines

 Double or Nothing Records

Tracklisting:

1. Slowdance
2. Closure
3. You Guys Were Great, Don't Put Gas in Our Van
4. Prozac
5. Federal Extermination Maniacal Agency
6. Spite & Malice
7. Save It for the Judge
8. Never Blend In
9. Arrivederci Motherfucker
10. Badlands, The
11. Slavedriver
12. Counting Lessons in Purgatory
13. Kiss Me Goodbye
14. Closure
15. Introduction of Destruction
16. Casual Casualty
17. Slavedriver
18. Behind This Tongue
19. Slowdance
20. Eye of the Storm
21. 50 Bag of Hate
22. I Fight
23. Badlands, The
24. Kiss Me Goodbye
25. You Guys Were Great, Don't Put Gas in Our Van
26. Prozac
27. Arrivederci Motherfucker
28. Talking
29. Piss All Over Your Hopes & Dreams
30. Everyday I Walk the Same Way Home
31. Ordinary Guy

When discussing Colin of Arabia, whether in a review or on our podcast, it is important that I point out that Colin, lead singer of Colin of Arabia actually kind of frightens me.  Whether it’s hearing stories about his moshpit escapades or watching him perform in a bullet proof vest while taking swings at anyone who gets close to his mic, I have a healthy respect/fear for this Massachusetts hardcore icon. 

Colin’s unpredictability and hatred is also why he makes such an imposing and memorable hardcore frontman.  On Pain Machines, pretty much all of Colin and Co.’s music is collected into one convenient edition.  Each track embodies hatred, violence, and a ‘fuck everything/destroy the world’ that has always been at the heart of hardcore.  I’ve always felt that Colin of Arabia never quite got the recognition that they deserved.  They were always infamous for their actions, which unfortunately meant that their music was often overshadowed.  This is especially disappointing when their songs are taken into consideration.  Tracks like “Prozac” and “Kiss Me Goodbye” meld punk, metal, and hardcore into one giant rage-induced mess that leaves the listener completely satisfied (that sounded oddly sexual, but it’s not....I think...).  The only thing lacking on this release is the sound quality of the live tracks that make up the latter half of the record, but do you really expect to have Colin of Arabia to have expertly mixed, taken straight from a professional soundboard, live recordings?  No, I didn’t think so.

Either way, do yourself a favour and track down a copy of Pain Machines, if only to revel in an anthology that proves how good east coast hardcore can really be sometimes. 

Buy the CD here.

Review: The Ducky Boys - Chemicals EP

The Ducky Boys

Chemicals EP

State Line Records

“I ain’t ashamed to say, I’ve had a pretty bad year.”

Jesus… Where was I on this one?

I guess 2012 is the year that The Ducky Boys make up for the 6 year hiatus they took after The War Back Home.  After already releasing a comeback LP at the start of the year with Chasing The Ghost, they dropped this four song EP back in May… and NOBODY TOLD ME!!! Nice job, The Internet.

Anyways, I maintain that The Ducky Boys have never put out a bad record. They have albums that I enjoy more than others. But at their worst, I still couldn’t call this band anything less than “solid.” There’s just something about Mark Lind’s raspy yet melodic voice and their ability to write vaguely aggressive sounding working class punk anthems that wins my heart every time. I mean, It’s not like the city of Boston is suffering from some crazy shortage of working class punk bands, but I’d put The Ducky Boys up against any just about any of them any day of the week.

So, what does this EP bring to the table?

Chemicals offers up 4 more tracks of polished, melodic punk rock. This band has been refining their sound for years now, and have tightened up to the point that they are really not like any other street punk band. I can’t think of any way to describe it other than mature. Which is good because there are plenty of street punk bands that are basically caricatures at this point. I’m thinking of The Casualties and other mohawked, day glo tinted bands like that. Nuttin’ wrong with that, but I’m a grown ass man, dawg.

I wanna give a special mention to the last song on this thing. “Pretty Bad Year” is a classic rock n roll tinged track with Lind on lead vocals. It features the kind of sing along type chorus that I love and would, I think, kill in a live setting. Besides which, it’s a fine example of the sort of introspective, beer swilling, blue-collar punk this band does so well. It’s really good.

Honestly, the fact that this band isn’t HUGE is a fucking travesty. With they way people jock bands like Gaslight & Dropkicks, getting into The Ducky Boys should be a goddamn no-brainer. But, selfishly, I guess I like the fact that this is a band that still feels special and unspoiled by idiots to me. They describe themselves on the Bandcamp page as “your second favorite Boston band.” It’s self-deprecating, but pretty much true.

That being said, I don’t want to wait another six years for another LP from these guys. To that end, everybody needs to toss these guys the 4 bucks they’re selling this thing for.

Totally worth it.

Buy This!

Podcast: Lost Tribe EP. 7: Boston/Spiderman

Lost Tribe Podcast - EP. 7: Boston/Spiderman

In this episode the boys discuss what a great city Boston is, how Canadian cigarettes are superior, Lamb of God's singer starring in the new Hostile movie, and how the new Spiderman movie is awesome but movie crowds are the fucking worst. Luke also gets ridiculed for liking Kirsten Dunst.

Get it off of iTunes or here. 

Review: Collision - Four Songs With James Singing

Willow Tree Records

Track Listing:

1. Tiebreaker

2. Logan to Seasonal Depression

3. Bachelor's Degree In...

4. Rivers Cuomo Was Right

I’ll cop to feeling pretty out of touch with a lot of what goes on in the realm of pop punk these days. I don’t mean to say that it’s bad per se, just that it doesn’t really square with the stuff I remember from back in my day. “My day,” in this case, was the 90’s.

Fortunately, the guys in Boston’s Collision appear to have a similar affection for the days of my youth. At least for the posi jumps/gang vocals/skateboard parts anyways.

I wouldn’t presume to guess how old these dudes are or what they grew up listening to. But when I throw on this tape I’m reminded of everyone from Saves the Day to Blink 182 (before they got weird) to Pulley. It’s not that they sound that much like any of those bands. But the four songs on this demo wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a comp featuring all those people, that I paid 4$ for in 1997.

This tape blows through four songs in about 7 minutes so it never has a chance to overstay its welcome. The lyrics are pretty standard fare for the genre, but the delivery is so tight that it hardly matters. I do want to give specific props to “Bachelor’s Degree In…” That song has a borderline Cheshire Cat/Dude Ranch vibe to it that wormed its way into my head something fierce.

As far demos go, this one is pretty goddamn impressive. The sound is clean but not polished enough to take the raw edge off. It’s the sort of tape that they could press into a 7” as is and I would buy the hell out of it. Especially if they kept the Bill Murray cover art.

If you dig fast, melodic and catchy punk records, this is band you need to check out. Collision is legitimately a pop punk band. Not just a slightly faster emo band. Not a pop group with guitars. Not a breakdown obsessed hardcore band with singing parts. There’s a place for all of those things, but the 17 year old punk in me is happy that there are bands out there still doing stuff like this.

Bandcamp

Buy A Tape... And A Bill Murray Shirt!