"horsebox"
Year: 1999
Country: UK
City: Sunderland
Label: BYO
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Emo Punk
Leatherface are a punk rock band from Sunderland, UK, fronted by Frankie Stubbs. Trouser Press called them "England's finest, most exciting punk band of the 90s" and The Guardian has called them "the greatest British punk band of the modern era". Formed in August 1988 by Frankie Stubbs and Dickie Hammond (also of HDQ), Leatherface released four full-length albums before their initial split in 1993. Third album Mush was, according to Allmusic, "one of the most intense records of the 90s, with some of the fiercest playing and song dynamics.. considered one of the best albums of the decade." The band split in late 1993, releasing a posthumous mini album (The Last) the following year – but reformed in 1998, after the death of bass player Andy Crighton (also of Snuff). Four more albums followed between 1999 and 2012. Leatherface's music has been described as a cross between Hüsker Dü and Fugazi, a notable element being Stubbs' rasping, "gravelly" vocals. The lyrics often feature far-fetched similes, metaphors, word play and obscure allusions. Though never attaining much more than a cult following outside their native country, the band have been cited as an influence by higher-profile punk acts such as Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four. "Rubber Factory Records" released a tribute album to Leatherface in 2008, featuring 41 tracks by over 35 artists from several different countries who were influenced by the band, including Hot Water Music and The Sainte Catherines. Their cover of "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" was played in the final episode of the film "Sons of Anarchy".
"can't stand the Rezilloz"
Year: 1978
Country: UK
City: Edinburgh
Label: Sire
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 13
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock
The Rezillos are a punk/new wave band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1976. Although emerging at the same time as other bands in the punk rock movement, the Rezillos did not share the nihilism or social commentary of their contemporaries, but instead took a more light-hearted approach to their songs, preferring to describe themselves at the time as "a New Wave beat group". Their songs are heavily influenced by 1950s rock and roll, 1960s English beat music and garage rock, early 1970s glam rock, and recurring lyrical themes of science fiction and B movies, influences that mirrored those of US bands the Cramps, the B-52s, and X who were starting out at the same time. The Rezillos' biggest hit in their home country was the UK Top 20 single "Top of the Pops" in 1978, but they are best known outside the UK for their cover version of "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight", which featured on the soundtrack to Jackass: The Movie in 2002. Since the Rezillos recorded it, the song has been covered by other punk bands, including Youth Brigade and Murphy's Law.
"idem"
Year: 1980
Country: UK
City: London
Label: Universal
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Post Punk
Seminal post-punk band who have gone through numerous internal conflicts
and line-up changes, as well as a variety of different styles and
sounds. Formed in Notting Hill in 1979 by Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker,
Youth
and Paul Ferguson, their dark experimental style provided one of the
main steps on from punk rock. Massively influential on a range of
different styles of music, they pioneered the industrial rock style
with 90's Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions. The band
have inspired many industrial bands including Nine Inch Nails, Prong and
Ministry. They have been cited by Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails 's
leader, who mentioned his interest for their early material, saying that
he studied their music. Al Jourgensen of Ministry has presented himself
as a "big fan" of the group. Godflesh's Justin Broadrick was
particularly influenced by their early releases containing dub versions.
The band has also been cited by alternative music acts such as My
Bloody Valentine and LCD Soundsystem. Shoegazing guitarist and composer
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine mentioned the band and praised more
specifically Geordie's touch that he described as "this effortless
playing producing a monstruous sound". In 2002, James Murphy of
electro-punk band LCD Soundsystem sampled the music of "Change" on his
debut single "Losing My Edge".
"idem"
Year: 2003
Label: Sony
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 60 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Post Punk
Killing
Joke is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Killing Joke,
released on 28 July 2003 by record label Zuma Recordings. Recording for
the album in 2002 marked the end of a six-year hiatus that began in 1996
and it was Killing Joke's first studio album in seven years. Produced
by Andy Gill of Gang of Four, the album featured former Nirvana drummer
and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who is also a long-time Killing
Joke fan, on drums. This is also Killing Joke's second self-titled
album, following their first in 1980, as an effect of the hiatus. The
album was produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four.
"burnt sugar"
Year: 2019
Country: US
City: Lauderdale, FL
Label: Deathwish
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 26 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
Formed in 2013 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Gouge Away has developed their own
style of emotional hardcore through their debut full length "Dies" on
Eighty-Sixed Records. After touring the states with Touche Amore,
Ceremony, G.LO.S.S., and Soul Glo, and appearing at Rain Fest in
Seattle, Wrecking Ball in Atlanta, and The Fest in Gainesville, Gouge
Away has no plans to settle down.
"kerplunk"
Year: 1991
Country: US
City: Berkeley
Label: Look out!
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 29
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Pop
Hard to believe but Green Day was once a truly "alternative" and DIY band, and they often played live concerts in squats or social centers from its begining in 1986 until 1994, when the band signed with major "Warner" with the album "dookie". Before, they worked next to independent label now already defunct "Look Out Records" and gained few money for concerts. This one is a very good example of simple mix of pop and punk. Fast, simple, short, direct... and honest... music. A fistfull of songs not so good as Dag Nasty, Descendents or Bad Religion, but good anyway.
"dookie"
Year: 1994
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 14
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk
"Dookie" is the third studio album by the rock band Green Day, released on February 1, 1994, through Warner Music ("Reprise Records"). It was the band's first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo and its major record label debut. The album became a worldwide commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 and charting in seven countries. The album helped propel all punk rock music into mainstream popularity next to other bands like The Offspring or most of "Epitaph Records" during the second half of 90's decade. It sold 10 million copies just in 1994.
"insomniac"
Year: 1995
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 14
Time: 33 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk
"Insomniac" is the fourth studio album by rock band Green Day, released on October 10, 1995 by Warner Music (Reprise Records). Though it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified 2x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1996, Insomniac did not have the sales endurance of its predecessor "Dookie", largely due to its slightly darker lyrical tone and its heavier, cruder and more abrasive sound. "Insomniac" has sold over 2,100,000 copies in the United States according to Billboard as of 2012. The album was reissued on vinyl on May 12, 2009 and has an excellent artwork made by Winston Smith, famous for his Dead Kennedys cover, logo, T-shirts, etc.
"insomniac instrumentals"
Year: 1995
Label: none
Format: digital
Tracks: 12
Time: 33 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk
Insomniac is the fourth studio album by American punk rock band Green Day, released on October 10, 1995 by Reprise Records. Recorded as the release to the band's multi-platinum breakthrough Dookie, Insomniac featured a heavier sound and bleaker lyrics than its predecessor. Lyrically, the album discusses themes such as alienation, anxiety, boredom, and drug use. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting and sarcastic sense of humor. Four songs were released as singles, "Geek Stink Breath", "Brain Stew / Jaded", "Stuck with Me", and "Walking Contradiction". Though it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1996, Insomniac did not have the sales endurance of its predecessor Dookie, largely due to its slightly darker lyrical tone and its heavier and more abrasive sound. Insomniac has sold over 2,100,000 copies in the United States according to Billboard as of 2012. The album was reissued on vinyl on May 12, 2009.
A crisp, energetic soundboard recording (with a stupidly loud bass in the mix) from Green Day's first European tour after Dookie went big. Censored, probably from an FM broadcast, but there's a lot of alternate sources for this show and I don't know which this one is specifically. Features most of the hits from Dookie, but plenty of older highlights too.
Green Day has a real knack for showing off its distaste with the sociopolitical landscape and its disgust for growing up with curt, caustic humor and seductively contagious melody — most of all in the handsome bookends of 2004’s “american idiot” and, now, “Saviors.” The Bay Area pop-punk trio couldn’t have done better for a real or imaginary sequel to the preceding Bush-era classic than this week’s bruising, culture-bashing release.
That’s not to say that Green Day’s five albums in-between “American Idiot” and “Saviors” didn’t sparkle. They did, some more than others. But none of those records sharply synopsized and criticized the cultural currency of their release days’ moment and the ennui of incremental adulthood – with some nicely-relayed Beatles-esque twists – than those two albums, 20 years apart. In fact, though “American Idiot” spawned a Broadway musical of the same name and sold six-times platinum, “Saviors” is even crisper and richer. Credit Rob Cavallo — the producer behind “American Idiot” and Green Day’s commercial breakthrough of 1994, “Dookie” — with aiding Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool in unsheathing their knives and sharpeing their new music with such complex harmony alongside the old-school punk.
Truth, justice, love and idiocy, American-style, still plague and embolden singer-lyricist Armstrong’s worried mind on “Saviors.” Starting with the spunky gallop of “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” Armstrong and his bandmates/co-writers rave savagely with sweet, swiftly rendered Beatles-ish strings on the song’s bridge and antisocial (and anti-MAGA) sentiments such as “Don’t want no huddled masses, TikTok and taxes / Under the overpass, sleepin’ in broken glass.” And the near-hardcore riffing of “Look Ma, No Brains!” gives way to a gorgeously melodic chorus whose highlight is its ascending intricacy, and a set of lyrics poking fun at a system that awards gold stars to its least-deserving souls.
Not every song on “Saviors” touches down hard and humorously on America’s weak moral conscience, iwalking wounded or easily led followers.
The rocking, ’50s-ish swoon of “Dilemma” looks at the bicameral mindset of sobriety, drunkenness and falling in love. The stuttering “Bobby Sox” wears its omnisexuality with pride (with Armstrong screaming “Do you wanna be my girlfriend,” true romance has never sounded scarier). The Flogging Molly-like “One Eyed Bastards” is a love letter to all things “Goodfellas” (or “The Departed,” if you allow Green Day its Irish Scorsese moment), with its “kiss the ring” theology and a sing-song-y chorus of “Bada bing, bada bing, bada boom” that would make Joe Pesci proud.
Nostalgia plays a big role in “Saviors” when it comes to “1981,” “Suzie Chapstick” and “Corvette Summer.” While the first makes memorable its chorus with the phrase “She’s gonna bang her head like 1981,” and the second pleads for making memories far beyond Instagram, “Corvette Summer” is a ruminative stunner – a goofy love letter to rock ‘n’ roll filled with Beach Boy lyrical cribbing, loud cowbells and the silly, angsty plea of “hit me with power chords.”
The smirking but still earnest sentimentality of their biggest hit, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” seeps into two of “Saviors’” most radically different-sounding tunes. While the ”fairy dust and ballyhoo” promises of “Strange Days Are Here to Stay” is reminiscent of Generation X-era Billy Idol, the insistent testing of a family’s wills is given spoonful-of-sugar melodicism with its acoustic start point and its lingering sawed strings.
Still, when Armstrong does what he does best, takes aim at society’s ills, he uses a poison pen to blithely look at the every-hour-every-day ultraviolence of “Living in the ’20s” with the phrase “Another shooting in a supermarket, I spent my money on a bloody, soft target / Playing with matches and I’m lighting Colorado.”
Though “Saviors’” penultimate track, its title tune, sounds grandly climactic with its “Sgt. Pepper”-esque dénouement, Green Day has time for one more sad, socially scabrous, fresh finale in “Fancy Sauce.” As the slow parade of crackling snare drums and strangled guitars rocks pensively to its close, Armstrong – in probably his most passionate vocal – bleats on about “Scratching at the wallpaper, in my solitude,” cartoon newscasts and ever-present victimhood before turning Kurt Cobain’s most cherished phrase on its head — updated as “Everybody’s famous, stupid and contagious” — before ending with a sardonic “We all die young someday.”
Armstrong has real guts taking on the ghost of grunge, the alternative nation and “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Then again, this is the same week that Pitchfork all but died off, sadly, so go figure.
From winding up Nirvana to raging over our long national nightmares, Green Day keeps the good-bad times rolling with spite, silliness and sarcasm on “Saviors,” with a big helping of merry mellifluence. Here’s Green Day now. Entertain us (*Review by A.D. Amorosi ).
