THE MANIFEST
The Bouncing Souls are like a punk rock fairytale, a high school band that stuck together for over 20 years, rising through the ranks with years of hard work. They’ve certainly progressed over time, but their core sound remains the same throughout their discography. They take influences from all over the punk spectrum, from pop-punk, through Oi!, to hardcore; they touch on all aspects of modern and classic; if any band were just ‘punk’ without any qualifiers or sub-genres it would be them.
The Malaysian Oi scene a bit of a paradox to your typical basic who only sees the world in ways that CNN and Hollywood allow them to. Outpacing it’s western contemporaries to transcend a foreign subculture, it has turned into something uniquely it’s own. Putting their own local twist to the lyrical themes; it brings new life to a once stagnating genre. Because of the language barrier + no marketing, this music remains fairly scarce in an age of internet abundance.
I was watching a documentary about the drummer of Hole, Patty Schemel, titled “Hit So Hard”. It featured a lot of Courtney Love screen time. Though the movie wasn’t really about her, she wasted no time inflating her significance in the context of women in rock and roll. It’s depressing to think that she is the token go-to reference for female modern rock singers. Here is a list of better role models:
Long songs are dumb. If you’re in a band and contemplating making a 10 minute epic, don’t. 99.9999% of the time it will suck. While you’re jamming away in your 4 minute guitar solo, or screaming along to your 12th chorus; I can tell you that no one is really paying attention and all of the interest is synthetic.
Husker Du to me represents the bridge between 80s american hardcore punk and 90s alternative. The band began their life as a somewhat generic 80s hardcore band, but evolved into something unique, paving not only their own way but the way for Nirvana, the Pixies, Superchunk, and the Foo Fighters.
In keeping with festivus tradition, I will list my favorite musical releases of the passing year, say how they have disappointed me, and then crawl back into my cave.
What an odyssey the career of Against Me! has been; from anarcho-folkpunk, through mid-western americana, to transgendered themed rock’n’roll. Ever since quitting the teenage politics of anarchism, Tom/Laura has been missing a muse or subject to his/her writing. ‘Searching for a Former Clarity’ was mostly about fan back-lash to selling out, ‘New Wave’ about the stale nature of modern music, ‘White Crosses’ was the band running out of lyrical steam.
In the world cup of rock n roll, England and America are the typical leaders. In distance second we have Australia, Sweden, Canada, and Ireland. The English speaking countries seem to have the advantage, which makes sense since rock originates from the English speaking world and culturally moves outward. I don’t know why Sweden excels so well, probably has something to do with the socialist utopia they live in.
It’s been an interesting year. Many of our childhood heroes have let us down by dropping sub-par material that will ruin their nostalgia riddled live show for years to come. That being said, along with some good new bands, some older bands have come out of left field with their best music to date.
I’ve often caught myself saying that EPs are better than LPs. While probably being a bit of an exaggeration, I do often find that a quick sampling of songs serve some bands better then the long form of an album. With albums the band often runs out of A-list material and has to resort to filler and gimmicks. The EP is a nice middle ground between the album and the single; giving you more then just a brief taste, but not so much that you’re full.
There are some bands who I feel have released their best material on EPs, which unfortunately often cripples them in the public’s eye because we focus so much on the album and often pass over the EPs.