3 posts tagged “punknews”

Why do reviewers focus on themselves so much? I got more about this dude's scenester seniority than the actual show which he was reviewing. I understand that he feels old or whatever, but honestly, the whole 'people in polo shirts can't like punk rock' argument is pretty tired. People like what they like. Yes, for different reasons, but they like what they like.

I'm beginning to wonder if this guy pays attention.

It's not just the polo shirt, dude, it's the immaculately distressed jeans, it's the shell necklace, it's the beer in one hand, dumb blonde hanging off of the arm, then going "yeah, I like punk rock". Sure you do, man. While you're at it, get your fucking 300 dollar phone away from me, and quit texting when the headliner is playing, while at the same time, bitching me out for trying to get in front of you to see the band you're ignoring.

And oh by the way, did you see the part about SOCIAL DISTORTION? Or the part where I said someone should have punched me in the face? Perhaps you missed the first sentence in the review?

The point is not that I feel old, but old and out of place at a RISE AGAINST show, a band that I've been watching for 3 years now.

On punknews, there's a review of the new (?) Formaldehyde Junkies 7 inch by William Marinovic. It is as follows.

The underground is just as susceptible to shallow trends and crappy bands as the mainstream, and when I heard about another band trying to pass themselves off as "`80s hardcore," I couldn't help but suspect it was just another Voorhees or Charles Bronson rip-off. For every Regulations, Career Suicide and Surf Nazis Must Die, there must be about a hundred shitty bands trying to copy trends that were tired about a decade ago.

The Formaldehyde Junkies now join the ranks of the elite hardcore units across the globe with their style of old-school thrash. These four songs are brief, angry, primitive four-chord thrashers that emphasive catchiness as much as speed. To say that the production values are "retro" would be generous, but the Junkies do not sound like a copyist band. Although their sound is remarkably similar to the Teen Idles, Necros, SOA, etc., one would be hard-pressed to find who they're completely stealing from. If this release had the multi-guitar harmonies and production values of Bane, I would not have bothered reviewing it.

"Hardcore"/"thrash" revival is still pretty big, but this band is good enough to outlast that and their music will hopefully become a trademark of this era of underground hardcore.

So. Aside from the fact that it speaks about the CD in generalities, dismisses what appears to be a botched production job, and doesn't bother with specifics like what the band screams about or why one should even purchase the record when Minor Threat did it better and smarter too, it's a shitty review.

The name dropping is ridiculous, and the ingenious defense? Insult the reader for not knowing what you're talking about and calling your bullshit!

Oh yeah, even if this review scared all of you insecure, ignorant mall punk kids (by "namedropping" fairly popular bands- "namedropping" in the context of comparative description... hm, sorry), you should still check out this band. They're great.

Of course, there isn't a link, one must google fashionable idiots to get to the label's homepage, and once there you can find an mp3, which Mr. Marinovic didn't even bother to link. This was originally a comment I was going to leave but figured it would serve better here.

"Let's count the bands explicitly lised, shall we?

Teen Idles, Necros, SOA, Voorhees,  Charles Bronson, Regulations, Career Suicide and Surf Nazis Must Die and one shot at Bane.

For a three paragraph review (and that's being generous), that comes out to 203 words all told, that's a lot of bands to use for "the context of compartive description". If you had used, 3, then I might not be so suspicious. But 8? Bullshit. You could just as easily have said "badly produced 80's thrash ala Teen Idles and SOA" and the idea would have gotten across.

There's a very specific genre of music to which SOA, Teen Idles and Charles Bronson are "popular". Most fans of punk have no idea who those groups are. Most fans of hardcore know the name, and maybe bought the Teen Idles or SOA disc beacuse it had Ian and Henry on them, respectively. But I guarentee you, in the in the grand scheme of things, none of the bands you listed are popular.
 
Now, I haven't even heard the Junkies, and I might even like them if I did, but it's this kind of posturing that makes me wonder if you really like the music or if you're just a troll."

Probably a good live show and they do have a few decent party tunes, but I'm not feeling this as having much repeat listenability. Some of these songs go above and beyond annoying 3rd wave ska bands.

I'm only going to say this once. THE WORLD INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY IS NOT A THIRD-WAVE SKA BAND.