a fully mastered recording .... big and clean and loud.
ok then .... it's short, it's sour, it's 'tude and it's tuned.
big hard driving drums - with a good triple. good stuff with the kick, large snare and lots of brass hardware. it's energy unleashed and leads the way for the wall of guitars, bass and vocals. and they are a formidable wall. great balls to the wall part ...
bass just pounds along the root and serves the down home lows along the progressiion .... guitars are huge and a good cross between punk tube amp and fuzztone.
vocals are spot on. clear and well rep'd in the recording. lots of attitude and lots of strong voicing. good idea to double the vox - works well here even though it's not exactly a great clone idea of punk ..... but all in all, just perfect vocal delivery. naturally, it's not a tough part technically - there aren't a whole lot of notes in the melody but all in all, I found it refreshingly right for the part.
for what this song is, there ain't a damn thing wrong with it. it does it's job as intended and even touches on having an actual hook with the chorus. and perfect recording/mastering for the style in today's hot hot hot world of music and sound.
I don't love it cus frankly, I don't love the style. but I like it and I sure as hell respect it.
and as an added plus, it's obviously a great live song. loads of banging heads, a bit of moshing and a whole lot of body thrashing ....
pro shit. rock on.
"Oi! Used to Be a Friend of Mine"
rocking punkish roots shit here ....
decent mix for something punk oriented - got the kit, got the lows and got the big dirty obnoxious guitar and got the simpleton vocals ...
most importantly, it's got the tude. and the right chord progression to build the somewhat linear and monotonous melody line that is an earmark of the style.
cus it's a punk oriented production, there's not really much point in going over the production and mix with a fine tooth comb cus it's obviously supposed to sound pretty garage band oriented and it succeeds at it .... the drums are hard driving pocket with little deviation - with the hats playing as big a part as the snare - the bass is mirroring the chord progression - yeah. that's textbook. the guitars are a bit more rock sounding than I'd expect and of course, there's a lead - and that's not the norm but at least - it sounds lke it's either one finger or one string. mr simple. mr "I am too cool for my black T"
the vocals are fine - completely punk - except I really don't understand nor like the fake brit accent. and it is fake, trust me, I've heard nearly as many attempts at seppo being limey as I've heard limey playing seppo and frankly, unless one is very very good at it - it never works. just sounds like a fraud taking the piss. of course, it possible that the singer was actually taking the piss - but if he was, he shoulda camped it up a bit more to make it even more obvious. cus now it's coming across as he thinks he's passing off as a legit brit punk. and he ain't. partially cus this whole style is far more american punk than british.
I dunno, I wanna like it as a dark punk effort but it seems a bit contrived and false. a paint by the numbers tune and performance. which isn't moving me much.
be more honest. be more yourself. be more ramones than sex pistols.
still, as consolation, you win this review pair cus it's excecuted better than the first song and it's far more musical.
btw- it ain't alternative AT ALL. what were you thinking?
"What the Fuck Do We Call This Song?"
you want distortion? you want +1 DB's? you want a simple outlet to throw your body around the room?
listen no further. you found it here.
it's got BIG everything. big loud guitars. a big danceable tempo driven by a hard driving mostly naked drummer ... a pounding bassline where the bassist is free to pound his head against the wall. a vocalist that spits his words out like some sort of venom laced with whiskey and brine.
lyrics laced with stupidity bordering on genius.
it's got everything a pothead 17 year old male would want. and it might even make the girls giggle too.
so why change a thing? don't.
the drums are spot on. the bass is pounding jackhammer ... the axes are chainsaw machine guns. the vocals are piss and vinegar through a megaphone piped through 10K watts and the whole band just seems to be pissing all over the song and the stage.
and that's cool enough to call cool.
the downside? the guitars are simply 3 db's too loud (vs the rest of the mix except the vox which are 2 db's too loud). the fact is, if you are gonna play a lead guitar - it can't be lost in the mix. it's ok to downplay it but here, you just gotta bring it up to the level of the vox.
and it's too short. I wasn't ready to hear it end. I think .... then again -that's sorta what you want - to bring the listener back for more. as well, a little bit more melodic variation might do wonders - sounds like it's about 4 actual half steps in the whole vocal line and so it does sound a little too monotone - even for this style.
I dunno - there's lots to say about it all - but it's not a thinking persons song ... it's about the physicality of music and about the energy and most of all - about the rebel yell and pissing off your parents.
just don't be surprised if your 55 year old uncle with the piercings and tattoos wants to be your manager and ends up being the fan club president and you have to have your picture taken with him despite the stupid looking pony tail with bald head he still sports ... hovering above his black t shirt trying to maintain his many years old beer gut.
cus you asked for it when you wrote and recorded this.
