Young Poor & Angry Press

If you’re looking for something to play to the pub, at the pub and on the way home (hopefully in a Taxi) from the pub than look no further than the band with the weirdest name ever, Neck. Neck at first listen might sound a bit like Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphy’s, but when they kick out hard pub anthems about drinking and fighting it doesn’t much matter. The rough and tumble boys do a bit of everything on their new album, and in most aspects they do it spot on.

Come Out Fighting should be played for UFC matches, it’s punk style guitars and aggressive nature separate the track from a lot of the album. I really enjoyed Hello Jakey a lot, and found myself singing it while walking to get my mail every morning. Ourselved Alone is played so damn fast that it reminds me a lot more of something Iggy Popp would have put out than this band. This is what makes this Neck album so amazing, each song is better than the next, from the ballad The Homes of Donega to the fast paced jig Barely Hair. This is about the most skinhead band I’ve seen in a decade. I simply fell in love with Neck. If you don’t rock this album than you’re no longer cool.

If you people didn’t know this already I’m a huge baseball fan. I live, eat and sleep Red Sox baseball. Listening to My Turn To Win’s song Pull Yourself Together off No Challenge has the intensity of waiting for the first pitch of the 9th inning with a tie game on the line. It winds up and then lets lose and before you know it you’re jaw drops. That’s why My Turn To Win has managed to do for hardcore right now and let’s just saying I’m damn excited.

My only gripe with this EP is that it is indeed only an EP. It’s five songs, which is not nearly enough of My Turn To Win to satisfy. The whole thing clocks in at about ten minutes, but for those ten minutes it’s shredding. The vocals are brutal but clear and concise enough for anyone to memorize and repeat back, the mark of a great hardcore album. There are times when I feel like it gets a bit screechy when the high notes are hit, but I excuse it because the drugs and guitar is so bad ass. The breakdown on Song Title is for lack of a better term: fucking amazing. One of my favorites on the EP is Everything I Wanna Say Kill Your Idols Said Better because it brings a really good point up that if you can’t get from the song title you’re mildly retarded.

Shouldn’t come as a shock this release comes from Thorp Records. Go buy it immediately and support this band. Show them that we would all like to hear more My Turn To Win in the future. This EP has been on constant rotation at my desk, so much so I burned two copies so I could listen to it at home and the office. My Turn To Win is one of the first hardcore bands in awhile that doesn’t get old upon repeated listen and whose tracks are diverse. I totally dig this album in case you couldn’t tell.

Well ladies and gentlemen I’d venture it’s safe to say that Thorp Records has officially brought street  punk back from the dead with the signing of Refuse-Resist. This album is so skinhead that it makes me want to don my boots and braces once more  (No not because it’s trendy right now American Apparel zombies) and pogo around and punch people. This Boston Mass. band is exactly what the punk and oi scene needed right now, a revamping.

Refuse-Resist’s album Socialized is a rip roaring dissertation on everything that’s wrong with our society. Taking on subjects like our constant need for connection via social networking sites to our willingness to sell out anything and everything for a profit. Middle America calls out the MTV generation who claims a new social scene or subculture every five minutes, not staying true to anything they believe. The title track Socialized makes fun of the people who are “fans” of everything on Facebook and have a million “friends.” Though my favorite is Pick of The Pieces because it’s a battle cry for those like me who believe we should suck it the fuck up and stop spending money we don’t have on shit we don’t need.

If you want a soundtrack to the plight of the last ten years than go get Refuse-Resist. This album is to this decade what Bad Religion was to the 80s. Calling out the people who deserve it while playing fast aggressive street punk and oi. I love it to pieces more each listen.

When I heard that there was a new Four Year Strong album coming out I had mixed emotions. I like this band don’t get me wrong, if I had to be crass and give them a number on the one to ten scale it would probably be a seven. Though their last album was a bit too soft for me only because the heavier parts were so good that I just kept wanting them to show up. Kind of like the character in comics who is bad ass, but you only see once every ten issues and only for three panels.

The new album Enemy of The World is blistering. It’s almost as if Four Year Strong opened up a suggestion box to find notes saying “be more aggressive.” For the first time since Lifetime, I can truly say there is a band out there right in pop-punk that’s just as talented. The album opens with a breakdown and leads into faster and a hint more “tough” lyrics. The gang vocals sound more upbeat but in the same way they would on maybe a H20 album. Don’t get me wrong, they still are Four Year Strong, so they get melodic. Though the melodic parts on the album seem to be over though hardcore style riffs and drums.

My favorite song on the album is hands down It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now and for two reasons. One, I love it when bands refer to them self in a self deprecating way. Fallout Boy started this trend, and not many can pull of humorous song titles. Two, it’s just such a damn catchy and upbeat song. The chorus chanting “the best advice I have is don’t look down” something that we can all take into our own lives. This Body Pays The Bill$ (no that’s not a typo) is the reason I love pop-punk lyrics so much. While yes most pop-punk bands do songs about girls, for some reason when Four Year Strong does it, I just dig it.

If you forced me to give this album a ranting between one and ten, I’d give it a eleven. Which is exactly the volumn level you should crank this to when listening. Excellent album and if I may say one I actually was happy to have a hard copy of. Why? The album art is hysterical. Go buy this album, you’ll be listening to it for two weeks straight like me.