Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds - I'd Rather Die Than Live Forever (DyingScene Review)

This review was originally published on DyingScene.

Six years. That’s how long it’s been since The Lawrence Arms released their last full length, Oh! Calcutta!. The band’s 2009 EP, Buttsweat and Tears, was a nice stopgap, but since then fans have had a whole lot of waiting to get their proper Lawrence Arms fix. Yes, there was the second Sundowner album, and the Wasted Potential split between Brendan Kelly and Smoke or Fire’s Joe McMahon, and even Neil Hennessy’s drumming on the latest Smoking Popes album, but none of them have been the suitable follow up that the world has been waiting for these past six years.

Enter: Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds, the newest project from the raspy voiced bassist / blog enthusiast. Does it fill the aforementioned void that is the lack of new Lawrence Arms material? Short answer: Yes and no. Long answer: I’d Rather Live Than Die Forever comes closer to sounding like the Lawrence Arms than any other side project this side of the Falcon, but at the same time it is still a side project and where’s the fun in having a side-project if there’s no experimentation involved?

The album starts with the electric version of Suffer the Children, Come Unto Me, the acoustic rendition of which appeared on the Wandering Birds’ teaser EP from last year and was arguably the strongest track in that small collection. As the case for most electric versions of songs, there is a new sense of energy found in the track, and the hook comes out swinging immediately. Showing off a slight country tinge on this track, Kelly sings with more of a not-so-Southern drawl than his usual raspy style, not unlike his vocal performance on Oh! Calcutta!’s hidden track, Warped Summer Extravaganza.

Sonically, Kelly and his band of traveling fowls explore a variety of ground on I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever. Fans of Kelly’s raspy voiced punk rock will be pleased by the Lawrence Arms-esque tunes, Doin’ Crimes and What’s a Boy to Do?, while tracks like East St. Louis and Your Mother carry on the spirit of the Falcon. Those looking for something new might enjoy the slow grind of A Man with the Passion of Tennessee Williams (an alternate take of the EP’s titular track) or perhaps just the general slower tempos of Dance of the Doomed and Latenightsupersonicelasticbags. Even the country flavor of the opening track is continued, and even more pronounced, on Ramblin’ Revisited, while Kelly goes all out acoustic on The Thud and the Echo.

Lyrically, Kelly’s techniques on I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever are both exactly the same as his previous work in the Lawrence Arms (and some of the less politically-charged Broadways songs), and completely unlike what he’s done before. The songs are still loaded with tons of pop culture references and it would be impossible to catch all of them without having the lyrics, although even then some references still might go over your head. Yet, absurd allusions to our society aside, Kelly himself has gone on record that many of these songs are outside his usual comfort zone – a songwriting experiment that he picked up from Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong – and that many of the song’s lyrics explore the dark places that the human mind can go when under stress and pressure. This might not be readily apparent, although a close listen to the lyrics, particularly Doin’ Crimes, will reveal that the stories told in these songs aren’t quite as fun or lighthearted as some of their melodies might make them out to be.

Not too long after he announced his intentions for this new project, Kelly made sure to clarify that the album wouldn’t be “‘punk’ so much as punk influenced rock” and he wasn’t lying. There’s no doubt that the fans will be divided on this one, which is something that’s to be expected when it comes to a side project. I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever is an enjoyable combination of familiar sounds and new experiments from the Chicago punk veteran. It still isn’t that exact Lawrence Arms album that the world has been waiting on, but it’s definitely a good way to tide the fans over until then (or at least until their long-awaited DVD, An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance, finally comes out).

Pusrad - Smarttrams

Pusrad tear through seven songs in under three minutes on this debut EP. The longest song, Stupet, is just 35 seconds long, so there's probably not a lot of depth to the lyrics that I'm missing by not being able to understand Swedish (or whatever language all the lyrics to this record are in).

Sound-wise, Pusrad are similar to their KBD punk-obsessed contemporaries like the Secret Prostitutes and Lögnhalsmottagningen, but also slightly more hardcorey type bands like Regulations or Social Circkle. While those other bands will sometimes slow it down a notch, Pusrad just shoot straight through at full speed. These guys are probably great live.

Bad Advice - Do Not Resuscitate

This record was recorded a few years ago, but wasn't released until a couple weeks ago for some reason.

Bad Advice has members of Government Warning, Direct Control, The Ladies, etc. and there are snippets of those bands' sounds in this. Very tight, thrashy guitars that fall somewhere between the pure guitar attack of Direct Control and something like... The Germs? Surf rock? Something like that. Ideal soundtrack for skating.

Tony Bitch's vocals are sort of recognizable from his work with The Ladies, but there's a reverb effect or something on them on this record that makes him sound like the guy from.... some 80s hardcore band. Maybe one from Boston?

Overall, this record sounds like it could have been released sometime around 1983. Nothing groundbreaking, but solid.

GSRS: Four songs in about 6.5 minutes. Not ideal, but there's enough changes in the songs that they don't feel long/boring.

Bad Religion's Generator is 20 today.

Bad Religion's sixth album (fifth if you're not counting Into the Unknown, as many do) Generator came out twenty years ago today. I was only three and a half, and the only thing I remember about 1992 was the theatrical release of Aladdin, so I can't really go on and on about how important this album was to me that year. I also didn't begin to listen to Bad Religion until I was halfway through college- something that is entirely my fault and I regret all the time. That said, I still have a lot of good memories regarding Generator, most of them relating to sitting underneath a tree and reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. And much like how The Road is a bleak story, Generator has a dark tone that the band had never captured before, and had yet to record anything else like it; it is unique in that it sounds like no other Bad Religion album but it is still widely accepted by fans.

One of the most noticeable things about Generator is that it is a very guitar-driven album. Wild solos and fills run throughout the songs- an uncommon practice in the punk and hardcore circles- and many times the guitar will take precedence over the vocals, cutting in after only a single verse as opposed to waiting until the bridge. I'm aware that this might be common stuff in other genres, but this kind of experimentation just didn't happen with punk bands. (Obviously it did, but unless they were on Dischord it was just kind of weird).

The song writing on Generator also shows a shift in the band's style. Some songs, like No Direction or Only Entertainment, follow the usual Bad Religion style if you overlook the fact that they were twice as long as most of Bad Religion's other songs at the time (their three previous albums had a song length average of roughly one minute and forty seconds). But the real gems on this album are the songs that experiment with the odd shifts in tempo or time signature. Generator, Two Babies in the Dark, and Atomic Garden are all examples of the band trying out some weird new stuff and those three songs are some of my favorite tracks on the album. Two Babies in the Dark also stands out lyrically, making an excellent melody out of run-on fragments and homophones long before Kanye was telling the world he was a master wordsmith. Meanwhile, songs like Heaven Is Falling, a scathing attack on the Bush Sr. Administration, showed that the band hadn't lost their political edge no matter how much the music might have changed. (Heaven Is Falling also got a somewhat timely update by the Ataris during the Bush Jr. Administration on the Rock Against Bush compilations).

Sometimes I think it's hard to talk about an album that wasn't a part of my life during my formative years. It's like finally getting to see a movie that everyone raved about years ago and whenever you want to talk about how great it was, most people just respond with "Yeah, I've already known that for ages." Trying to talk about Generator is kind of like that, especially now that it's twenty years old. If, for whatever reason, you've stumbled your way here and you don't already listen to Bad Religion and love this album, I urge you to give it a listen (or another one if you've already tried). Generator is a one of a kind release for the band- it lacks the overall appearance of a hardcore album like their earlier work, but it also lacks the more standard "rock" sound that they developed on albums such as Recipe for Hate or Stranger Than Fiction, all while avoiding being disowned by the band (or their fans) like Into the Unknown was. So in that aspect, Generator is at least Bad Religion's most interesting album.

For your enjoyment, I have included some songs to hopefully encourage you to check out the album in full.

Generator:

No Direction:

 
Two Babies in the Dark:

Heaven Is Falling:

Atomic Garden:

It's true that "no Bad Religion song can make your life complete." Although I think that having a collection of them, like on Generator, certainly helps.

Masked Intruder - First Offense

Everyone's favorite group of pop punk inmates have finally unleashed their debut 7" EP! Filled with so many sugary hooks that you should go see your dentist after each listen, First Offense continues the themes of lighthearted songs about love, rejection, and restraining orders, that were found present on their 2011 demo.

Musically the band sounds like a continuation of the Ramones, particularly Teenage Bottlerocket. Lightning fast tempos, with chugged guitars, a repetitive chorus, and a drumming style that can really only be described as "Tommy R." (or Marky, for those who prefer the later stuff). They don't deviate from this style much, but Masked Intruder does offer some insight to what they would sound like as an a capella group on the final track, Wish You Were Mine. It comes as a very pleasant surprise, and it shows off the band's vocal capabilities, sounding more like the Temptations almost. This shift doesn't last long before the band launches back into their standard pop punk sound, although the backing vocals provided continue to be top notch and work well alongside lead vocalist Blue.


Lyrically the band continues to exploit their alleged criminal background. From armed robbery (Stick 'Em Up (I Got a Knife)), to wanting to get out of prison for allegedly being a changed man (Gimme Parole), to wanting to do anything to be with a woman (How Do I Get to You?), the band never breaks character, always sticking with the theme that they're a bunch of dangerous thugs. The lyrics are in direct contrast to how fun the music is, although they use it to their advantage and it helps them create a playful atmosphere to let listeners know that this project isn't meant to be taken too seriously.

Gimmick bands are a tricky thing, but Masked Intruder has found a comfortable place for themselves on the spectrum. Love songs and pop punk have always gone hand-in-hand, and Masked Intruder has found a new way to present the overdone pop song about love without going out of their way to alienate new listeners. First Offense is an enjoyable ten minutes and shows a lot of promise from these boys. Now if only they could just stay out of prison long enough to record a full length!

Stick 'Em Up (I Got a Knife) can be streamed here:


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Idiot Talk - EP

Idiot Talk is from France, but they sound more Canadian to me, mostly because they sound VERY MUCH like Career Suicide, Canada's #1 moderny-but-80s-sounding hardcore punk band that I'm not sure whether or not still exists.

This particular record has five songs which last less than seven minutes, so it's got a very good rating on the GSRS (Group Sex Ratio System*).

The songs on this record seem to loosely follow a theme of people drifting apart/disagreeing about life/falling out of punk sort of thing. Think Salad Days. Not sure if that was on purpose.

There's really not much else to write about this record. Do you like 80s hardcore? Do you like Career Suicide? If you answered 'yes' to one or more of these questions, you'll probably like this record.

Here's a song by Idiot Talk that isn't on this record:




*The Group Sex Ratio System is a record rating system which follows the wisdom of The Circle Jerks on their perfect first album, which was about 15 songs in about 15 minutes.

Ceremony - Zoo

People don't start hardcore bands because they're happy. People start hardcore bands because they're dissatisfied with their lives, society, whatever. When Ceremony started, they played fast, short songs about anger and violence. It's hard to maintain the anger which fuels music like that.

The Ceremony on their new album, Zoo, is still easily identifiable as the same band that recorded Ruined and Violence Violence, but it's clear that the initial rage in those early records has died down into a somber acceptance that our civilization is sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always inescapably extensive. The insert that comes with the LP folds out into a poster with a collage of aerial photos. Looking closely, you see that it is made of the same photos repeated over and over, but cut differently each time. All the same, yet disconnected... an endless zoo in which we are all caged.

Zoo feels similar to Ceremony's last album, Rohnert Park, both in sound and theme. Some of the songs drone in repetition, others flare up in abrupt moments of residual anger.

Like Black Flag's My War or Poison Idea's Feel the Darkness, some fans of the band's early work may not appreciate this record. Others will see it as a logical next step for a band that reaches the limits of hardcore and keeps going, possibly even better than what has come before it.