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CITIZINE REVIEWS by Thom White ---
The Daydream Nation-inspired opening to The Arsons’ Bridges Down punk rock album made it clear this band was musically directed with a higher “vision” (to use that ridiculous term) than certain of their punk rock brethren. This is well-crafted pop-punk music that you can listen to from start to finish. I don’t remember any of the singer’s words, but I remember all the melodies. The guitar is really “tight,” and as the lead instrument in the band, reminds me a lot of Brian Baker’s riffs in Dag Nasty. The songs are well-arranged with good build-ups, lots of guitar palm-muting on the quieter parts, and the drums are really upbeat and keep the album going non-stop. I have only said nice things -- this may indeed be a good album. Pop-punk fanatics, look into the Arsons and tell me what you see.
Just when you thought rocket-fueled punk rock had nothing more to offer, along comes another cause, The Havoc and their high-speed Road Warrior. This diskette is not a proper album, but just the following: two awesome original studio tracks “Road Warrior” and “Arson Attack” (this second song, an amazing four-minute festival of hardcore snare beat), a plodding cover song, “Seventeen Years of Hell,” and then three songs recorded live at The Allen Theatre. For the many who don’t know, The Allen Theatre (3809 Tweedy Bl., Downey) is the all-ages epicenter of a huge punk rock eruption in South Central Los Angeles County. The live songs are all really fast and the double guitars make for a heavy-duty Havoc.
These guys have been getting some pretty heavy promotion
from Angry Samoans’ Metal Mike, a respected commentator on
pop and punk music. Sidekick in fact has formulated an exciting
hybrid of these two disparate styles, taking the fast drums and
blaring guitar of punk, and the 1-4-5 patterns and verse-chorus
arrangement of standard American pop music, to create a confusing
new oxymoronic concept: pop-punk. Greg’s warrior drums keep the Action moving on this record. The guitar, bass, and rebel yell are tight and all but the high-hat marching beat and snare drum fill man makes this sound highly energizing. Listen to this record for the pure frenzy, seemingly unstoppable (except by pause button) for a good 35 minutes. Action was formed in October 2002, and claim ‘80s English and Scandinavian hardcore as a primarily influence. The guys in the Action are themselves experts in the arts of “punk genre.” Most of the group was in an Oi! punk band together that fell apart only to reform to play in the present “hardcore” style. My favorite track is probably the change of pace “Blame It On the Youth” toward the end of the record, but it would be nothing without high-speed rockers “Submission” and “Rise.” “Die for your government, die for your god, There’s no return from the Suicide Squad!” The huge blasts of sound at the beginning are welcomed and must be played at top suitable volume, but listeners of advancing age and decreased inner eardrum tolerance who listen to this entire record straight may get “hardcored out to the max,” a very undesirable condition.
Coffin Mike Feudale writes all the songs and sings and plays guitar, and his Woody Woodpeckerite tattooed arm graces the album cover, so I assume he’s the frontman who makes the loud sounds of yesteryear come alive again. Fortunately, the Coffin Lids are one of those bands with their own theme song, “Coffin Lids Rock ‘n’ Roll.” There’s actually another song with “rock ‘n’ roll” in the title, so it’s clear this Coffin Lids thing is definitely roots rock fury. The record has a “recorded live vibe” with the singer’s vocals nearly always distorted through the P.A. system.
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