Mischief Brew is a band from Philadelphia which plays DIY folk punk and anarcho-punk music. According to the official website, they play a mix of “pirate punk, Celtic folk, gypsy swing, devilish jazz, American olde-tyme and country.”[1] Mischief Brew consists mainly of Erik Petersen, sometimes accompanied by his musician friends. Petersen draws inspiration from the protest movements of the 1960s [2], “the idea that rebellion in music didn’t originate in punk rock” (Profane Existence #54, 2007), and anti-establishment artists like Woody Guthrie and Crass.[3] Mischief Brew has released 2 full albums on two different labels: Art of the Underground and Fistolo Records, as well as a handful of EPs.[4] In support of these records, Mischief Brew has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe
Anarcho-bard Erik Petersen casts forth another full-length to follow up 2005’s “Smash the Windows,” a collection of songs written between 1997-2002. As opposed to the gypsy-punk epics on “Smash,” the songs on “Sink” are more stripped down, returning to Mischief Brew’s roots with percussive acoustic guitar-abuse, mandolins, and junk percussion. The lyrics are twice as vicious, covering topics such as the Iraq War, the death penalty, police brutality, prisons…and of course alcohol and pyromania. Previously performed solely at basement shows, punk bars, and protests, and now unleased on 6/6/6 once and for all!
Once upon a time, an energetic punk kid from the Philly area confined himself to a basement with an acoustic guitar, a rickety drum kit, a mandolin, and a four-track to stir a bunch of ideas together into a broth of songs. The resulting concoction was “Mirth: or, Certain Verses Composed and Fitted to Tunes, for the Delight and Recreation of All,” an eight-song demo cassette of acoustic punk influenced by medieval danses and raucous Romany dust-raising ditties. The tape had many styles of folk besides traditional Americana: from the Klezmer-punk of “A Liquor Never Brewed” to the medieval green-anarchist march of “One Stone Cast,” the tape robbed from many cultural styles of folk music, and spiked the brew with punk rock.
Mischief Brew is Erik Petersen, and vice versa. The “Mirth” demo was only the beginning of a phenomenon, a folk-punk revival of sorts that the U.K. has seen many times (from the Pogues to the Levellers and onward…). Over the next few years, two proper releases would emerge: “Bellingham & Philadelphia” (a split LP/CD of stripped down political folk with Bellingham bard Robert Blake) and “Bakenal” (a CDep, the soundtrack of “Django Reinhardt meets Shane MacGowan in a dark alley…”). With these two releases in the arsenal, Mischief Brew hit the road many times, playing punk houses and rowdy bars for punks, hippies, folksters, locals, workers, ramblers, trainhoppers, hitchhikers, and all of their parents.
Since then, the discography has expanded (see below). This is music anyone that ever wanted to run away and join the circus. If it all had to fit under one banner, it would read: “Carnivalesque.”
“Have a drink with my new friend Erik. Mr. Petersen and I have all of these pints to get through, and there are only the two of us. My new friend’s got a head full of some hella good stories. He’s got an attitude and, even though I’ve never seen his bare arms, I can only picture them inked up like a wedding reception guest book, only with daggers in place of signatures. When he pulls his guitar up onto his lap and plays “Roll Me Through the Gates of Hell,” that’s when it gets special. You won’t want him going to hell without you. He makes it sound like the place where all the best fun is. He’s been there. The rest of us have just heard about it, as in these five amazingly written songs. I say we check the place out.”
-Punk Planet, review of “Bakenal” EP
Mondo Topless formed in 1992 in Philadelphia, and take their name from the 1966 film of the same name. The group’s Stooges-inspired garage rock is distinguished by their use of a Vox Continental electric organ. Their debut single was the 1995 7″ release, “I Want You To” b/w “Real Gone Girl”, with their first full-length following the next year. They followed its release with touring across the United States for two years, until breaking to release their sophomore effort, 1998’s Get Ready for Action. Go Fast!, the group’s third full-length, appeared in 2002. Further touring around the U.S. followed the album’s release. Their most recent LP, Take it Slow, was released in 2006, and features covers of songs by Paul Revere & the Raiders and Solomon Burke. The band’s mission is simple: Pile into the van, drive to the show, play “three chords and a cloud of dust” rock n roll, and suck down as many free drinks as possible. In pursuit of this goal, the band has traveled all over the U.S.A. (or at least the parts they can reach within reason), appearing with such luminaries as Southern Culture On The Skids, The Cynics, Dick Dale, Mudhoney, the Lyres, the Original Sins, the Fleshtones, the Woggles, Ronnie Dawson (R.I.P.), and many more. The current edition of the band features Sam Steinig on vocals and the “cheesy, imperfect tone” of the Vox Continental organ he insists on lugging to the gigs, despite the howls of protest from the other members of the band. Kris Alutius is on guitar & backing vocals when hes not consuming vast quantities of potted meat. Scott Rodgers plays bass and sings backing vocals; for reasons unknown to anyone - including himself - this is his second go-round as a member of the band. The latest addition to the band is Steve Thrash, aka Steve Von Steve, aka Stevie Thunder. He provides the requisite thud and slam.
Straight Faced is one of the best punk/hardcore bands that are playing today. Their live shows are awesome, and this cd has all the elements of the show in it. The first song on this cd, “happy”, is the song that got me started on this band. I heard it on the punk-o-rama 5 compiliation and since then have bought their music. This cd tends to be more metal and less punk than their other cds, but it’s still origonal. I’d recommend this cd to anyone who has enjoyed their last 3 cds, along with other hardcore bands such as shai hulud, nora, throwdown, refused, or agnostic front. Even metal fans who want to listen to faster than metal music will enjoy this one. I’ve seen Straight Faced in concert twice, and they never cease to amaze me. The songs sound better live, and the songs are damn good. This CD shows a more metal side to Straight Faced, unlike their past albums which were more harcore punk. Most of their songs peek a punk style or has it throughout. I love every song on this CD and highly recommend buying it. Disappointed is probably my favorite song on this, alongside all the others. Enjoy this and be hardcore!
Radical kicks out the bollocks on this tribute to the world’s greatest punk group, feat. rib breaking cuts by The Booked, Submachine, I.C.U., Total Chaos, Blanks 77, The Boils, Road Rage, Murphy’s Law, Lower Class Brats, The Krays & others. Seventeen (no pun) songs in 50 minutes—that’s about three minutes per and that’s just about perfect. Which is what this concept is, too; from the drop-dead look and feel of the cover art to the selection of some of the more raucous punk bands to participate. Besides paying props to the classic Never Mind the Bollocks album, additional cuts include cuts from singles and The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Some of the tracks nail the energy and spirit on the head while others…oh hell, it’s a tribute record, you know the drill.
Kicking off the disc is The Booked’s version of “Holidays in the Sun”, absolutely relentless and everything you would hope to get from each interpretation. Ditto “No Feelings” from The Generators; The Boils’ amped up version (really!) of “Submission” and especially Road Rage with “EMI.” Road Rage’s drummer Victicious (you’ve gotta love that!) sounds like he’s shooting off cannon blasts, while guitarist Gav shreds on guitar. “Friggin’ in the Riggin,” the Sex Pistols’ John Valby performance from Swindle, is actually a worthy inclusion thanks to Showcase Showdown’s spirited take. The two biggest Sex Pistols tracks (”God Save the Queen” and “Pretty Vacant”) get decent bar band treatment, but aren’t as strong as they could be. I mean, it’s only three chords…oh, never mind, I’m just a lazy sod.
When the bands do swing and miss—like L.E.S. Stitches’ disappointingly over-the-top try on “Bodies”—it’s for much the same reason so many hard rock bands suck. They take themselves too seriously! When it’s all bombast and no sense of humor, it’s just (as Johnny Rotten would say) booorrrinngggg! Actually, this record makes you realize just what an emotive vocalist Rotten was, especially when inferior vocalists (Blanks 77) trip over themselves. But everyone does rip it up, even when the drummer in Submachine sounds like he’s broken everything but his snare. Overall though, this is a long overdue CD—kudos to Radical for a solid effort! And labels, take note—tasks like spending some time on clever artwork, listing all the tracks with credits and providing information (names, contact numbers, addresses) for all the bands involved should be mandatory.
Broken Bottles captures an early 80’s Orange County punk feel , almost as if Agent Orange gave their guitars to T.S.O.L. The dark driving sound of Messy’s guitar drives together with Ace’s soild rhythm, as Travis lays down the bass lines blending with Drew’s pounding drums. Jes the Mess made Broken Bottles listeners aware of his fiasco with Kelly Osbourne of America’s favorite television show, The Osbournes.
In 2003, they released their cult classic “In The Bottles” with tons of press and reviews. The band returned to it’s original line up with Ace on second guitar in 2003. The Bottles have shared the stage with such acts as the Explosion, the Dwarves, the Briefs, Kill Radio, the Real McKenzie’s, U.S. Bombs, the Starvations, the Epoxies, the Skulls, GobettyGo, Cell Block 5, the Bronx, Smut Peddlers, Duane Peters and the Hunns, the Weirdos, Unit F, D.I., Manic Hispanic, etc…
2008 release on Steel Cage Records.
Just to keep everybody on their toes, Jeff Dahl follows up 2007’s solo acoustic Battered Stuff CD by plugging in and heading into the studio with longtime conspirators Frank Labor, Jason Smith & Russ Covner to record Back To Monkey City. A collection of lean, raucous rockers captured live in the studio with a bare minimum of overdubs; the songs were mixed and mastered by legendary engineer / producer Jack Endino. Want more information? In Jeff’s words: “Listen to the damn record and draw your own conclusions.”
2008 CD release on Fat Wreck Chords.
After a seemingly infinite absence, the Midwest’s most influential band, Dillinger Four, have delivered their long-promised fourth proper full-length. The release of Civil War marks the end of an agonizing 6 year span that fans have endured since the last D4 studio album, and allays the speculations and rumors that have been bubbling just below the surface of the indie music scene for the past few years. No longer merely a tantalizing enticement ruminated over endlessly on message boards, Civil War is finally here and worth every second of the interminable wait. From the opening note of the first track it’s blatantly apparent that the guys in D4 haven’t lost a step.
2008 CD release.
Featuring ten previously unreleased tracks, Selective Wreckage is not a B-sides collection. This is an audio documentation of a band’s evolution from 2006’s melodic punk outburst The Troubled Stateside to 2007’s critically acclaimed opus, CRIME IN STEREO Is Dead. Featuring five songs recorded in 2006 and five slogs recording during 2007 with producer and collaborator Mike Sapone (BRAND NEW, STRAYLIGHT RUN), these were all remixed and tweaked in the summer of 2008. This release gives fans new music to continue the debate over this band’s extensive evolution and back-catalog, as well as further the interest in this enigmatic Long Island punk band.
Face to Face’s Trever Keith and Scott Shiflett stuck with a heavy, ballsy sound when they formed Viva Death, but with a brand-new dynamic. Clearly, Viva Death takes from early-’80s post-punk and new wave that’s akin to Joy Division and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, but with a slick swagger all their own. Viva Death is a continuous rock & roll rumble — swift with jagged guitars and layered percussion. Keith is almost a darkman’s romantic. His signature punk growl is scaled down for something more sinister, and it’s mysteriously appealing. He’s supercharged on the fantastic hardcore/surf rock bombast of “The Start Up.” “Professionals” dances with goth-like threads, but the haunting twitter patter of “Desire Us a Flood” showcases Viva Death’s fiercest effort yet. Faith & the Muse’s Monica Richards provides entrancing backing vocals, while Keith’s sultry brood is a parallel to Nick Cave and Peter Murphy during his Bauhaus days; the urgency of Viva Death exudes a passionate desire to break down pop mainstream, but without anger. The cathartic, yet fiery designs of “Murder by Proxy” and “Crosses” are evident of that. With added instrumentation from A Perfect Circle’s Josh Freese and Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett, Chad Blinman’s production on Viva Death makes for an impressive first album. Together, the five-piece defined a keenly different, thirsty, aggressive rock sound in comparison to each member’s other work. It’s an intriguing move.
~ by MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
With each album, the Cribs have gotten a little sharper and more focused, and nowhere is this clearer than on the brilliantly named Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, the band’s major-label debut. The Cribs enlisted Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos as producer, and it’s a good match: while he doesn’t impose too much of Franz’s clockwork precision on the band, Kapranos reins in the Cribs’ more shambling tendencies just enough to make Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever their most listenable, and diverse, work yet. The album kicks off with a slew of bouncy, angular songs about awkward relationships and killer crushes that sound like state-of-the-art British indie circa the late 2000s — in particular, “Our Bovine Public”’s ridiculously catchy melody and punchy drums feel like the results of an experiment to fuse together Maxïmo Park, the Futureheads, and Good Shoes in some secret lab. “Girls Like Mystery” and “I’m a Realist” (which states, bluntly, “I’m an indecisive piece of sh*t”) follow suit with more witty lyrics, sweet harmonies, and big, rousing choruses. As good as these songs are, they’re so much in the template of this kind of British indie that they run the risk of sounding like caricatures. However, as Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever unfolds, the Cribs expand their sound. Interestingly, they distinguish themselves from other like-minded British bands by adding influences from American acts like Weezer and the Strokes. Ryan Jarman often sounds like a British Rivers Cuomo, especially on “Moving Pictures,” while jaunty, vulnerable songs about emptiness like “I’ve Tried Everything” and “My Life Flashed Before My Eyes” would fit right in with the work of Julian Casablancas and company. “Be Safe” boasts a poetic rant by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and sounds, in the best possible way, like some great lost alt-rock song from 1995. It’s easily the best song on the album, which is kind of a shame since the Cribs (probably) can’t recruit Ranaldo to be their full-time frontman. Fortunately, the tracks that follow it — especially “Shoot the Poets,” the pretty, slightly twangy acoustic song that closes the album — show that the Cribs’ music can’t be typecast quite as easily as earlier songs suggested. The Cribs aren’t strikingly original — yet — but this album sums up where they’ve been, and where they could go, nicely.
~ by Heather Phares, All Music Guide
Having decided long ago that messing with their one of a kind formula was a fruitless waste of time, the Cramps now seem happy to let albums such as 2003’s Fiends of Dope Island perpetuate their unmistakable sound: authentic psychobilly riffs executed with garage punk panache, combined with fun-loving lyrics about bondage, drugs, Satanism, slasher flicks — in sum, all things kitsch and trash culture. Even better, inexorable advancing age has apparently only served singer Lux Interior’s desires, by helping him look like the gloriously decrepit B-movie monster that he’s always wanted to be on the record’s striking cover. Once inside, the Cramps’ latest amusement park house of horrors of an album confirms that Interior is again up to his patented vocal tricks — be it howling possessed on “Papa Satan Sang Louie,” growling lasciviously on the (Seattle) Wailers’ “Hang Up,” exaggeratedly crooning like the King himself over Jerry Reed’s “Oowee Baby,” or convulsively “bow-bow-bowing” his way through “Elvis Fucking Christ!” As for his life partner in crime, Poison Ivy, her crunchy grooves shimmy their way across tracks like “Big Black Witchcraft Rock” and “Dopefiend Boogie”; her primal riffs pay tribute to Link Wray with the “Rumble” replica “Color Me Black”; and her stinging, fleet-fingered leads positively electrify anthems both swinging (”Fissure of Rolando”) and ripping (”Wrong Way Ticket”), all the while conjuring mental images of her studiously disinterested expression under red bouffant and over high-heeled s**t-kicker boots, her cigarette dangling distractedly. Moving right along, the duo creates twisted surf music with both “Mojo Man from Mars” and “Taboo” (a cover of obscure songwriter Margarita Lecuona), and even makes sure to provide entertaining titles to weaker numbers like “Dr. Fucker M.D. (Musical Deviant)” and “She’s Got Balls.” The rhythm section of Chopper Franklin (bass) and Harry Drumdini (errr, drums) handles its appointed task (providing those raunchy stripper rhythms) capably and unobtrusively so the two head ghouls can do their thang. In short, a solid outing — unmistakable as anyone but the Cramps — that should neither detract nor add to their established legacy. Their fans could probably ask for nothing more at this stage.
~ by Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
As a fan of music and of a band, nothing can be more frustrating than seeing a great band make a fantastic album or albums and then flat line. Rocket From the Crypt would be such a band. After a few solid albums, culminating in the release of their classic Scream, Dracula, Scream! album on Interscope, the band seems to have been trudging over the same ground for the past few albums. Yeah, they survived that horrible ska ordeal where they were lumped among many ska bands just because they had horns, and they’re still alive and kicking, yet it seems that they haven’t truly ROCKED for many years. And with this album containing song titles such as “Bucket of Piss,” “Dumb Blind Horny,” and “Too Many Balls,” it’s hard not to feel as though this is some poor excuse for a jock’s idea of a “punk rock” album. What’s located on Live From Camp X-Ray is what has unfortunately become a tired routine for RFTC: proficiently crazy guitars, Speedo’s contagious party vocals, and the horns thrown intelligently in to the mix. Yeah, it may sound good, and the strings on “I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know” are a step in the right direction as far as creativity, but the problem is that it’s been done before and the ability to differentiate between RFTC albums is becoming harder and harder. Die-hard fans of the band will dig this as they have been digging these boys for years now. The rest will buy Scream, Dracula, Scream!, party hard to songs like “On a Rope” and “Born in ‘69,” and leave it at that.
~ by Kurt Morris, All Music Guide
Reggie and the Full Effect combine infectious melodies, sappy love songs, good-natured yet offbeat slyness, and comic sensibility like virtually no other “band” before them. Reggie albums are full of skits, hooky pop songs, and chunky guitar playing that appeal to fans of punk rock, and hardcore alike. There are two sides to the Reggie and the Full Effect story. One is fictitious and humorous — the tale of a bluesman named Reggie who vanished at the height of his career, and whose lost “White Chocolate Studios” recordings were recently unearthed and dropped at the doorstep of a couple of independent record labels. The other is the real story. Reggie is actually the Get Up Kids’ keyboard player and former Coalesce drummer James Dewees, making records on which he plays all of the instruments. The project began during some downtime for Coalesce. Dewees recorded a batch of songs starting with the drums first, building them all the way up on his own. Occasionally, members of the Get Up Kids would drop by the Kansas City studio to participate, but for the most part, the songs contained on Reggie’s albums are solely of Dewees’ creation. Second Nature Recordings released the first album, playfully titled Greatest Hits 1984-1987, in 1998. After that, Dewees performed a handful of live shows with the Get Up Kids as his backing band. Shortly before Coalesce disbanded, Dewees joined up with the Get Up Kids full-time, not long before they signed with Vagrant for both themselves and Reggie and the Full Effect, inking a deal that also included the creation of their own Heroes and Villains imprint.
The second Reggie album, Promotional Copy, was conceived at Red House Studios together with producer Ed Rose. and surfaced in 2000. It was supported by a string of live dates utilizing members of Ultimate Fakebook. That same year, Reggie released a split 7″ single with the band Koufax. In 2001, Reggie and the Full Effect toured on a leg of the Vagrant America package tour. Dewees rejoined a re-formed Coalesce in 2002, while continuing to work with the Get Up Kids and as Reggie. He also split his time recording another Reggie and the Full Effect album. Under the Tray, which highlighted some of the band’s brightest work, arrived in February 2003. The more personal Songs Not to Get Married To was issued two years later, and included guest appearances from the likes of members of the Get Up Kids, Coalesce, and From Autumn to Ashes — or as Dewees puts it, his “all-star friends.”
~ by Ryan J. Downey & MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Pearlene kicks off its debut record with a nasty, loud cover of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Burying Ground,” replete with howling vocals, staticy guitars, and trash-can drums. It gives you a pretty good idea where the album is headed: the same punk-blues territory covered by bands from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to the White Stripes. There is not a whole lot of originality on display, but there is a lot of energy and dirt and competence. Tracks like “In the Beginning” and “Number 8 Highway” sound like the band know their Hound Dog Taylor records pretty well with their frenzied tempos and filthy guitars. “Free to Be on Your Knees” is a solid rocker with some excellent backup vocals; “Whiskey and Gasoline” is a grinding slow blues with mumbled vocals and nasty slide work. The only problem is that just about every song is blindingly derivative — of old timers like Hound Dog Taylor; of punk-blues originators like the Gun Club, Jon Spencer, the Chrome Cranks, and the Scientists; and of new timers like the Soledad Brothers and the White Stripes. If you can’t get enough of the punk-blues sound, you may enjoy Pearlene, but to many Pearlene is the punk-blues band that makes it one too many. To paraphrase Jon Spencer: They feel so unnecessary.
~ by Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
