Token Entry
The Re-Issues (Jaybird & Weight of the World)
I Scream
How I ever missed out on Token Entry is a mystery to me. Lucky for me I Scream Records has re-released their two most seminal albums, Jaybird (originally released in 1988) and Weight of the World (1990), as a packaged deal that completely overshadows any hardcore album that’s been released in the last decade.
Having originated from the famed NY hardcore scene of the late ’80s, the band bumped shoulders with Bad Brains (Dr. Know produced these albums), The Bouncing Souls (singer Timmy Chunks lent them the money to release their debut The Greenball Cerw EP) and Gorilla Biscuits (with whom they hooked up for their first show at CBGB’s). They were also mainstays at CBGB’s, more often than not acting as the Sunday matinée band. These days Mr. Chunks is Billie Joe’s (Green Day) guitar tech.
The hardcore wave that overtook the punk scene back during the Reagan years could be a confusing chasm of similar sounding bursts of testosterone and misdirected anger. It could get tiresome…. but then there were bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys; bands that slipped in some melody and understandable lyrics amidst the throat-shredding screams. Token Entry falls within this canon of the noteworthy; skate punks with too much energy and musical interest to just stand by the wayside. In that respect, they can also be compared to early Red Hot Chili Peppers (the song “Lucky Seven” backs this up).
This double album has 22 songs that I can’t get enough of. 22 songs that remind me what it was about punk rock that originally turned me on. “Pink Things,” “The Whip,” and “Revolution” are all songs I’ve been without for too many years. In another life I must have been a bratty little skate punk, and I embrace it.
I Scream Records: http://www.iscreamrecords.com
