7even Inches
Burning Airlines Burning Airlines (DeSoto) Rock is a runaway train, careening downhill on winding track, threatening to derail from the force of its own sheer power. Add beauty, brains, and a sense of restraint to that, and you have Burning Airlines. Truly amazing. Burning Airlines makes sense of the passing of Jawbox. If their upcoming full length lives up to this promise, we’re in for a real treat. (S) • Decepticonz Get In the Ring! (Too Hep) Ska-core with melodic in the right places. Great horns, guitars, vocals. Very fast, too. Includes a cover of the Mummies’ cover of the Window Panes’ “You Must Fight to Live on the Planet of the Apes.” (DLB) • Ff Gone For Good/Let Me Down (Radioactive Bodega) Angry, angst-filled, grungy punk filled with yelling. Has a strangely “artsy” feel to it. Somewhat depressing, too. (DLB) • Thee Harmonious Fists When Thee Fist Comes Knockin’ (Science Project) Flipper meets the Misfits! Er, make that the Mis-fists! Pounding, throw-down, raw tribal punk rock! Side B has thee “Fist Twist,” too! (DLB) • Itch My Jerusalem (Wrong) I must apologize in advance that my limited knowledge of trivia, current events, geography, history, and religion may not be sufficient to present a critical interpretation of the puzzling, dualistic nature of this modern rock artifact. I will, therefore, DO THE BEST I CAN, GODDAMMIT! The packaging was somewhat baffling to me, and yet all the scattered pieces contained a common (Hebrew? Jewish?) theme. On the cover, various characters from the world of Disney were superimposed on top of some sort of ancient religious background or building that I didn’t bother to learn about in school. I think it may mean something that the barcode is placed in a highly-visible and inappropriate place and the itch logo is TM. The back cover is simply an ancient picture of a three-petaled flower-like structure, on which Europe, Asia, and Africa are sprouting from the center (I don’t remember my flower anatomy), Jerusalem. There is also a mysterious red section sprouting, which says, “Das Rote Meer,” translated from German to English, “The Red Sea”. I don’t understand that. An additional insert, on one side, has a painting of 2-3 people being beheaded while groups of soldiers appear to be chatting and standing around in a church somewhere. The other side contains a collage of colorful paintings by 2nd graders, all representing their impressions of Jerusalem. One of them looks like a black & white striped cat with blood coming out of its mouth. Hmmm. The rest look fairly harmless. On to the music… One side of this gold-colored 7” has some sort of religious cross-like symbol on it. The music starts out with a noisy rock anthem (sans piano) called “My Jerusalem.” This song is abrasive, nervous, frantic, and stands well inside the boundaries of punk rock. The initial vocals led me to believe that there was something wrong (no pun intended! Ohhhh! Can you feel that!) with my turntable, as they sound somewhat backwards-masked. As I inserted my Babelfish, Critchley’s trademark vocals cleared up and revealed some interesting elements: Thick, contrary motion harmonies, and the ending words (fun!), “You’re welcome.” At this point, the dualism sets in. The opposing side has a decorative little candle/heart/star design and the words, “You Savage Beast, You.” The music is calm, benevolent, and well-executed mainly with a keyboard/synth. Remember those movies you watched in high-school science class? Imagine: lots of children of various ethnic backgrounds romping on playground equipment; more children hopping around on a lawn with a hose; others eating ice-cream? All while a friendly narrator provides you with technical information about their respiratory or nervous systems. Egads. (F) • The Letterbombs What the Hell Just Happened?! (Harmless) Great punk rock band with female vocalist. Blazing fast punk that points the finger at a world that doesn’t want to pay attention to what it needs to hear. Four songs, all rock, three depress, one kicks the status quo’s ass! (DLB) • The Murder City Devils Dancing Shoes (Die Young/Stay Pretty Records) Very Stooges-meets-KISS punk rock. Definitely classic, raw, energetic punk. (LB) • The No-Talents Quelle Crise Betsy (Broken Rekids) Girl-fronted punk rock. Fast, melodic, and has that dirty garage feel to it. Apparently they’re from France. Has instant appeal to all who appreciate the Ramones covered by the Go-Gos. (DLB) • The Pressure I Wanna Call Someone/Delayed Reaction (What Else?) Powerful, melodic punk rock. A-side song is sung by horny chick who’s got cold feet about “doing it.” She needs help, or so the song would imply. (DLB) • The Rebels City of Fear (Brainstorm) Great German punk rock. It says “copyright 1997,” but it could be 1977. Mean, down and dirty and very angry. This is stompin’ music (LB) • Saint Andre Exalting the Grid (Cursory Purse) Saint Andre build up a dark instrumental around typewriter like drumming and spooky guitar, and let the song evolve into a submarine of a song, complete with all the sonar throbs and sounds of underwater implosion. The song with singing is more of a scorcher. (CB) • Slingshot Episode Dead Air to Deaf Ear (What Else?) Punk rock sung by lonely-voiced female vocalist. Dirty, aggressive and looking for a fan to hit with shit! Three punk rock songs. (DLB) • The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs with Deniz Tek “Do the Pop/ More Fun” 7” (Alive!) Fast, furious raw punk rock -with hands full of napalm… I’m almost amazed anyone will risk not getting a recording contract by playing REAL punk rock these days! “More Fun” would be a classic punk song if it had been recorded twenty years ago. Man, I want to see this band! (LB) • Tayce In My Dreams (Radical) Ethereal dance crap. Covers “Love is Like Oxygen,” and oxygen is what I needed after listening to this record. But, some people like gloom dance music, your call. (LB) • Twisted Nixon Stone Throwing Riot/Left is Right (Watergate) Heavily-political punk anthems. The B-side is a pretty good take off of the Clash’s “Rudy Can’t Fail.” `Twould make Joe Strummer shed a tear. (DLB)
Who Wrote About Them
David Lee Beowülf • Chad Bidwell • Ed Furniture • T.J. Stankus
Where To Get Them
Alive Records, P.O. Box 7112, Burbank, CA 91507 • Broken Rekids, P.O. Box 460402, San Francisco, CA 94146 • Cursory Purse Records, 557 Fillmore, No.1, San Francisco, CA 94117 • DeSoto Records, PO Box 60335, Washington, DC 20039. www.his.com/~desoto/ • Die Young, 1932 1st ave, Suite 1103, Seattle, WA 98101 • Harmless Records, 1437 W. Hood, Chicago, IL 60660. • Radical Records, 77 Bleeker Street, Suite C2-21, New York, NY 10012 • Radioactive Bodega Records, 333 Berry St. #3, Brooklyn, NY 11211 • Science Project Records, 5436 Kennerly Rd., Jacksonville, FL 32207 • Too Hep Records, P.O. Box 331, Fairfax Station, VA 22039 • Watergate Records, 42125 Lyndie Lane, #200, Temecula, CA 92591; twsdnixon@aol.com • What Else? Records, P.O. Box 3411, Dayton, OH 45401 • Wrong Records, P.O. Box 3243, Vancouver, B.C., V6B3Y4, http://www.conspiracy.com/wrong/itch ◼
