Fifteen
Extra Medium Kick Ball All-Star (17)
Cool Guy
Fifteen
Lucky
Sub City
Jeff Ott/Amanda
Epithysial Union
Cool Guy
It’s been a while since Extra Medium Kick Ball All-Star (17) has seen the light of day, and I believe this is its first time on CD format. It was originally released on LP by the band on Rebel Alliance. This was always one of my favorite Fifteen albums, along with Buzz . I’m glad to see it’s readily accessible again. In addition, they’ve thrown the great One Man Running Stress seven inch at the end, along with Bisybackson and Polk High #33 tracks. And there’s still about twenty minutes of extra space! Nice.
Lucky is more of Fifteen’s trademark pop-punk with off-key vocals and socially conscious lyrics. The recording has gone up a notch, but somehow this doesn’t thrill me overall. I think I’m just over them. I still like the older songs I’m familiar with, but I’m not too interested in their new songs. If you’re not burnt out on them, I’d check this out.
Also, this CD is one of the first for Sub City, a label whose releases benefit different charities and projects. Lucky is a benefit for the Redwoods Summer Justice Project, an organization pursuing justice in the Judi Bari bombing incident. Read about it inside.
Epithysial Union is a split acoustic CD between Jeff Ott and a girl named Amanda. I like acoustic music a lot, but I couldn’t stomach Jeff singing his songs acoustic. He has things to say about a lot of personal and social issues and he’s emotional about them, but I just don’t care for his presentation in this format at all. I would approach this with caution. On the up side, I like Amanda’s songs a lot! Personal songs, and she has a wonderful voice, and uses it well.
Cool Guy Records, P.O. Box 2361, San Francisco, CA 90670; Sub City, P.O. Box 7495, Van Nuys, CA 91409-7495
