Jersey Beat Archives: Audio Learning Center, Pole Position, World Inferno Friendship Society, "Down In Front" (March 2002)

March 2002

For several years in the early 2000s, the Reverend contributed CD reviews to Jersey Beat music zine. It was a heck of a lot of fun, with JB editor Jim Testa mailing a package of punk and alt-rock CDs that I’d work up reviews for every month. Some of these reviews deserve representation in this archive…

AUDIO LEARNING CENTER – “Friendships Often Fade Away” 
With veterans of two Sub Pop bands – Christopher Brady from Pond and Steven Birch from Sprinkle – Audio Learning Center has street cred to burn. Joined by drummer Paul Johnson and working with Seattle producer Adam Kasper, the band has created an impressive debut with “Friendships Often Fade Away”. Pairing the hard-rocking grunge ambiance of early ‘90s Seattle sound with an energetic punk attitude and a musical complexity unmatched by many of their Pacific Northwest brethren, ALC has delivered a multi-layered, multi-textured collection of songs. Brady is a solid wordsmith, penning emotionally charged lyrics that cut to the quick with surgical precision and a deceptive simplicity. “Favorite” is one of the better expressions of band fandom that I’ve heard while tracks like “Winter” and “The Dream” offer insightful commentary on the human condition. Should I also mention that ALC make a lot of noise for just three guys? If you want a disc that you can sink your teeth into, check out “Friendships Often Fade Away”, Audio Learning Center’s ticket to indie rock stardom. (Vagrant Records) 

POLE POSITION – XO 
An old rockcrit rule of thumb says that the more hyperbole you find lurking around in a band’s press kit, the less quality you’ll find in the record’s grooves. Pole Position certainly talks the talk, but do they walk the walk? Referring to their 8-song EP XO, the band’s press kit asks “is it too early to call it the album of the year?” It goes on to compare the band – the duo of the singularly named Daniel and Rui, actually – to Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Portishead, and a couple of heads to be named later. Where the rubber hits the road, or, more accurately, the laser hits the metal alloy, XO fails to excite. A mish-mash of turgid style and electronic ambiance, Pole Position fill every song with an abundance of synth squeals, cold rhythms, and muted vocals, music so laid back that you can’t tell if the band is coming or going. Once again turning to the press kit, Pole Position’s Daniel states that they are “contemporary musicians who believe in music as concept.” Maybe next time they’ll conceive of some more lively and original music. Is it too early to call XO the album of the year? Yes, it is… (Polar Music)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Down In Front 
We’ve had all sorts of tribute discs and compilation albums covering just about every obscure songwriter or cult artist that you can think of. However, I don’t know of any project such as Down In Front, which pays tribute, of sorts, to punk figurehead/zine genius Aaron Cometbus ‘cause he’s the only common thread that ties together the various artists here. Down In Front offers twelve bands cranking out twenty-one songs that cover the complete gamut of punk musical theory, and I’m guessing that it’s Aaron kicking the cans behind every track. There’s lots of fine punkola in these grooves, too, with outfits like Pinhead Gunpowder, Sweet Baby, Shotwell Coho, and the Blank Fight providing the jams, Down In Front collected from ten years’ worth of low-budget 7” singles, obscure tapes and various EPs. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then I’d recommend that you get thee hence to No Idea and grab a copy ‘cause at a mere $6.00 for 21 slammin’ tracks, pure punk thrills have seldom been so cheap. (No Idea Records)
 

THE WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY – Just the Best Party
If you know from jump street that the music you’re creating doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of getting picked up by a major label, then why not have some fun with it? With Just the Best Party, the nine-piece World/Inferno Friendship Society does just that, commercial aspirations be damned, just raise a ruckus! Many of the songs on Just the Best Party have a sort of traditional Irish lilt to them, Jersey’s answer to the Pogues, but a careful listen to the dozen tracks here reveals a lot more. Arena-rock riffs stolen from Springsteen are paired with soulful horn-driven R&B, stately waltzes are delivered with punkish glee and staccato vocals punctuate new wavish pop rhythms and ragtime rave-ups. Songs like “I Wouldn’t Want To Live In A World Without Grudges” or “Zen & the Art of Breaking Everything In the Room” deliver cryptic lyrics while masterfully mixing musical genres – often within a single verse – providing the listener with food for thought. Amazingly, the World/Inferno Friendship Society pull off this grab-bag of styles and influences, every track on Just the Best Party snapping and crackling with manic electricity and barely-contained excitement. Musically adventuresome, stylistically maddening and yet entirely entertaining, Just the Best Party fires the first shot in defining a new alternative music for the new millennia. (Gern Blandsten Records)