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…
BLACK CAT MUSIC – “hands in the estuary, torso in the lake”
Punk rock supergroups seem to be the rule rather than the exception these days and Black Cat Music are as much to blame as anybody. Hailing from the thriving San Francisco Bay music community, BCM was formed by former members of such beloved thrash-and-bang outfits as the Criminals and the Receivers. Unlike those long-gone outfits, these Black Cat boys seem as likely to mimic some black-clad Goth posse as they are to namecheck the Sex Pistols. “hands in the estuary, torso in the lake” is the band’s erstwhile debut, and if you’re looking for the trademark brand of bubblegum punk that Lookout! Records has built their reputation on, you won’t find it here. Songs like “The Valentine” or “The Cipher In the Snow” offer the sort of dark-hued poetry that Jeffrey Pierce created a legend with, Brady Baltezore’s existential wail revealing a tortured psyche and a lyrical obsession with life’s less pleasant moments. The band creates a nice ambience, hypnotically deceptive, steady rhythms sharply punctuated by Travis Dalton’s screaming six-string. Call it “thinking man’s punk” if you will, the sound of Black Cat Music heady sonic brew of noise, emotion, and passion. (Lookout! Records)
Chicago has a musical vibe all its own, from the city’s legendary blues clubs to a punk tradition that dates from Rick DiBello and the Swingers in the 1970s to Naked Raygun and the Effigies in the ‘80s. Munition is just the latest in a long line of talented Chicago bands and from the monster tunes they created for The Black Wave, their debut, these ears tell me that they’re poised on the brink of a major league breakthrough. With a tight musical chemistry and three-dimensional sound that belies their relative youth as a band, Munition mixes the aggression and attitude of punk with populist lyrical leanings and a massive, take-no-prisoners wall-of-noise that suggests that somebody has been listening to their Husker Du records. Axeman Donovan’s guitarwork hits you between the ears like a pneumatic hammer while Mark’s vocals chisel away at your subconscious with intelligently worded songs that tackle such heady themes as consumerism, alcoholism, and television. Most of all, Munition rocks with the reckless abandon of a young gunslinger who has yet to earn the first notch on his gun. (Failed Experiment Records)
Remember a few years ago, when, in the shadow of No Doubt’s inexplicable success, ska-punk became the commercial flavor of the month? Now jump forward a couple of years to 2001, the year of the punk odyssey, when snotty, lightweight commercial punk won the hearts and minds of young American teens flush with cash and willing to feed the hungry maw of the rabid trendmongers that run the industry. Well, take equal parts of Blink-182, Sum 41, and Fenix, Texas and you’ll have Saturday Supercade, a band that predates the current major label obsession with marketable teen sounds but plays right into the hands of the starmaking machinery nonetheless. Everyone Is A Target is filled to the brim with cheap, faceless three-chord wanknoise that, while not unpleasant, doesn’t challenge your heart and soul the way that, say, Bad Religion or Rancid does. Saturday Supercade and their ilk are like a bucket o’ Halloween candy – familiar, pleasantly sweet, and partially satisfying. Inevitably, though, this sort of disposable punk will end up rotting away your mind much like the candy corrodes your teeth. (Liberation Records)
The history of rock ‘n’ roll is littered with the aspirations and intentions of thousands of bands that deserved some modicum of success but found only indifference beyond their small but loyal following. Chicago’s Winepress was only around for a couple of years during the early ‘90s, but they left an indelible mark on the city’s punk legacy. Offering every Winepress recording made, collecting the tunes from 7” singles and album compilations, the Complete Recordings CD offers the former teenage band a chance to get heard outside of their hometown and adds a bit of legitimacy to their brief career. From a critical perspective, Winepress cranked out generic punk rock with pop overtones. From a music lover’s viewpoint, however, in their day and in their own way, Winepress was an impressive band. The youthful enthusiasm and kinetic amateurism found on songs like “Revenge of the Nerds” and “You’re So Punk” sounds absolutely refreshing in comparison to the slick, over-produced dreck oversold to us these days. Although there’s nothing on Complete Recordings that will make you toss aside your copy of London Calling, you’re looking for unpretentious cheap thrills and some satisfying tunes, check out Winepress. (Harmless Records)
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