Back On The Road With The Warped Tour

It’s kind of like the annual return of the swallows to Capistrano, the return of the Warped Tour to a city near you every summer. The first rainy days of spring also mean that there will be a new Warped Tour compilation CD released, two-discs chock-full o’ punk, metal, ska…well, you name the sub-sub-sub-genre of your choice…just a veritable crapload of music at a price to fit damn near anyone’s budget.

Warped Tour 2007 Compilation is this year’s erstwhile collection, with an even-steven 50 tracks presented on two CDs, diversely ranging across just about every alt-genre of rock music that you could dream up. The Reverend eagerly awaits each year’s tour comp ‘cause, for this scribe’s hard-earned coin, there’s no better way to A) discover new bands that you haven’t heard and B) find out what your old favorites are up to these days. The 2007 collection includes a number of category ‘B’ bands like Bad Religion, Tiger Army, Strung Out and the Toasters and a bunch of category ‘A’ bands that the Reverend wants to check out, so let’s just chase the best of the bunch down by category and see how they rate, shall we?

CATEGORY A

I Am Ghost – Our Friend Lazarus Sleeps
A melodic, metal-edged rocker with machine-gun pacing and mostly clean vocals, I Am Ghost an energetic band worth hearing more from.

Amber Pacific – Summer (In B)
Nice drum-rolls to jumpstart this snotty pop-punk tune, Amber Pacific displaying plenty of guts and drive. That’s some sweet fretwork on the break, smart lyrics and an overall vibrant wall-of-clashing-sound to the song that sets it a notch above your typical three-chord punkers.

Street Dogs – Fading American Dream
Street Dogs remind me of Stiff Little Fingers back in the good old days of punk yore, the song evincing a sort of Celt-punk vibe with smart, socially-conscious lyrics, a great guitar chorus, oi-oi-oi-styled vox and an infectious rant-n-roll feel; taken from the album of the same name, which the Reverend will be acquiring sometime soon.

The Briggs – Song Of Babylon
This Briggs' tune makes it two high-octane rockers in a row, this one with a folkish tint to the lyrics and delivery, backed by an undeniably rock-n-roll soundtrack. Jason LaRocca’s vocals are gruff and weary, just the way I like ‘em, the band sounding like a cross between Rancid and Social Distortion, with a glimpse of roots-rock edging in around the corners of the Briggs’ punk rock roots.

Gallows – Rolling With The Punches
The latest sensation that’s sweeping the nation, UK hardcore heroes Gallows kick out the jams with an inspired mix of US rkrs like Black Flag and Minor Threat and ancestral Britpunx like Conflict, Crass and the Clash. There’s more than meets the eye (and ear) going on behind the curtain with Rolling With The Punches; beneath frontman Frank Carter’s screamed vox there’s a wealth of complex instrumentation, interesting musical choices backing up disturbingly intelligent and insightful lyrics. Another band worth keeping tabs on, expect to hear good things in the future from Gallows.

Bayside – Duality
The song’s got a popish feel to it, and the melody is undeniably Top 40, but Bayside is nevertheless 100% punk rock. Nice vocal gymnastics on the lead with lyrics jumping all over the place, and the guitarwork is alternately stiletto sharp and as blunt as a collapsing building.

Gogol Bordello – 60 Revolutions
Heard a lot about these exotic musical gypsies through the years, but somehow managed to dodge actually hearing much from them until now. Busy, busy music delivered with punkish spunk and an Eastern European vibe; kind of disconcerting and yet somehow seductive, kind of like a bad movie. There’s lots of non-traditional (for punk and/or rock) instrumentation here, accordions and horns and strange-o stringed axes kicking out an inspired and acquired taste of traditional Slavic folk, three-chord punk and Caribbean riddims.

Bedouin Soundclash – Until We Burn In The Sun
Bedouin Soundclash is another bunch of burgers that the Reverend had heard a lot of words about but experienced very little in the way of sounds. Until We Burn In The Sun is an engaging bit of dub-sliced echoplex rock with washboard rhythms, rapidfire vocals, lysergic instrumentation and brilliant lyrical imagery. A little something-something different for the Hot Topic kids, an inspired blending of dub/reggae and punk flavor originating from, of all places, Canada. Go figure, and then go check out Bedouin Soundclash.

The Higher – Insurance?
Many teenaged Warped Tour attendees and some of the band members are young enough to be the Reverend’s grandchildren, so it should come as no surprise that ‘disco’ and ‘new wave’ are just things that they’ve heard in old movies. I really wanted to dislike the Higher’s Insurance? ‘cause of the song’s horribly disco-reminiscent rhythms, but the song’s infectious new wave vibe, with plinking keys-and-synths, and singer Seth Trotter’s naïve vocals crooning confessional lyrics, make the Higher hard to dismiss.

CATEGORY B

Bad Religion – Requiem For Dissent
A blistering entry from the band’s latest CD, New Maps Of Hell, this song kicks serious ass, with sonic fretwork, anthemic vocals and arrangement and an overall larger-than-life feel. Nobody…and I mean nobody…delivers this sort of righteous political-punk song with more venom and intelligence than Bad Religion.

Only Crime – Take Me
A rumbling bassline and feedback-laden intro kicks into a runaway train of a song, pop-punk with a hardcore edge and an overall nervous, over-amped vibe like you get when drinking too much Rock Star™ energy drink. Mmmm…delicious!

Paramore – This Circle
This will be a cat ‘A’ band for most listeners, but the Reverend fell for Paramore’s charms back during the band’s earliest Music City origins. Disjointed, guitar-heavy jambo matched by explosive rhythms and power-play drumbeats, singer Hayley Williams’ gorgeous, tortured vocals rising high above the chaos to tickle your ears and rip your heart out. Not necessarily punk, but defiantly (and enthusiastically) coming from a punk POV.

The Casualties – In It For Life
A little hardcore hair o’ the dog for what bit you, the Casualties cranking up the amps and cranking out a defiant, anthemic call-to-arms with pterodactyl-styled vocals, hoarse shouted harmonies, searing red-hot fretwork and blast-beat-drum-din, captured live in a dive somewhere across the fruited plain.

The Toasters – You’re Gonna Pay
Nobody does the ska-punk thing better, or even longer, than the Toasters, the band still ranking full-stop after a quarter-century. You’re Gonna Pay is a fierce, horn-driven rocker from the band’s latest, One More Bullet, which deserves your immediate investment of much coin if you ever, ever enjoyed a note of ska-punk goodness.

Piebald – Oh, The Congestion
A perfect example of guitar-driven rock with delightfully-imperfect vocals courtesy of Piebald frontman Travis Shettel, Oh, The Congestion is a musical cross between Weezer and the Violent Femmes. That is to say that the song and Piebald, the band, inhabit a rarified indie-rock turf that allows them the freedom to rock the moon while throwing in enough punkish fervor to keep the young ‘uns happy as snakes on a flat rock.

Strung Out – Calling
Longtime punk rock stalwarts Strung Out have always defied expectations, and the synth-driven cry-for-help Calling is no exception. With blastbeating drum-rolls, turbo-charged six-strings and harmonic vocals, the song roars along like a joyriding jetfighter.

Mad Caddies – State Of Mind
Normally riddim-happy ska-punks with a purpose, the Mad Caddies get all moody and introspective here on State Of Mind, an atmospheric rocker with a dark, downplayed ska rhythmic foundation and scary deep lyrical prose. It’s a totally unexpected direction for this always-enjoyable outfit, the song nevertheless fitting like tailor-made vines.

Aside from the Reverend’s Category ‘A’ and Category ‘B’ bands reviewed above, there are 33 other reasons for you to pick up a copy of the Warped Tour 2007 Compilation CD and/or check out the tour when it hits a stage near you, including Killswitch Engage, Tiger Army, Haste The Day, Guff, Smoke Or Fire, the Used, the Unseen and many more. So get thee hence to your local shoppe and grab up a copy of the Warped Tour 2007 Compilation CD or else the boogieman gonna get you! [Band names link to their web sites] (Side One Dummy Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy a copy of Warped Tour 2007 Compilation from Amazon.com)