Music

Top 5 Punk Releases: May Edition

by Sam Sutherland

Each month, tons of new music from many taste-spanning genres is released into a fast-consuming, unforgiving audience; it can be tough to get a handle on what’s new before it’s on to the next. In an attempt to highlight the standout releases, at the end of each month, AUX staff re-cap the month in Punk, Metal, Indie/Pop/Rock, Hip Hop, Pop, and Electronica/Dance with the top five releases in each. Consider it your cheat sheet for year-end lists.

Top 5 Punk Releases:
May Edition

 

Face to Face – Laugh Now, Laugh Later

It’s been almost a full decade since the last Face to Face studio record, which means, scientifically, that there’s no reason why Laugh Now, Laugh Later should be anywhere near as good as it is. But these songs pick up right where the band’s best ’90s material left off, and grabs the torch for unselfconsciously anthemic pop-punk that has been growing dimmer and dimmer as the genre is slowly taken over by goofy, skinny kids in too much neon. Face to Face are big dudes who look like they’d be more comfortable on a Hell’s Angels run than a Stereos tour, and it’s the honest, genuine nature of their music and their personalities that has kept them young at heart, even during their extensive hiatus.

Wharf Rats – Wharf Rats 7″

Sure, it’s only two songs, but I’m just so in love with any project that involves “big time” punk musicians doing something lo-fi and sloppy that this debut from Wharf Rats is a definite highlight of the month. Featuring obligatory Canuck presence Wade MacNeil (Alexisonfire, Black Lungs), Minneapolis rapper P.O.S, Chachi Darin (ex-the A.K.A’s), and Chris 2 (Anti-Flag, White Wives), this is fast and fun hardcore that could slip easily in to the 1980s Revelation Records discography. Besides the fact that everyone involved here is obviously playing down a bit (there’s certainly none of the highly technical riffing of old Alexis material present on songs like “Oh No!”), there’s something great about listening to a bunch of guys who play music for their living play music just for fun. It’s refreshing. Oh, and it sounds positively ripping.

Living With Lions – Holy Shit

Forget the inane controversy currently surrounding this record. It’s been three years since we last heard from these Vancouver Saves the Day fanboys (mean so lovingly), and the wait has produced the best album of their career. There was a lot of pressure associated with Holy Shit, chiefly a new line-up for Living With Lions that included a brand-new vocalist. But the band are better than ever, sleeker instrumentally and more direct vocally. Once the dust settles on this FACTOR fiasco, hopefully people can actually give Holy Shit an honest listen and realize that the poop jokes just were just a distraction from some great hooks and some fantastic pop-punk songs.

Against Me! – Total Clarity

These Florida ex-anarcho-punks lost me for a while. As one of the major label haters that wasn’t prepared to follow the band on their un-punk journey into the wilds of Sire Records, it’s only recently that I’ve been able to look at the Against Me!’s newer material with a reasonable eye; frankly, New Wave is still a disappointment, but White Crosses is a pretty great, utterly massive rock record. All this Good Christian Forgiveness makes the existence of Total Clarity seems more like an earned reward; the demo sessions that produced the band’s brilliant Searching for a Former Clarity culled together in one gloriously sloppy package that recalls the best of their No Idea-era brilliance. The fidelity here closely resembles the roughness The Disco Before the Breakdown, and is an amazing treat for fans who have rode shotgun on the band’s strange sonic journey. Admittedly, this is still my favourite incarnation of the band, but it makes me more willing to follow them as they grow into grown-up Tom Petty Punx.

Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine – Enhanced Methods of Questioning

With six songs, this second official release from punk all-stars Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine offers up more of the proto-punk fringe craziness of their 2009 full-length debut, The Audacity of Hype. Naturally, everything Biafra lends his voice to ends up sounding like the Dead Kennedys, and this project is no different. Musically, it’s kind of like Death (the Detroit one, not the metal one) meets the DKs, which, as you can imagine, it totally awesome.

Surprises, disappointments and albums to watch for next month

Surprise of the month: Farewell Continental’s ¡Hey, Hey Pioneers!. Falling into the same category of “real band dudes having a fun band on the side” as Wharf Rats, Farewell Continental most notably features the adorable croon of Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Pierre. While his day job band continually moves away from the awesome power-pop-meets-Slint vibe of their earlier material, Farewell Continental is a full-fledged homage to the great ’90s alternative rock and a fantastic reminder of Pierre’s talents as a songwriter and a vocalist. Drawing on bands like the Lemonheads and Superchunk for inspiration, the songs on ¡Hey, Hey Pioneers! are clever, catchy, and fun. Even MCS haters are advised to check this out, especially if you dig No Pocky for Kitty and like big, distorted Fenders.

Disappointments: Owl City still exists, released a new record.

Out in June: Frank Turner’s England Keep My Bones, Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life, Touche Amore’s Parting the Seas Between Brightness and Me, White Wives’ Happeners, and more.