Todd A

I can’t get Sahara Hotnights’s album loud enough. I’m constantly turning it up. The comparisons to the Donnas are going to stick and it’s not a bad thing. Sahara Hotnights have got the big, fist-in-the-air chants and explosive riffing. But SH have more texture in their songs. Armed with two guitarists, Sahara Hotnights often mix a charging rhythm guitar with a squeaky lead. The mix is dynamic and often reminiscent of 70s cock rock (T-Rex and Thin Lizzy come to mind). Maybe it’s the European element. SH hail from Sweden. They also do the clean/dirty guitars quite a bit (as opposed to the Donnas who are just on all the time). The simple but effective guitar work and the vague accent in the vocals bring favorable Elastica comparisons to mind as well.

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This is on Victory? The Reunion Show play super-excited power pop often led by an old Moog keyboard. The main singer’s voice gets a bit jarring sometimes especially with the blunt delivery of some cheesy lines (e.g. “I’m sick and tired of this goddam love stuff”), but in less than a full listen, it grows on you. The opener, “Television,” wastes no time in blasting the fuck off. The staccato guitar chords and winding keyboard riff don’t build or grow, they just punch the song right into high gear. Through the album’s eleven tracks, The Reunion Show will rarely let down. Pop rock often sacrifices energy to emphasize hooks and is the poorer for it. The Reunion Show know the value of high energy hooks and so will rarely slow the pace to catch a breath.

“Art of Nothing” revs up immediately with more crunchy guitars and a winsome keyboard line. Here is one of the places the lyrics will get a bit cheesy but the relentless drive of the song forces lines like “All this beauty has truly come alive” into mere afterthought (Did he just say..? Nah.).

“Stuck on You” could be a Cars song, albeit one on amphetamines. It and the likes of “Character Assasination,” “On A Scale From One To Awesome (You’re Pretty Great)” and “Drop It!” manage to blank out middle-of-the-road fare like “New Rock Revolution” and “Dedication.” Don’t mistake the Victory Records imprint to indicate anything resembling punk or emocore here; this is straight-up power pop. It just happens that it’s power pop more powerful and less subtle than the jangly Cheap Trick/Big Star ilk. It also confirms that the emo generation is as serious about its pop music as its navel-gazing.

Bangs latest release for KRS is a short head-spinning ride through six songs. The songs break up nicely into pairs. “Call and Response” and “New Scars” open the record with pretty hard-charging riffs. “New Scars”’s hooky refrain of “Fuck it up! Fuck it up!” gets the listener primed for the catchier material to follow.

Tracks three and four, “Kinda Good” and “I Want More” veer immediately into catchier territory. A Rhodes piano joins the guitar and bass in “Kinda Good” for a song that teeters between melancholic power balladry and euphoric pop. Like the honest-to-goodness power ballad on their last record, “Undo Everything,” “Kinda Good” proves that when Bangs stretch their wings a bit from one-minute-long grrrl punk, they are able to knock out some great pop tunes.

That said, it’s the jittery punk of “I Want More” that demands attention. After the mid-tempo pop of its predecessor, “I Want More” wastes no time in kicking out the jams. The shout-along chorus — “Do you need it? / We don’t know! / Just force feed it and watch it grow!” — is the sort of sonic liberation that punk is all about. Once the song revs up, it doesn’t slow down.

The last two songs on this EP, “Leave it Behind” and “Dirty Knives” are not bad but offer a sort of come-down from the catchy euphoria of the previous two songs. The closer, “Dirty Knives,” starts with a nod to Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and confirms that, though Bangs embody the best of the DIY spirit, they aren’t averse to rocking out with the big boys and girls.

The Toasters have been playing ska music for a long damn time. Twenty years. And they’ve never tried that Mighty Mighty Bosstones shit. Thank God. In that time, The Toasters have crafted their own sound on record — a very bright sound. Cymbals and horns cut through everything. It’s a bit disconcerting on first listen, but it’s clearly the band’s own sound. Enemy of the System is another solid record from this beyond solid band who plays just about any kind of rock steady or ska with their own personality. The Toasters nod to root ska with a couple of “Jamaican” reggae tunes. But what the Toasters do best is their own sort of pop tune — catchy, upbeat songs with bright horn melodies. “Have Another One” and “Modern World America” exemplify this best.

–TA

As far as I’m concerned the beat that begins “Sucker MC’s” is as important and recognizable as Keith Richards’s opening phrase in “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” When I first heard it at ten years old, though I had no history of music to draw on, I knew I was hearing something new and different, something raw and direct and yet futuristic. The voices that slung quick slang over a bare drum machine had a heart and soul that I didn’t hear on the radio. I was quickly addicted. It’s safe to say that Jam Master Jay and his group Run-DMC changed my life.

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