The Severed Cortex

I Blame You by Obits

Sub Pop has been cranking out records for twenty plus years now. The guys who introduced the world to grunge have continued to build on that success. While record labels, especially of the indie variety, tend to gravitate to a sound, Sub Pop has ventured far from that territory by just signing good bands. Easy to do when you are sitting on a gold mine of talent. Twenty years later, the Northwest music scene still thrives largely in part to record labels like Sub Pop and K Records and others. I can't say I love every band signed by Sub Pop, but whatever artist it happens to be, you know you will be getting a quality product.
Obits are no exception, unless you count that they are actually a Brooklyn band recording with the well known label. Owing their sound to the thousands of garage rockers that came before them, Obits accentuate the guitar heavily and accurately pound the bass plenty. More impressive though is lead singer Rick Froberg who screams a like a cross between Mick Jagger and Joe Strummer. This band is extremely tight but without Froberg this is honestly just another band. As it turns out, Froberg is also an extremely good pen and ink artist and clearly did the cover art work. What that cover art is I'm not sure. Might be a cobra. Could be a piece of sushi too. Then again it might even be a hunk of cartilage taken from someone's knee. Judge for yourself here. Whatever it is, keep it coming. I like it a lot. And I like this release a lot. The cover states this is XTRA Compressed for Maximum Listener Fatigue, which I guess may happen with all the air guitar, air drums, head bobbing, and singing you'll wind up doing. It's definitely a ride. There's not a bad song in the bunch. Go over to the Obits web site, download the two free tunes and judge for yourself. Mad props for giving you Two Headed Coin and Pine On. I think they are the two standout tracks, but after you give this a couple spins you'll realize every other track on here is just as solid. Plain and simple. Obits will keep you rocking until you are dead.

Serf City USA by Have Nots

Hands down. No questions asked. This is the best ska punk release to come out in ten years. No disrespect to Rancid or NOFX, two ska punk bands I really like, Have Nots first release breathes new life into a genre that's been largely ignored for at least eight of those ten years. For the most part I've ignored it as well. I picked up a couple NOFX things over the years and my friend Nancy gave me some Specials from back in the day, but other than that I skipped past the whole thing shortly after Mighty Mighty Bosstones had commercial success. Skipping out or not, it was real tough to skip past anything with cover art work of two tattooed hands (Have/Nots) holding a pair of revolvers. Everything with tattooed hands symbolizes bad ass, even the Blues Brothers. Other cool things with tattooed hands:

• Eddie from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Love/Hate)
• The guy who ran the 222 Artisan Bakery in Edwardsville (Bona/Fide)

It's also tough to skip past the first song on the CD, There's Gonna Be a Riot, an anthem that kick starts this raucous affair with Harley motorcycle intensity for the next 30 minutes of 12 song rocking. Yes, 12 songs and only 30 minutes but trust me they pack a lot of value. Some of my all time favorite songs only run 2 and a half minutes. Like George Costanza, leave on a high note and make them want more. This release is chock full of songs that do just that.
I'm not going to string you along like this is something brand spanking new. There is absolutely no new ground broken here at all. Not in the least. What does separate this from any other run of the mill ska punk release playing rhythm guitar chords on the 'and' is the intensity. And, of course plenty of sweet, sweet guitar hooks. In iTunes I rated every song 5 stars which I will tell you is very rare for me to do. Much less for a genre as dead as ska punk. Let There's Gonna Be a Riot suck you in and then skank on over to An Army of One or the title track or one of my favorites after several listens Used to Be. Maybe between us we can jump start ska punk and make twenty somethings realize that No Doubt sold the genre out. No doubt.