Vinyl Reviews Week 8: Why Do I Keep Subjecting Myself To This?

The answer to the question in the title is experience. And I bet you thought it was rhetorical. Well guess again. How else am I supposed to become a good music reviewer? Practice does make perfect. Also, that last one is a rhetorical question.

No Use For A Name - The Feel Good Record of the Year (Fat Wreck Chords, 2008)

The late great Tony Sly was proud of this record. Gone were the days of meaningless pop-punk mixed with a SoCal blend of melodic hardcore. This was one of the first truly personal LPs penned by NUFAN. The singer, who was also a father and husband, passed away on July 31 of this year at the young age of 41. The saddest part, other than leaving behind a family, is the potential that NUFAN could have realized with their unfinished 2012 album. This is the first punk LP I ever purchased from an actual record store, so it has a special place in my heart. It is also the only album I've heard by No Use all the way through, so I'm unbiased in that way at least. The album opens strongly with "The Biggest Lie" and continues the pace until midway through it. "Pacific Standard Time," the eleventh track, is the last great song on the album. The one-two punch of "The Feel Good Song of the Year" and "The Trumpet Player" are the focal points, but on the LP, they're split between the A and B sides. The packaging is typical Fat Wreck: a sleeve with black standard weight vinyl.

Rating: Decent 7



Q And Not U - Hot And Informed 7" (Dischord Records, 2000)

This was the first time I heard of the seminal D.C. post-hardcore band Q And Not U. They musically played against the stereotypical early 2000s glossy-pop style of post-hardcore and sounded more like the D.C. kingpins Fugazi. Experimental influences were heavy, but that didn't sway the band away from the dancey sound styled by their live shows. This, their debut release, includes three songs, two of which made appearances on their first full length No Kill No Beep Beep. The one exclusive track, "Busy Lights Busy Carpet," is arguably the worst of the three on this release. The first track, "And The Washington Monument (Blinks Goodnight)," is the best track on the album. The dance grooves push the intense guitar wails and refrained vocals. The infectious beats are briskly enveloped by walls of melody and feedback. The vinyl, atypical of Dischord, is colored, but the packaging is still just a simple sleeve. The translucent orange vinyl plays well and sounds immense for its color and size. The juxtaposition fits nicely with the band's discography.

Rating: Light 8

Ramones - Ramones (Sire Records, 1976)

The debut from the band that is given credit for starting it all. When you're 13, this record is brilliant. When you're 17 and have been exposed to much more than just bubblegum pop-punk, this record loses a lot of its luster. The tracks are classics, but all pre-conceived merit aside, the songs are only good instead of great. The album artwork is classic, so I have no complaints about that. The record itself is 180 grams, so the sound quality is as good as a terribly recorded punk album from 36 years ago can be. I don't really have much to say about this album. Iggy Pop and the MC5 are more important to the origins of punk than Marky Ramone's washed up ass. Call me bitter, but this isn't that great of a record.

Rating: Decent 4

Rancid - ...And Out Come The Wolves (Epitaph Records, 1995)

Rancid's breakout LP Wolves came out immediately after the Offspring and Green Day broke punk rock to the masses with Smash and Dookie. This album is the most "punk" out of the three, but then again, who decides what punk necessarily is. The album's lead track, "Maxwell Murder," is a sprawling bass guitar riff that puts Primus to shame. Sure, bassist Matt Freeman can be a one-trick pony, but his playing on this ska-punk hybrid album is brilliant. "Ruby Soho" and "Journey To The End Of The East Bay" are the best cuts off this record, and they absolutely kill. There aren't bad songs here, but a few are much more memorable than the rest. My version is a picture disc conjured up by the one-off Epitaph imprint Rancid Records and only includes 12 of the 19 tracks on the original album, giving reason to why I own this release on CD and vinyl. The vinyl version is more or less a novelty by not even being the complete record, which is disappointing for a listener but great as a collector.

Rating: Strong 5