No Trigger “Canyoneer”

Record Label: Nitro Records
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Leave it to Nitro Records to sign a band like No Trigger. The label owned by Dexter Holland just released “Canyoneer” on 03.21.06, an album sure to leave a mark on today’s real punk scene. Tracking their humble beginnings to a Massachusetts basement, No Trigger has been together for four years and has one previous album, an EP, “Extinction In Stereo ” under its belt.

“Canyoneer” sounds like street punk with obvious Boston hardcore undertones. With a sound similar to Lost City Angels’ “Broken World”, No Trigger is harder with a little more oomph. It will be well-received by punk and hardcore fans alike because of its gripping sound and old school feel. The songs gracing this record are catchy at first listen, and once the lyrics and the message hit, the songs are almost addicting. Songs like the 45 second masterpiece “You Said It” which confronts the degrading use of homophobic slang is the perfect hardcore influenced punk example (complete with gang vocals!). “More To Offer” is another powerful song that focuses on the gender inequality present in punk and hardcore. This message is sure to hit home to the scene, after all, it’s not just boy’s fun.

Canyoneer displays No Trigger’s energy and talent, the songs are almost brought to life and listening evokes the feeling of being at a live show. It displays once common catchy sing-a-longs and breakdowns that are unique to music these days. No Trigger has a number of dates scheduled nationally, they will also be featured on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour and shouldn’t be missed.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: The CD is amazing and sounds as if No Trigger would be flawless live. If you’ve had a hankering for a powerful punk CD that you can listen to in your car, check out Canyoneer, open the windows and crank up the volume.
Notable Tracks: Listening to Bust Tropical, You Said It and The Honshu Underground just once will get you hooked on this record..
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Valencia “This Could Be A Possibility”

Record Label: I Surrender Records
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Although it can sound a little bit Fall Out Boyish at times, Valencia’s “This Could Be A Possibility” has definite possibilities of it’s own. The occasional double vocals are not cheesy as one might expect, but are harmonious and done well (a refreshing change from every Taking Back Sunday wanna be who tries their hand at having two singers). The album itself exhibits the band’s diversity as musicians, going from the softer opener, “The Space Between” to a slightly heavier “Que Sera Sera”. This becomes a problem for Valencia at one point on the CD, and that’s “Tenth Street”, which follows “What Are You Doing, Man? That’s Weird!”, which is probably the best song on the album. The mellow and slightly whiny “Tenth Street” is such a downer when compared to its predecessor. The album quickly gains back its momentum and especially redeems itself with “Will We Ever Know Why”.

Compared to a combination of Saves The Day and Thrice, Valencia is more along the lines of a slightly pop-punk Senses Fail/MxPx. Their sound is a refreshing change from the barrage of screamo/emo that’s been bombarding the music scene. Each band member has an interesting background, from Shane, an ex-Eagles beer-man to Brendan, one of 32 people to get sued for file sharing. This diversity is evident through their music, which seems to draw influence from every corner of each of the member’s lives.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: Don’t judge this album by it’s low budget-looking cover. Disregard your preconceived expectations for this album; it is certainly worth listening to.
Notable Tracks: “What Are You Doing, Man? That’s Weird!”, “Backs Against The Wall” and “The Closest I Am To Living Life On The Edge” (which sounds like it must be amazing live).
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Big Wig “Reclamation”

Record Label: Fearless Records
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After taking 2 1/2 years to complete, Big Wig will finally release their follow up to “An Invitation To Tragedy” (2001) on February 7th. Out on Fearless Records, this is Big Wig’s fourth studio album on the label since they were signed in 1995. Tom and Keith began writing after their European tour with No Use For A Name in late 2003, and the band began recording in Pennsylvania the following fall with producer Dan Malsch.

The album entitled, “Reclamation” is, for the most part extremely politically charged, critical and powerful. This is exactly what punk rock should be when spawning from an apathetic country at war. The first track, “A War Inside” is a great, energetic way to kick off the album. Soon followed by, “Outer Rings” which is extremely commanding both musically and lyrically stating, “Now put ‘em in a body bag and ship ‘em to their wives”. Similar anti-war lyrics are echoed in “Owned and Operated” the most blatantly obvious protest song on the record, counteracted by “Last Song, Last Call” a lighthearted, quasi-ska song that breaks up the prominent serious tone of the album.

While “Reclamation” differs a great deal from “Unmerry Melodies,” each subsequent album has become a bit more mature in it’s own right. There has been a smooth progression throughout the band’s four albums and despite the fact that the songs are not as jovial as in the beginning. Big Wig has matured along with their audience and the result is “Reclamation,” an album with a strong, intelligent message.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: It’s about time a band other than NoFX and Anti-Flag, who is not known for being politically vocal put out an album scattered with anti war sentiment.
Notable Tracks: “Owned and Operated” and “A War Inside” for their strong lyrical content. Also, “Last Song, Last Call” for representing the ska although the lyrics leave something to be desired.
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Bouncing Souls “Live”

Record Label: Chunksaah Records
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Eight years after 1998’s “Tie One On”, the Bouncing Souls have released a second live album, this time a double disc on Chunksaah Records. Although a little over an hour worth of music does not usually necessitate a double disc, this album simply just rocks too hard to occupy only one CD. Simply entitled “Live”, the new album was recorded April through November 2004 at selected east coast (fuck you!) shows. The 29 song album boasts the best of the Souls; from the classics “Joe Lies (When He Cries)” and “The Freaks, The Nerds and The Romantics” to newer favorites such as “Gone” and “Anchors Aweigh” Although the album doesn’t open with the Souls’ usual live intro music “Born To Run”, an audible “Ole” chant starts off the record, making “Live” an embodiment of the energy and passion seen at a live Souls’ show. There is limited on stage banter from singer Greg Attonito and akin to a live performance, the segues are smooth and move quickly from one song to the next.

“Live” is laden with more new songs than old as to not be a repeat of “Tie One On”, but each song is a hit likely to be heard at a Bouncing Souls show. On some tracks, such as “Kate Is Great”, the crowd can be heard singing along and cheering, creating the perfect ambiance for a live album. If the Bouncing Souls can boast any quality, it is certainly consistency. They simply do not put out bad albums, and “Live” is the best of the best for the past seventeen years. The Souls are due out with a proper studio album later this year so, here’s to another rocking album, and here’s to the memories.

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Bottom Line:
Notable Tracks: They are all amazing in their own way. Especially “Kid”, “Private Radio”, “Gone”, “Born To Lose” and “Night On Earth”
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J. Page “Goodbye Chapel Hill”

Record Label: Nice Guy Records
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J. Page has every right to make the claim that they have a distinct sound, like none other. This is, of course because they don’t sound like any band out there, they sound like two. Singers Christopher Beckham and Michael Magarelli sound as different as night and day with Beckham having more of a raspy punk sound like The Briggs and Magarelli sounding more emo. Trading off on the vocals between two very different singers lets the album span two genres. This way, the punk rockers who are closet emo fans can appreciate the album, and vice versa.

J. Page formed in Gainesville Florida from former members of As Friends Rust and The Scaries and compares their musical style to Hot Water Music. “Goodbye Chapel Hill”, the band’s debut EP out on Nice Guy Records features five songs that are a nice mix of the band’s previous endeavors and wealth of influences. The Magarelli songs, the title track “Goodbye Chapel Hill” and “Dying Staying Here” (which even have emo titles!) are more catchy, but also a little more whiny once you listen to the album a few times. The other tracks, “Unlucky In Cards”, “Personal Space Invader” and “Beer Me, Asswipe” are more rigid sing alongs that make the album break away from recent passing trends. Overall, J.Page deserves credit for pulling this multi-genre album off nicely, it has the potential to win over a diverse audience.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: “Goodbye Chapel Hill” has mass appeal for fans of the underground, spanning two distinct sounds. Three cheers for J.Page, three stars too!
Notable Tracks: “Goodbye Chapel Hill”, “Beer Me, Asswipe”, “Personal Space Invader”
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Saosin “Saosin”

Record Label: Capitol
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Following a co-headlining tour with Anberlin, and being added to the final dates of the Van’s Warped Tour, Saosin began working on their debut EP for Capitol Records. The self-titled record displays the varying style of this five piece band from Orange County, CA with new vocals from singer Cover Reber. While is is not a bad album, Saosin currently has a minimal buzz around them, which can easily be either silenced or amplified, depending on the reception of their latest EP.

Overall, “Saosin” (the album) starts off much stronger than where it ends up, somewhere in acousticland, devoid of all rocking potential. Despite the singing being a touch too soft for the music, and the double vocals sounding all too familiar, the first two tracks, “Bury Your Head” and “I Wanna Hear Another Fast Song” are strong rock songs; donning evident hardcore influence heard on the latter. Saosin chose a strong way to start off their album, the first two songs are decent and give the album as a whole a great deal of potential, sadly it is all downhill from there. “New Angel”, the song to follow is more of your token run of the mill screamo, which becomes the more dominant sound for the album as a whole. The 6 song EP quickly goes from not-so-bad to not-so-good. To complete the digression, the album ends with “Bury Your Head (Acoustic)”,an acoustic version of the first track which sounds totally different from the rock album you thought you were listening to a mere twenty minutes ago.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: Hopefully Saosin will see the error in their ways and will bring out more of the rock that is displayed on the first couple of tracks, and cut out the crap to follow.
Notable Tracks: I Wanna Hear Another Fast Song” gives the EP a whole lot of potential to be half-way decent, “Bury Your Head (Acoustic)” shoots down this potential and proceeds to beat it to a pulp.
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Straylight Run “Prepare to Be Wrong”

Record Label: Victory Records
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Straylight Run’s latest release “Prepare To Be Wrong” hit stores on October 4th, just 3 short months after the band reportedly started working on the 6 song EP. If the length of time spent working on an album is any indication of quality, it is pretty clear that Straylight took a sabbatical for the first two and a half months of the process.

The tone of any album is initially set by the first track, so is a mystery as to exactly why Straylight Run decided to open with a song like “I Don’t Want This Anymore”. Sung by singer/guitarist/pianist Michelle Nolan,it is very Madonnaesque in the worst way possible. It is an arduous track to get through, but at least it is equally bad when compared to the rest of the album, as to not provide fans with any false hope. The remainder of the album sports predictable lyrics sung over forced melodies which makes it difficult to believe bassist Shaun Cooper and singer John Nolan were previously contributors to Taking Back Sunday’s “Tell All Your Friends” a lyrically dense album with more intricate musical composition that glows in comparison to Straylight’s style. The exceptionally bad, throaty whining on “A Slow Descent” is followed by “Hands In The Sky (Big Shot)”, a song that actually sounds as if it has some potential. It has a heavier, raw rocking sound that turns out to be absent elsewhere on the album. However, the tone quickly reverts back into the experimental/new age/emo sound that bombards the rest of “Prepare To Be Wrong” in it’s entirety. If message board posts are a credible source, Straylight fans are eating up “Hands In The Sky (Big Shot)” it is a shame the rest of the album does not pack as much punch.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: Straylight Run got away with putting out a bad album that sold over 200,000 copies the first time, maybe they should have quit while they were ahead.
Notable Tracks: “I Don’t Want This Anymore” is notable for sucking.
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Aiden “Nightmare Anatomy”

Record Label: Victory Records
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Band Link:
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Victory Records describes Aiden as a combination of My Chemical Romance and AFI; however, their latest album classifies them as a blatant My Chemical Romance rip off, and makes that statement a huge insult to AFI. The follow up to their debut full length, “Our Gang’s Dark Oath”, their latest release “Nightmare Anatomy” was released less than a year after the band signed to Victory in December 2004. Aiden terms themselves “horror rock”, but they can easily fit the mold of any of Victory’s recent acquisitions. A few years ago, this would have been a compliment when Victory was home to diverse and interesting bands, although lately, the label has a habit of continuing to sign every generic screamo/hardcore wanna be band it comes across.

The album is appropriately named considering that a “nightmare” is the common theme of almost every song, as it is repeated indefinitely throughout the record. Also, when looking at the album as a whole, a terrible nightmare is most certainly the first thing that comes to mind. It is obvious that lyrics are not Aiden’s strong suit with brash gems such as “This nightmare won’t last long/Are you scared? /So sing this song” and, “I know that now I missed the boat and helped in cutting my own throat”. If that was not bad enough, the tracks are filled with gratuitous screaming for no reason counteracted by irritating whines from vocalist “wiL”. Incoherent melodies that simply do not belong together are also prevalent throughout the record. Overall, the album is sophomoric and lacks an ounce of originality. While it is true one cannot judge a book by its cover, when that book is strikingly identical to My Chemical Romance, feel free to assume that which will follow will not be pleasant.

RATING & SUMMARY:

Bottom Line: This train wreck doesn’t even deserve one star
Notable Tracks: The Last Sunrise – It’s terrible, but every time it is heard by accident, it will undoubtedly get stuck in your head.
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