Hot Water Music- TIll The Wheels Fall Off

All great bands must die sometime. Musicians lose interest and move on to different things. Such is the case with Hot Water Music, one of the most emotional, raw, and driving punk rock bands of the last ten years. No fights, no drama, just musicians moving in different directions. 3/4 of the band have recently formed The Draft, which is essentially in the same vein musically as Hot Water Music, while singer/guitarist Chuck Ragan is pursuing a solo career focusing more on country and folk music. Both groups are still making great music, and maybe it's better this way.

Hot Water Music has always been known for its dual vocal attack. In their earlier days, Ragan's guttural voice was up front while second singer/guitarist Chris Wollard, whose voice is more melodic, provided backups. As time progressed, they tended to take equal vocal duties in a duet style. By the end of the band, Ragan was doing back up vocals and Wollard was up front, maybe hinting at Ragan's desire to move on. This collection of B-sides, splits, rarities, and covers is a final goodbye to a solid punk band whose sound and style has been unique and continually copied.

Even their B-sides are really good. "Home" is the only song on here that you can't find anywhere else, and was cut from their final studio release, The New What's Next (which, while still good, is one of their weaker releases, and has a very foreshadowing title). Other songs are lifted from splits with Alkaline Trio (Wollard's acoustic take on "Bleeder" is powerful), The Casket Lottery, and a few others.

They salute their punk rock heroes and wear their influences on their sleeves with covers from The Clash, Government Issue, Midnight Oil, The Circle Jerks, Turbonegro, and the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

Their Moonpies for Misfits EP is included on here but is missing the track "Where We Belong," and "The Bitter End" from the Leatherface split is missing (although they do include a cover of Leatherface's "Springtime"). Also missing is a cover of John Mellencamp's "Authority Song" from the Totally Fucking the 80s comp. Other than that, definitely worth getting to complete your collection. There isn't a bad song on here. A great testament to a great band and what a way to go out. You need to here this band, end of fucking story.

Hot Water Music myspace
The Draft myspace
Chuck Ragan myspace

Alkaline Trio- Agony and Irony

I hate major record labels. And I wouldn't if I didn't have a good reason to. Now I know, you're going to be like, "Son, businesses are out there to make money. The almighty dollar. That's what this country was founded upon, money and killing people." But at the cost of compromising beliefs and putting out shitty music? Anyways, sorry to start out this review as a lecture, I've just got some things on my mind. I've seen quite a few bands that I've grown up loving (Green Day and AFI being two that come to mind) change their sound and attitudes drastically as they suck the cocks of the major record labels. I understand bands need to change their sounds to escape being bored and to grow, but there's this eerie feeling in the air when bands start to get big and sign on to major record labels.

The Alkaline Trio have been putting out great records for the last ten years. Dark, poetic, raw, morbidly humorous, and damn catchy. As far as "pop punk" goes, they have always been at the front of pushing the limits and refusing to be formulaic. As they've been getting increasingly more popular the last couple years, I've held my breath in hopes that they wouldn't put out a shitty record. And I've been lucky; Good Mourning and Crimson were both great albums while still being released by Vagrant. But the inevitable has happened and the band has gotten too big for its shoes and has exploded. They were going to be on V2 before the released all their artists to focus on their back catalog, which would have been a good fit. They're on Epic now. Let's not forget who else was on Epic, the Clash. And major labels aren't always a bad thing; Bad Religion put out a few good records on Atlantic (let's just forget about the New America though), the Melvins were on Atlantic too, which amazes me because they aren't going to sell records.

Anyways, I digress. As the album opens with the uptempo "Calling All Skeletons," their is a certain hope instilled for this album. Things seem brighter, the songwriting has improved (for better or worse), and the songs are disgustingly catchy. "Over And Out" sounds more like Matt Skiba's sideproject Heavens or even hints of the Cure than the more raw punk sound over the band's earliest days.

The subject matter is still dark and gothic, but not as clever as past releases. Dan Adiano's songs are slower, borderline love songs with hints of the Cars. But he makes his hatred for love apparent on the sappy anti-love song "Love Love, Kiss Kiss." Matt Skiba continues to write interesting and catchy pop punk with "Lost and Rendered" standing out.

This is still the Alkaline Trio. While they have always had a pop sensibilty, they focus on it more on Agony and Irony, while juxtaposing it with their dark side. Sure, the Hot Topic crowd will like it, but the Trio have a way of appealing to a lot of different crowds. I can breathe easy again.

Alkaline Trio myspace