Back in stock: Punk/Hardcore

Review: Alkaline Trio still stand strong as a complex band of punk rockers, known for their unusual blend of grunge, goth and punk rock elements. Their fourth album, and considered by many fans to be their best - Good Mourning - flaunts this talent, with the songs therein both energetic and emotional, spanning themes of love, death, addiction and despair. Despite the pop-punk flavour, there's a rawness in these classics that manages to poke through the melodic spectacle. Originally released in 2003, this reissued Deluxe Edition of the album features a limited gatefold 2x10" LP in a spot-varnished sleeve, as well as four bonus tracks that were not included on the original CD version.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


You'll have to go a long, long way to find a more important record in the back catalogue of The Damned. Strawberries marked album number five for the New Wave-Goth-punks, arriving in 1982, initially through the now-defunct UK indie label Bronze, established by Gary Bron who - incidentally - also played a pivotal role in helping Uriah Heap realise their sound. Digressions aside, this LP at once marks one of the finest moments in The Damned's history, and one of their most turbulent times.

The band's creative confidence - Captain Sensible especially was enjoying a fair share of the limelight at this time as a solo artist - helped them expand and mutate in both subtle and crystal clear ways, introducing instruments like the sitar and cello to the mix. Fans got their beloved dark room masters, and much more besides. Behind the scenes, though, this was a point in time pockmarked by fallouts and disagreements. Still, who said greatness doesn't come at a price?

Review: 'Neat Neat Neat' might have only been the second single released by The Damned, but its timeless longevity as an essential punk staple has seen it appear in episodes of The Simpsons and The Boys while Edgar Wright would give the track yet another lease on life by using it to score the intense opening chase sequence in 2017's Baby Driver. That's before even mentioning the vastly differing artists it has influenced with everyone from My Chemical Romance to Elvis Costello taking a stab. Pressed to artwork complimenting purple wax, this 7" offers a slice of cuts captured during a set in Mulhouse, France in 1994, with the classic single on the A-side, while the flip boasts a dynamic yet bizarre bevvy of covers, from the likes of iconic pop duo The Righteous Brothers ('You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin') to 60's mods The Craig ('I Must Be Mad') to Johnny Cash's 'I Walk The Line'.

Review: One of the most vital hardcore punk releases ever committed to record, the self-titled Minor Threat compilation took the band's first two EPs, the original self-titled and 'In My Eyes', released in June and December of 1981, respectively, and collated them into a visceral work that has only grown more essential with time. Before expanding his sonic palette and abilities with Fugazi, a younger, more disillusioned Ian MacKaye led a cathartic barrage of hyper-intense, exceptionally brief pieces that reimagined punk at its most direct and extreme values. With the iconic cover of younger, exhausted MacKaye brother Alec (now of Hammered Hulls, formerly Untouchables, The Faith), hunched over despondently, and recreated by everyone from the likes of Rancid to even Nike (yes, that Nike), it goes without saying that the name Minor Threat, the singular image, and even the inadvertent push of the straight edge message due to the track of the same moniker, are all integral, historic pieces of the hardcore punk blueprint and subsequent memorabilia.

Review: Seven long years on from the Lydia Lunch/Arthur Rizk produced, genre-mangling opus that was 2017's Why Love Now, Pennsylvania hardcore noise-rock auteurs Pissed Jeans make their filthy return on the fuzzy, feral and vehemently pissed off Half Divorced. Aged, seasoned, and peppered with hate, this 30 minute concoction of bruising riffs, anthemic hooks and positive nihilism hits like an old friend who still greets with a gut-punch, while frontman Matt Korvette succinctly presents the project's mission statement as "Half Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, 'I don't want this reality'. There's a power in being able to say, 'I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I'm telling you that they don't matter.' I'm already looking elsewhere." Well, in that case, the elusive elsewhere appears to be wherever we find our means of peace in an ever-unpeaceful world, and this grinding soundtrack to scoffing at the end times couldn't land a minute sooner.

Review: Billed as the official follow-up to their career defining high point And Out Come The Wolves, the fourth full-length from Los Angeles punk legends Rancid marked their only work to that point not to feature producer/engineer Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion) in any capacity, with Tim Armstrong and Lance Frederiksen opting to handle production duties themselves. This likely is where the project's deeper embracing of reggae and ska began to seep into the compositions, with cuts 'Hoover Street' and the essential title-track 'Life Won't Wait' both being recorded in Kingston under the tutelage of several essential reggae artists such as Buju Banton, leading to the definitive outlier in the Rancid canon.

Review: 76 High Street in Burton On Trent is, today, a pizza joint. Back in 1976, though, and throughout that decade and most of the following one, it was a hub of musical activity that hosted some of the greatest bands of the time. We're talking AC/DC, Dire Straits, Motorhead, Skid Row, Judas Priest, Suzi Quatro, Thin Lizzy and Ultravox. To name but a few.

More astute readers will have clocked that they can add The Sex Pistols to that list. The seminal punk outfit even opted to record their famous live album, Anarchy In the UK: Live at the 76 Club, at the address. Now we have this new edition of the record, which has lost none of its teeth clenched, anti-establishmentarianism, revolutionary feeling of the original. Simply put, this is what guitar music should sound like on stage - ferocious, unforgiving, and with the momentum of youth hell-bent on rejecting tradition.

Review: Returning a half decade on from their critically acclaimed sophomore effort A Distant Call, Philadelphia's 70s rock imbued punk outfit Sheer Mag return with their most honed, poignant collection of material to date. Moving on from the "personal coming out party" that was their first few projects, lead vocalist Tina Halladay has made it abundantly clear that this material could not have been penned just a few years prior, while their mission statement going into Playing Favourites was to rectify the fact that no artist seems "to write straight up rock bangers anymore", with an emphasis on having "huge, catchy songwriting front and centre". Signing to Jack White's Third Man Records seems simultaneously like a fitting rite of passage as well as affirmation of the band's monumental success, with their retro-fitted, fuzzed out 70s psych-tinged rhythm & blues grooves swaying and weaving around Halladay's sultry, snarling cadence with a resolute confidence only achieved over time.

Review: Currently back at full activity, and most recently releasing their latest album Il Tradimento Silenzioso (The Silent Betrayal) in 2022, Manchester punk pioneers Slaughter & The Dogs first made their name through their connections to former Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, while their opening slot for the Sex Pistols in Manchester on July 20, 1976 (the second of their two Free Tree Hall shows within two months) played a hand in expanding the city's punk movement before extending to a UK-wide phenomenon. Originally released in 1980, Bite Back served as the feral follow up to the band's quintessential 1978 debut full-length Do It Dog Style, and continued their blistering run of playfully chaotic anthems. Back on vinyl for the first time since its original pressing, this newly refurbished reissue comes with the double A-side of 'I'm The One' b/w 'One By One' as bonus tracks.

Review: Out of print for four decades, there really doesn't seem like a more poignant or vital time for a repress of the debut full-length from Boston straight-edge hardcore pioneers SS Decontrol (who would soon go on to shorten their moniker to SSD). This new batch marks the album's first distribution since the original run of 1,900 copies pressed back in 1982, and boasts a fully restored remaster from Dan Johnson at Audio Archiving Services. As the hardcore scene continues to balloon in popularity, The Kids Will Have Their Say still remains one of the most potent early works of the cause, and finally, fans can appreciate the project without having to break the bank or settle for lo-fi YouTube rips.