Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear

Hey so....this is my first entry for PYP so hopefully it isn't too bad...

This is a short review on the Amercian Emo-Punk/Rock band Say Anything and their latest studio album "Anarchy My Dear". 

Say Anything is the brain child of singer-song writer Max Bemis.

The latest album "Anarchy, My Dear" is the bands fifth studio album and was released just a few months ago.

At this point Ill point out that Say Anything are one of my favorite bands so ill try and not be too biased.

From the moment I listened to the first few tracks "Anarchy, My Dear" has a very different sounds from the albums before, As the title may suggest I was expecting a fast/angry sound but bar the exceptions ("Burn A Miracle" and "Admit It Again") the album its quite slow and has a relaxed feel about it.

A lot of fans who got into Say Anything on their first couple of studio albums may claim they have sold out or lost their edge because its not as angry as their second (and probably most popular) album "...Is A Real Boy".

This album may not have the same feel to the earlier albums that people feel in love with but these albums have been solely written by Bemis, each of the album almost tells a story about whats been happening to him in his life at that time.

"Baseball" - Released when the original line up were in highschool, so the album has a very anxiety feel too it, songs mostly about the teenage angst and having your heart broken for the first time.

"...Is A Real Boy" - Written when Bemis was suffering from his Bi-polar and social anxiety, which bought about the anger and songs of alienation which people fell in love with.

"In Defense of The Genre" - Written and released just after Bemis' first break down and major break-up with a girlfriend - songs still have the angry/heartache fans have become accustom too.

"Say Anything" - Written and release after Bemis spent almost a year recovering from him illness. this is were his music starts to mature, during the writing of this album Bemis had married and spend a lot time thinking about this life and religion.

I find it refreshing almost that a band can keep playing songs that mean something to them without worrying what the narrow minded fans who cant get over "...Is A Real Boy".

"Anarchy, My Dear" In my eyes is a great album start to finish, over the last 5 albums Bemis hasn't lost his ability to write lyrically great songs. 

Bemis' lyrics remain complex but at the same time comedic, anyone that can put  "Don't wanna hear about how the latest Rihanna single is a post-modern masterpieceStop punishing me!" (Admit It Again)

In a song is truly a lyrical genius.

Overall Id easily give this album 8/10 I enjoy listening to it on an almost daily basis, the only negative thing I'd have to say about it is that the last few songs almost drift away, they aren't overly exciting to make me want to listen to them over again as with the rest of the album.

So yeaaah hopefully you enjoyed reading this and didnt get too lost...

Im sure I'll get better at this as we post more.

Stewart.

Answers to the punk movement by rock dinosaurs, that are of a surprisingly superlative quality

Hello, my name is Jack and I write short stories and shit. I don't know anything about modern hardcore or punk, but I sometimes get drunk with Punk Your Pants alumni Max & Stew and I listen to a lot of classic rock, so I'm pretty much qualified to write rambling articles on here.

Before 1976, the '70s were, musically speaking, all about dressing up in sparkly clothes and snorting coke off the ass of a thousand-dollar hooker and then doing one of the following; 

• Playing lots of really long guitar solos and singing about Lord of the Rings and castles and King Arthur and gayness, ("Hard Rock/Heavy Metal/Prog Rock")
• Making slick, accessible songs with lots of wah-wah and keyboards and tightly-wound harmony vocals sung by people who sound like a lot of other people, ("Soft Rock/Yacht Rock")
• Growing a beard, digging out the pedal steel guitar and pretending you're from the Deep South ("Country Rock/Roots Rock")

(for the record, a lot of those songs are outright classics. not Wakeman, though. or Poco. or the Stills-Young Band. ugh. *shudder*


or the Eagles; "I fucking hate the Eagles, man" - The Dude, circa the time of our conflict with Saddam and the Iraquis)

Most artists did all three at one point. Everyone had pretty much quit making psychedelic rock by the end of the 1960s, because coke was cheaper than acid or something and, frankly, when you're really fucking stoned, even 20 minute guitar solos with a violin bow sound good, so you don't really need to worry about sitars and shit. Then punk came, and most of the old guard thought "oh SHIT", although Iggy Pop awoke from his heroin slumber long enough to say "I told you so." If you're a fan of fakkin ol paaank rawwk mate, but you consider the music of the previous generation to be pussy-ass hippy garbage, I should urge you to listen to the following albums.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were writing dirty, nasty songs with sloppy instrumentation even back in the  early '60s. In fact, it was more or less the reason for their success; while the pre-drugs Beatles seemed like a bunch of clean cut, nice fellas, the Stones were marketed as the type of guys you should keep away from your daughter! They got arrested for pissing in public, spoke badly of the establishment, took shitloads of amphetamines, snarled a lot, and played the boring melodies of blues with a reckless regard. Naturally, they later embraced gospel, country, folk, soul and so on, and their songwriting talent blossomed.

Some Girls was released in 1978, and came after a series of albums that were considered below-par. Although the disco groove of Miss You is a great song, it's a somewhat inauspicious opening for an album that rocks harder than the brittle rocks our Conservative "Coalition" Government would like to throw at poor people. The title track is awesomely sexist and racist, essentially a two-chord rumination on the various nationalities of girls Mick Jagger likes to fuck ("black girls just want to get fucked all night, I just don't have that much jam"). Respectable is some raucous shit about the "easiest lay on the White House lawn". Shattered is the quintessential Stones-wondering-New-York-being-the-Stones jam. These are songs with energy, and there are even some bwooootiful ballads in there for the ladies, and FUCKING FAGGOT CUNTS like me who like ballads.

While his erstwhile bandmate Stephen Stills rounded out the '70s sucking dick for coke, Neil Young was always too much of a cynical asshole ever to be a naive hippy or a jacuzzi-bound soft-rock bedwetter (that said, his records from his blandest, yet still great, era of 1970-72 are the ones that he seems to be most commonly associated with) and when he fronts the gloriously bad musicianship of Crazy Horse, he generally goes from triumph to triumph. Although I personally favour his classic 1974 "I'm rich and stoned yet I feel alone in the universe" LP On The Beach, there is an argument to be put forward that Rust Never Sleeps is the greatest ever of these numerous triumphs.

Perhaps on a punk rock blog it would be best to dwell on the second, electric side. Powderfinger is an amazing 10/10 classic of a song. Sedan Delivery and Welfare Mothers are probably the closest the divisive  and diverse artist has ever come to straight-up-punk, with a sublimely boneheaded approach to playing and great lyrics. And, of course, Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black). An electric version of the song that opens the album, it's a (OK I'M GETTING REALLY PRETENTIOUS HERE, DON'T LEAVE ME) paen to the power of rock 'n' roll music with a Johnny Rotten namecheck, a guitar sound like a leaden-weighted chainsaw through the head, and a door slamming for additional percussive effect. I'm leaving my summary of side one brief because it's not really relevant to the article, but there's no bullshit about its five, brilliant, wonderful, amazing space-folk jamz. Oh, and he recorded it all live, so no bullshit. Check out this album if you like music!

John Cale played bass, piano and cello in the Velvet Underground which, as anyone who's heard White Light/White Heat knows, means he had a resounding influence on the Punk Rock scene, if by accident. His Animal Justice EP is great. I can't be assed to do a massive blurb for any more of these but fuck this shit is off the chain. Check out Chickenshit, the tale of when he bit off a Chicken's head onstage and his vegetarian band quit in protest. His Sabotage/Live record is also rad as fuck.

All came out in '77. All pretty amazing. Iggy invented punk, though so, he knows where it's at. 

Artists who did not fare so well;

• Bob Dylan - made a bland studio album, a bland live album, and then became a Christian, which is pretty funny.
• Eric Clapton - Failed to repeat the enjoyable trick of 461 Ocean Boulevard. Never made a good album again. Is there really any point in this guy making music anymore? All this shit about musical purity of the blues is really faintly masking the one of the biggest hacks in rock.
• Various Beatles - Ringo is just...Ringo. John made an album in '80 then got shot. Paul didn't make a good album til 1997. George was just pretty quiet.
• Grateful Dead - OK, their '77 tour was pretty sick in part, but the Dead really ran out of steam around this time.

ASG (Artist Series Guitars)

ASG or what I like to call them 'Get a Les Paul and Scribble a Logo On Guitars' (doesn't have the same ring to it I know but I'm working on it) are a company who are producing signature guitars for bands that will never be able to get a signature signature guitar from an actually recognized guitar manufacturer. Now for anyone that has never seen or even heard of these "unique" strand of guitars here are some pictures for you.

 Asking Alexandria Model:

Bring Me the Horizon model:

Within the Ruins (Heard of them? No, neither have I) Model:

The guitars are not the only source of annoyance as the website also has a nice little description about the guitar, here is an extract from one of the descriptions. (word for word I promise you this is what they said):

"When we were just kids, launching off home-made ramps with our Powell and Schmitt Stix skateboards, we were blasting Kill Em All and Blizzard of Oz. When we were practicing our pentatonics on our first guitar with our tiny Crate amps, we were watching the bones brigade shred the hell out of pool or watching Jamie Thomas ollie himself over a railing and down a two story drop."

What the fuck? Who would want to give these mugs any of their hard earned money they will only end up either shoving it up their nostrils or make a home-made ramp slightly too high and plummet to the center of the earth. 

You see brands like this is what making the "punk" industry so awful at the moment. It's just too tame, the message behind punk and hardcore is supposed to be about doing it your self. Don't have a local venue? Who cares have a gig in your mums bedroom. It's on the same level (or even worse) than these stupid varsity bands keep bringing out, sure it was cool when Glassjaw did it but that was about 10 years ago and no one else was doing it. It just seems to me that people have noticed that there is no money in buying music anymore so are just trying to create anything that might make some money. 

Anyway, if anyone wants to go and buy one of these guitars the links down below. I've also left a length of rope for you to hang your self with on your way out. 

Peace.

Max.

http://www.artistseriesguitar.com/

Joyce Manor - Of All Things I Soon Grow Tired

I'm going to start this blog with a review of one of the most refreshing records I have heard in a long long time. It's by an ever growing punk band Joyce Manor.

A few weeks back I'd never listened to this band, criminal I know, however I did have my reasons one was that Last 'fucking' FM kept recommending them to me and you see, I'm one stubborn asshole. Anyway I was strolling around the metaphorical playground of the internet and saw that Asian Man Records where bringing out the new Joyce Manor LP. I was intrigued, could it be? No I thought, surely not. Could they really be the same record label that brought out the first (and arguably best) Alkaline Trio record. The same record label that has also signed The Queers, Screeching Weasel and The Lawrence fucking Arms. Moments passed and sure enough it was true. This intrigued me, I had to buy it.

Sure enough a couple of minutes later I was listening to one of the best punk records that I have heard in a while. It is so close to perfection. The album starts with 'These Kind Of Ice Skates' an absolutely great song. But its not till the 2nd track "Comfortable Clothes" when you get really in to this record. From there it goes from strength to strength. Smashing out song after song after wait, what? Is that it? Wheres the rest of the songs...

You see the one flaw with this "album" is its length. Yes I know, I know its cool to have an album under 13 minutes blah blah blah but really. Come on. This is just silly. It's as if they got halfway through the writing process and just gave up half way through. They just couldn't think of anything else to write. I mean they must of really been clutching at straws as they threw in a cover of "Video Killed The Radio Star".

Putting the lack of songs and duration aside this album is still fucking great. It really is a fresh sound in a genre that is getting overly populated by bands singing Justin Bieber songs in Dropped D. It really is a step in the right direction. This review, if you can call it that, is really not supposed to be negative. I do genuinely love this album but I just feel like I have been cheated out of my £6.99 or whatever the fuck it is now to download an album. I feel that instead of this being a short album, it should of been a perfect E.P.

Anyway, you should definitely check this out because it is a great release.

Peace.
Max.

Hello anyone that is reading this.
I've decided to start up this blog that will detail stuff that's going on in the punk world. When I say 'punk' I mean it very loosely. Before you run away in fear of me stabbing you with my non existent  mohawk or moon stomp your head on the floor, its not that "kind of punk". It's the gay shit about girls and non important stuff unlike sticking it to the man (oi! oi! oi!).

Anyway before I ramble on some more be sure to subscribe or whatever you do on this fancy piece of equipment. Be sure to expect reviews, news and other shit.

Thanks!
Max.