New Town Animals - Lose That Girl

  A rather good pop punk song today.

  New Town Animals were from Abbotsford, Vancouver and formed in 1998. Lead singer Nick Newtown was a Brit which gave them a sound more akin to the punk I grew up listening to a generation earlier as opposed to the plethora of Canadian and American bands that were around at the turn of the Millennium. Also featuring were future Briefs/Cute Lepers bassist Stevie Kicks, future Tranzmitors/Fashionism frontman Jeffrey McCloy,  Bobby Beefy (guitar) and Chucky (drums).

  December 2000 saw them release their debut single, the A side of which features below. There was also a split ep with Delateurs which featured Baby You're The Reason and a cover of Sham 69's Little Rich Boy. Their only album, Is Your Radio Active? followed in 2001, a 5 star review on Amazon describes it as being full of 3 minute pogo pop punk songs reminiscent of The Undertones, The Briefs and The Shocks. They also released a couple of other singles (Fashion Fallout and Cori Street) before calling it quits. You can listen to their music here : http://newtownanimals.bandcamp.com/

  If you're a reader of this blog you'll either already love this song or you'll discover a new favourite in a moment. This is Lose That Girl.....

Good Clean Fun - On The Streets

 

  A question for you today. Does anyone know if one of my favourite bands are ever going to get round to recording new material or have they called it a day. I may well have missed the announcement of their demise but as far as I know there's been nothing.

  It's been nearly a decade since they released the rather splendid Between Christian Rock And A Hard Place album, this was quickly followed by the Crouching Tiger, Moshing Panda compilation but aside from Good Clean Fun the movie (2009) they've been positively absent from the scene.

  There's a Facebook page for them that vocalist Mr. Issa posts on once every blue moon but other than him hinting at a kickstarter campaign a couple of years ago he doesn't offer any hope of them resurfacing.

  If anyone has any info, please post it in the comments. In the meantime, this is one of my favourites by them, On The Streets...

This is a new revolution we're building a brand-new society 
It's about time we find a revolution and not let it slip away 
It's time that we all work together, 
This little thing we call unity has the power to make it all better 
And that is why today we'll all be on the streets 
Saving the scene from the forces of evil 
Side by side, living our dreams, all the positive people 
We'll fight our way through the frustration overcome negativity 
To us it is not a temptation, because that is not our way 
All that is needed to start this is a healthy dose of positivity 
We've found our way through all the darkness 
And on this brand new day we'll all be on the streets 
Saving the scene from the forces off evil Side by side, 
living our dreams, all the positive people

Backwash - Sniper

"Woke Up Today
  Had Nothing Better To Do..." 

  Today's blog entry is the second time I've featured a band from Hawaii (the previous time saw a song posted by The Catalogs). This lot were called Backwash and they were a north shore skate punk outfit that released their debut album, Drink This, on New Year's Day 2000 on the Hawaiian Express label. I know pretty much nothing about them but hopefully I'm right in saying that they had an original line up of Phil Gore (vocals),  Lang Shepard (drums),  David Elgas (lead guitar) and George Andrews (bass). 

  From that debut album, here's a great song called Sniper......

The Varukers - How do you sleep ?

  Yesterday we had a bit of quality American hardcore punk, today it's Britain's turn to prove we can rock out with the best of them. Coming together in 1979, in Leamington Spa, The Veruccas soon changed their name to the more aggressive sounding The Varukers. Like a number of bands of that era, they took the established template of punk rock and made it a touch heavier. Since then they've produced a solid back catalogue of socially concious political punk rock and played a countless number of gigs to a rabid fanbase. They split in 1989 after most of the band had left to form a new band called Sacrilege, but were reformed in 1991 by founder and vocalist Rat and longstanding guitarist Biff. Despite lending their talents to other bands (Rat to Discharge and Biff to Sick On The Bus) they still found time to tour the world (America, Japan, New Zealand, Australia etc...) and to release plenty of new material, including the 2000's How Do You Sleep? album, from which the title track is featured below.......

Humanitarian crisis, I've seen it on TV
Looking for handouts, looking straight at me

No feelings, no grief, no sense
How do you sleep

I really wonder sometimes with no pennies for the poor
Where they find the millions for senseless fucking war

Osker - 13

One of my favourite albums is Treatment 5 by Osker, it was their first album and came out on Epitaph Records in 2000. Comprised of 18 songs with an attitude it was the better of their 2 long players (though a decent % of their fans would vote for it's predecessor, Idle Will Kill). Famed for frontman Devon Williams' fuck you attitude the band split in 2002. This is 13......




heartbroken,
i watched the rain beat on the sidewalk.
complete with grey skies and headlights
and puddles on the sidewalk,
everybody's ruined like me...
it's weird now, when i look back.
each day spent careful is still consumed over time.
i think it's worse to be aware
and know this change than to go on every day unknowing...
i'm having trouble with realizations.
why does it have to be a regretful mess.
if i could have one day back now,
i swear i'd use it well...
oh 13, where did you go?
you're gone when i needed you the most.
i know that from here it's downhill.
make the best of a slow death. people change, yeah.
and that can never be good.
i liked it that way, why did you stray?
maybe i'm unhealthy.
oh won't you stop and stay frozen in time with me...

Smogtown - Judy is a Model

  Huntington Beach, California's Smogtown have been intermittently releasing quality but slightly under the radar punk rock music since the mid 90's. For anyone not familiar with them I'd highly recommend checking out their 2000 Duane Peters produced "concept" album, Fuhrers Of The New Wave, from which this track, Judy Is A Model, comes.