Record Reviews

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RECORD REVIEWS
Heft-"In a bathtub…" Heft is a ska band out of Cresskill, New Jersey. Their 15 song CD, "in a bathtub", is pretty good. It's sound is not EXACTLY 2Tone or new school, Less Than Jake-y stuff. It's unique sound adds to good listening, except for the some lyrics, which I found quite disturbing, (Especially in the song "Mr. Franz", and "Beatin' Off"). But in other songs lyrics were quite funny, namely the song "Rap Sucks". I think this particular song is good, not only because rap DOES suck, but because it had good trumpet parts, beat, and harmony (which you don't usually find in songs that are meant to be funny. You usually get funny lyrics and cheesy songs). I noticed one flaw to this CD: that is that in songs you can tell when they were desperate to fill in space and went to really bad screaming solos, but I would definetly recommend this CD. Record Label: Mother Box Records The Toasters-"Ska Killers" "Ska Killers" is a great album. It's a compilation of two previous Toasters releases, "Skaboom!" and "Thrill Me Up." The songs on it range from 1st wave to 3rd wave ska with a tiny bit of Oi!(East Side Beat), which gives you a nice variety of listening. The song "Ska Killers" has some of the most memorable lyrics on the album. There are also a lot of songs that many Toasters fans will recognize, such as "Weekend in LA" and "East Side Beat." With the, obvious, good recording provided by M.I.L. Multimedia you get good, crisp horn parts which can only add to quality of classic Toasters songs. With 21 great songs for the small price of $15.99 you CAN'T go wrong. Track this bad boy down, it's worth it (hint: check Tower Records). Record Label: M.I.L. Multimedia/Esperanto V/A-"This Aren't 2-Tone" Trully the best cd I have ever listened to. This cd has a lot of favorates, including Less Than Jake, Mu330, Thumper, Skinnerbox, ahhhh heck, you can just read the cover. Anyway, it has a lot of greats. Also I think the cover is cool. (even though I'm not really reviewing the cd) I think it's funny how it makes fun of the comp. "This are two tone". Once again a great cd. It has 35 songs on it, and lasts about 75 minutes. Time well spent. Recorded Label: 2 Hep V/A-"The 2 Tone Collection" This is a double cd comp. comprised of all of your favorite second wave bands. The Special A.K.A., The Specials, The Beat, The Selector, The Bodysnatchers, The Higons, The Apollinairies and many others. I don't recommend this if you don't like 2tone. Don't buy this if you are only into third wave, or just punk. If you like 2-Tone, do yourself a big favor, and buy this cd. Label: Chrysalis, and ERG.	The Criminals-"Never Been Caught" This is a great release. Awesome, snotty, punk rawk from Berkeley, CA, with Jesse Lucious from Blatz, not to be confused with Jesse Michaels. Not at all what you would expect from a Lookout release. If you want pop, and pretty songs about girls, you won't find it here. This has to be one of my favorite records right now. Buy this. Record Label: Lookout V/A-"BEST OF THE BEST-a punkrock compilation" Just like the title says. A punk rock compilation. A perty darn decent one at that. Really good value too - around 7 bucks or so for 70 minutes of music. That's an hour and ten minutes in case you were wondering. . Everthing from pop-punk stuff, to hardcore type stuff, to a little ska-punk, and everthing in between is covered here. The DROPKICK MURPHYS song on here is pretty rad as is some of the other stuff. There's a lot of small local bands from all over the US on this. Not much ska on here but the DON'T ASK ALEX song is pretty good too. There is some real crap on here also. Some shitty recordings, but also some just plain old weak bands, but it's got 37 bands so they can't all be good, right? Right. Anyway, the good far outweighs the bad on this, though, and it's price and amount of music makes it a pretty damn good buy, so buy it, okay? I'm not sure if you can find it anywhere, but maybe you can buy it direct from the company. If not, you'll have to go see one of the bands on it, and buy it from them. Label: Awesome Dawson

RECORD REVIEWS

Heft-"In a bathtub…"
Heft is a ska band out of Cresskill, New Jersey. Their 15 song CD, "in a bathtub", is pretty good. It's sound is not EXACTLY 2Tone or new school, Less Than Jake-y stuff. It's unique sound adds to good listening, except for the some lyrics, which I found quite disturbing, (Especially in the song "Mr. Franz", and "Beatin' Off"). But in other songs lyrics were quite funny, namely the song "Rap Sucks". I think this particular song is good, not only because rap DOES suck, but because it had good trumpet parts, beat, and harmony (which you don't usually find in songs that are meant to be funny. You usually get funny lyrics and cheesy songs). I noticed one flaw to this CD: that is that in songs you can tell when they were desperate to fill in space and went to really bad screaming solos, but I would definetly recommend this CD.
Record Label: Mother Box Records

The Toasters-"Ska Killers"
"Ska Killers" is a great album. It's a compilation of two previous Toasters releases, "Skaboom!" and "Thrill Me Up." The songs on it range from 1st wave to 3rd wave ska with a tiny bit of Oi!(East Side Beat), which gives you a nice variety of listening. The song "Ska Killers" has some of the most memorable lyrics on the album. There are also a lot of songs that many Toasters fans will recognize, such as "Weekend in LA" and "East Side Beat." With the, obvious, good recording provided by M.I.L. Multimedia you get good, crisp horn parts which can only add to quality of classic Toasters songs. With 21 great songs for the small price of $15.99 you CAN'T go wrong. Track this bad boy down, it's worth it (hint: check Tower Records).
Record Label: M.I.L. Multimedia/Esperanto

V/A-"This Aren't 2-Tone"
Trully the best cd I have ever listened to. This cd has a lot of favorates, including Less Than Jake, Mu330, Thumper, Skinnerbox, ahhhh heck, you can just read the cover. Anyway, it has a lot of greats. Also I think the cover is cool. (even though I'm not really reviewing the cd) I think it's funny how it makes fun of the comp. "This are two tone". Once again a great cd. It has 35 songs on it, and lasts about 75 minutes. Time well spent.
Recorded Label: 2 Hep

V/A-"The 2 Tone Collection"
This is a double cd comp. comprised of all of your favorite second wave bands. The Special A.K.A., The Specials, The Beat, The Selector, The Bodysnatchers, The Higons, The Apollinairies and many others. I don't recommend this if you don't like 2tone. Don't buy this if you are only into third wave, or just punk. If you like 2-Tone, do yourself a big favor, and buy this cd.
Label: Chrysalis, and ERG.

The Criminals-"Never Been Caught"
This is a great release. Awesome, snotty, punk rawk from Berkeley, CA, with Jesse Lucious from Blatz, not to be confused with Jesse Michaels. Not at all what you would expect from a Lookout release. If you want pop, and pretty songs about girls, you won't find it here. This has to be one of my favorite records right now. Buy this.
Record Label: Lookout

V/A-"BEST OF THE BEST-a punkrock compilation"
Just like the title says. A punk rock compilation. A perty darn decent one at that. Really good value too - around 7 bucks or so for 70 minutes of music. That's an hour and ten minutes in case you were wondering. . Everthing from pop-punk stuff, to hardcore type stuff, to a little ska-punk, and everthing in between is covered here. The DROPKICK MURPHYS song on here is pretty rad as is some of the other stuff. There's a lot of small local bands from all over the US on this. Not much ska on here but the DON'T ASK ALEX song is pretty good too. There is some real crap on here also. Some shitty recordings, but also some just plain old weak bands, but it's got 37 bands so they can't all be good, right? Right. Anyway, the good far outweighs the bad on this, though, and it's price and amount of music makes it a pretty damn good buy, so buy it, okay? I'm not sure if you can find it anywhere, but maybe you can buy it direct from the company. If not, you'll have to go see one of the bands on it, and buy it from them.
Label: Awesome Dawson