Me With Others - You Can't Argue With Silence (Dead Pilot Records)
Me With Others is the solo project of Dave Hamilton-Smith, frontman of various notable acts, including Encarsia and Desert City Silence. Anyway, the first thing you notice about this album is the heavy influence of John Frusciante on Dave's guitar playing and singing, the second thing you notice is the fact that all of the songs sounds fairly similar. However, neither of these factors are detrimental to one's enjoyment of this fantastic little record. The fact that the songs are so equally balanced in mood and timbre is testament to how easily, quickly and competently Dave has found his own sound and style as a songwriter. This really does not sound like a debut album. I don't know many musicians that would have the audacity to make their debut release a full length album of such ambition and vast scope, but I suppose equally I don't know many musicians with the quality and talent that Dave exhibits. As one would expect, the vocals are truly fantastic showing both musicality and passion, less expectedly, the guitar playing is of equal merit, Dave's playing is funky in a melancholic way, fantastic for late night coffee drinking sessions whilst digging into a new book. One of the most interesting things about this record is the way the songs are constructed, Dave possesses a jazz player's ability to let songs ebb and flow with loose structures seemingly just following the feeling of the song, reaching for the chords that take him their rather than the ones that you logically expect to follow. Its refreshing. Despite this, the songs remain pretty damn catchy, even at their most experimental. The whole thing is recorded in a delightful lo-fi manner onto a tape deck with the voice and guitar rarely accompanied by hand claps and thigh drums but little more! If this was out on vinyl (which it should be) I'd probably play it until the grooves disappear.
The Shitty Limits - Espionage 7" (Dire Records)
So this is the third release from one of the most hyped and best new bands in hardcore. The Shitty Limits play fast, fun, ludicrisly entertaining hardcore punk in the vein of Dean Dirg or the Angry Samoans. They mix up the proto punk of bands like the Stooges with some fuzzy rockin garage and a fuckload of 80s US hardcore, I love it. Its catchy, you can dance to it and its as unpretentious as you like. This record is slightly less manic than their previous two 7"s but it might be even better. In fact fuck it, yes, its definitely better, its fucking great. You should buy it, right now. If you don't i'll judge you.
The Gramercy Riffs - Demo CDR (self released)
So I saw these guys drunkenly ruin some Dutch people's night, then play a tight as you like set of dirty nasty hardcore. The demo is short as fuck but totally leaves you wanting more, this is so much better than I expected it to be. I must have played these three songs so many times and i'm still not bored of it. I don't really know the best way to describe this, I don't want to reference influences or whatever, but lets just say its fast, heavy, relentlessly pissed off and passionate as you like. This is probably the best new british hardcore band i've heard since i discovered Attack! Vipers! or Abandon Ship or something. They need to do an album, or at least a 7". You probably can't get this demo anymore but you should look them up on the internet.
Apologies, I Have None - Done (self released)
These guys play pop folk punk with guitars, drums and gang singalongs galore, its fucking great stuff that reaffirms your faith, kickstarts your heartbeat and makes bleary eyes refocus, like a great cup of coffee. Fuck, can't do it justice but lets just say this, if you liked The Violent Femmes or Against Me! before they signed to Fat Wreck, you'll fucking adore this.
Ummm... can't be bothered to do anymore right now, but I will, one day.
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