The Spinning Room - August 2002

The Spinning Room
Rob Browning

Redefiling Music — No Idea 100
No Idea Records
Redefiling Music features a number of heavyweights from the No Idea roster covering tunes to commemorate the label’s 100^th release. The usual suspects are here: Hot Water Music, Small Brown Bike, Radon (RIP). SBB’s cover of Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak alone is worth six bucks. Throw in great covers of chestnuts by the Lemonheads and the Karl Hendricks Trio and you’ll have me buying multiple copies at Christmastime. A lot of times these comps are better on paper than on record, but this is pretty great and it’s only six bucks, so you don’t have a lot to bitch about. Call it defiling, call it what you will, but take six bucks out of your beer budget and get this record.

Hopelessly Devoted To You — Volume 3
Hopeless/Sub City Records
Hopeless/Sub City Records are one of the new school of labels that keep an eye on the bottom line while still treating their artists well. They also up the ante by donating a percentage of every release to the charity of the artist’s choice. Not too shabby. If there was a heaven, these kids would go there. There’s a pretty good cross-section of live and unreleased material from a good number of their roster. The unreleased Weakerthans song is quality, as you might surmise, and even the Atom and His Package song isn’t too annoying. There’s some surprises in Avenged Sevenfold, who pump out a Danzig-esque rocker and in Thrice, who the kids enjoy beating the hell out of each other to. Not too shabby at all. This one’s only two bucks, so if you’re too cheap to pick up the No Idea comp pick this one up instead, you stingy bastard.

Patty Hurst Shifter
Beestinger Lullabies
Rice Box Records
The Triangle of North Carolina has been a hotbed of music for years now but Raleigh always seems to be trapped in the shadow of Chapel Hill. Patty Hurst Shifter are a big reason why this is going to change, and quick. Chris Smith and PHS eliminate the bombast and bluster and concentrate on the damn songs, making them all the more powerful for it. This record could be huge with the right push behind it. God knows why Marah gets the notoriety they do, as Beestinger Lullabies is better than anything Marah have ever released, even without inaudible Springsteen mojo. I’m not sure whether the boys are of a mind to tour behind this record, but it’d be a crime to keep them confined to the North Carolina area. I’m not sure how much distribution this record is going to get, but do yourself a favor and pick up Beestinger Lullabies.

Silkworm
Italian Platinum
Touch and Go Records
Silkworm have been a consistent presence in my collection for years now. Much like the mighty Superchunk, they are so consistently on that you tend to lose perspective on how great they actually are. Let Italian Platinum serve as a reminder to you, then. IP kicks off in a big, big way with I Hope You Don’t Survive and doesn’t let up for the better part of an hour. Everybody in the Silkworm franchise has made the big move to Chicago town and IP is a very Chicago record. Steve Albini’s behind the board again, Kelly Hogan sings on a bunch of the songs and they are on Touch and Go and all. I think the proximity factor helps a bunch, as this record has much more of a cohesive feel than some of their recent records. In an ideal world this would go American Platinum.

Dragging The Lake
Atticus/Side One Dummy Records
Dragging the Lake is a comp put out by Atticus Clothing with the help of Side One Dummy. It’s a great comp with a bunch of big names on it. In fact, way more names than you would ever suspect a new clothing company to be able to snag. Judging by the fact that there are no less than three Blink 182 projects on the record and the fact that Mark is always wearing their shirts, I’d say that the Blink 182 posse is diversifying the old portfolio. God Bless Em, as I’m sure they got most of the people for t-shirts. Great unreleased songs by the Alkaline Trio, American Nightmare, and Rival Schools and some good stuff by up and comers like Finch. This is pretty much a Warped Tour CD with a different name, but it’s not bad by a long shot.