The World Is My Fuse

I'm going to start reviewing things (mainly records) that I get in the mail. Here's today's!

I put off ordering any Polar Bear Club stuff because I don't buy CDs, and with their B9 signing, I knew vinyl was soon to come.

This band has always reminded me very strongly of a blend between Saves the Day and Jawbreaker and as such I find it very hard for them to disappoint me. Redder The Better has what I think to be the optimal length for a punk record, slightly longer than a conventional 7" EP, but still shorter than an LP. Musically I think it was their strongest work to date, but the lyrics pale in comparison to Sometimes Things Just Fall Apart. Their first full length has a good number of standout songs, especially "Our Ballads" highlighting the mysterious belief that punk is a boys club only, and it's something that bands will rarely tackle for some odd reason. The album does drag on at points, I can see myself just listening to this one side at a time, it's not so much that Side B is worse just that it's alot of similar (although good) sounding music to digest at once.

The Summer Of George EP is a fantastic sample of what's to be expected from their new album, and if it does follow suit with the EP it will feature much more concise songs, stronger vocals (not that they were poor before) and lyrics dealing with a variety of topics. On the EP alone, "Dead Man" deals with one wasting their life while "Boxes" is about dudes in punk rock bands who somehow get the idea that they're in Aerosmith and start treating people like shit.

I also picked up the R'N'R/Fit For Abuse Split which for some reason is only 1$ on the B9 e-store. Both of these bands were slightly before my time, so it's taken me a while to get around to listening to them. Both sides are wicked with RNR being the stronger of the two sides with two songs about the state of modern punk and hardcore (The meaning of "Punk's Dead, Hardcore's Next" is pretty obvious, while "Your Own Band" address the high number of imitation bands springing up and following trends.) Pressed in 2005, the problems still remain. Ironically, it's no surprise these bands are being ignored by the Bridge 9 crowd.