Dillinger Four - Civil War

It's been a long six years since the last Dillinger Four record. That's an eternity in the world of punk rock, making the successor to Situationist Comedy some semblance of a punk rock Chinese Democracy. Civil War was streamed in anticipation of its formal Fat Wreck release on 10/14 on a couple of punks sites and popped up on the torrent sites in short order, prompting a shocking bit of not-especially-believable (or particularly realistic) bitching from Fat Wreck and a couple days of internet pissing between cartoonist Mitch Clem and Civil War producer Dave Gardener, among other wastes of internet bandwidth.

The big question (and the crux of the download issue) is whether Civil War is worth the wait. The short answer is yes, but that is tempered by the fact that there aren't too many bands putting out good records. There have been flashes of brilliance, like the soon to be defunct Ergs!, The Copyrights, plus fellow Twin Cities punks Off With Their Heads and Banner Pilot, but they have been few and far between. Erik has most of the songs here, although our dear Paddy clocks in with two or three. As I don't have a hard copy as yet, I'm not sure whether Billy has been afforded any songs, but he had said previously that they were going back and doing more stuff in their old-school triple vocal vein, so maybe my discriminating ears are failing me. Publishing aside, Civil War sounds good: Gainesville and Clown Cars on Cinder Blocks are top-notch Erik tunes (albeit with a bit of preaching to the choir, what's next? a song about Grumpy's?) and Paddy's songs are always a good choice to finer-point around your living room to. Trust me, you want this record.

After playing a bunch of Dillinger 4th Of July shows and the odd Leatherface tour, the mighty D4 overcame their inertia and started doing some more dates on this side of the country. Their sets on the Fuck Yeah tour were decent, albeit short, but it left me more than salivating for a longer show in a punk-er (not punker) venue. It appears that we'll be afforded that in the coming weeks at the Record Release Show they are playing at the Renfro Warehouse show with The Ergs! and The Measure (SA) on 10/14. That ought to be a fair share more fun that the two shows with NOFX at Irving that precede it, but maybe we'll see some guest starrage. Rumor is that Municipal Waste are on the bill as well. That oughta spike the poor hygiene factor. Either way, I'd take a guest list slot for either of the NOFX/D4 shows in NYC if any of my rainmakers out there can work some magic. Buy a ticket for the Renfro show here and pre-order Civil War here. See you in the pit!

R