Jawbreaker - Bivouac reissue

Ah, Jawbreaker! While we continue the waiting game for the documentary, Adam and his Blackball Records have continued the Jawbreaker reissue initiative by releasing a remastered version of the second full-length to commemorate the two decades that have elapsed since its initial release on Communion/Tupelo.

I'm not going to stoop to the level of telling you why you should be buying this record, but will inform the uninformed that the non-album tracks that previously appeared on the Chesterfield King 12" are included, along with period photographs and art mockups in booklet form.  Sweating collector nerds should be informed that said 12" is also available again. Bivouac is also available in oversized black circular form, should you be so inclined.

Step lively. Here's a link to the Blackball web presence.

R

Mutoid Men - Mutoid World

Regular readers are no doubt familiar with my love of Shorebirds and their It's Gonna Get Ugly record. The amalgam of Jawbreaker and Latterman really worked for me and I was pretty bummed to see them go the way of the Buffalo. Which is not to say that I'm not totally ga-ga for RVIVR or pretty stoked that Matt and Chris are playing together in Mutoid Men. I was pretty cool with the two M words that comprised their title, but when the most dreaded of M words, that being Moog, was bandied about in conjunction with the new project, a creeping sense of dread started to ooze itself into the back of my mind. Before the douchebags totally killed it for me, the first nail in the coffin of SXSW for me was the Analog Keyboard Holocaust of '98 when bands like Servotron and Brainiac bleeped and blorped their way through raping my ears. While there are some questionable burbles from where I'm sitting, the analog keys are rightfully relegated to the background for the most part and as such Mutoid World rocks hard enough that I can deal. Things shoot past in under 20 minutes, but don't think you're going to get Sore Throat. Some tracks are under a minute, but the average is a little over two, allowing for things to romp Pixies-like without overstaying their welcome. You can grab vinyl over at the Rumbletowne web presence and very probably at No Idea. I'd buy it, even if they do insist on calling it Scientific Rock.

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Rvivr - LIfe Moves EP

If you've been unlucky enough to talk about music with me in the last year or so, if we weren't talking about Austin Lucas, I was probably raving about Shorebirds. Man, am I a mark for It's Gonna Get Ugly. With all due respect to them, I never really fell for Latterman, but I'm damn well going to check out any band that's got anybody from Jawbreaker within a mile of their ranks. Shorebirds featured bass ridiculoso Chris Bauermeister, along with Matt Canino from the aforementioned Latterman and operated in the time-honored punk paradigm that is the power trio. When done right, there is nothing better. Believe me, Shorebirds handled themselves just fine, but as my god is a cruel god, the band broke up before they made it out East.

Bauermeister still plays with Canino in the new project called Mutoid Men, but they have yet to release anything. In the interim, there is Rvivr, which has Canino and his lady Erica, who is also his partner in Rumbletowne Records, in the fold. I'm not sure whether it's a trio, but it's pretty fucking good. I am pretty against the couples that push the 7Seconds credo too far and live and rock together (see: dreck like Mates Of State) but I'm waiving that for Life Moves. Four songs, all of which fucking rip, if I might get all William F. Buckley with my flowery prose. Think Bridge and Tunnel (who are great, too) times ten with a big Jawbreaker fixation. Erica's got a set of pipes on her, like Chris Wollard meets Tim Armstrong's ex and it suits Canino's rasp just fine. The opener Can't Stand It is probably my favorite of the four tracks on Life Moves, but it's one hell of a tight race, with Scrooged an almost imperceptible second. I can't recommend this enough. Pick it up immediately from Rumbletowne here.

R

Shorebirds - It's Gonna Get Ugly pt. II: the review

It's been deposed of late by The Hold Steady, but in past years the heights of my obsessions in the rock world have revolved around my dear departed Jawbreaker. I heard a lot of the first Jawbreaker record quasi-osmotically by living next door to (the only JS-NYC follower) David's then-girlfriend my freshman year of college and was re-introduced to Unfun (and the Whack and Blite EP) by whatever member of Stigmata sold the Shredder reissue to me by mistake instead of the first Jawbox record at Music Shack. How any ear-possessing humanoid could hear the opening Want and not fall in love with Jawbreaker or Chris Bauermeister's bass playing is beyond me.

My love for all the post-Jawbreaker projects has lead me down a lot of paths (Jets To Brazil, Horace Pinker, Whysall Lane) but the most satisfying of late has been Olympia, Washington's Shorebirds. They have split already, leaving a couple 7"s and this full-length It's Gonna Get Ugly. Christ, is this a good fucking record. This is Top 10 for 2008 for sure over at JS-NYC. The band featured Jawbreaker bassist Chris Bauermeister and was helmed by ex-Latterman guitarist Matt Canino, who also released it on his own Rumbletown label. He also appears to be a bike punk, which will never detract from a band in my eyes. I need to go back and check out the Latterman stuff, but between this record and the Iron Chic demo, I haven't had a chance to look back. If both Matt and Phil were bringing their A game like they seem to on these releases, I can see why kids were so bummed when Latterman split up.

So about It's Gonna Get Ugly. It's 12 songs in 27 minutes and all of it, if I may use technical jargon, fucking rips. Bauermeister is mixed way up front, barrelling through the tracks like a freight train. Canino's got a good Wollard meets Smalley voice that suits the gritty music nicely. Frankly, I found most of the Oly kids back in the day to be pretty fucking irritating, but if this is the kind of punk rock that's coming out of the deciduous rain forests these days, you can sign me up. I'd put them up there with Banner Pilot and the late Cardinal Sin.

From where I'm sitting, the best track (and, believe me, that is saying something) on It's Gonna Get Ugly is The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer, a man who was probably on Andrew's radar from the get-go, but is new to me. Either way, props to the late Mr. Heemeyer and his family. That's a hell of a way to go out. It's a bummer that Heemeyer and Shorebirds are gone, both parties were formidable juggernauts. You can see footage of Heemeyer here. Check it out, then pick up the musical equivalent from the good folk of Rumbletowne here. Vinyl only, which is a silly is it is admirable. I can see going the Shellac route of releasing the vinyl before the cd, but this is a record that really needs to be heard, even if it is posthumously.

Canino has hit the ground running and already formed a new band called Reviver that I'm pretty eager to check out. Sadly, they appear to be so DIY as to not have a web presence, but if anyone tracks it down, dash off a missive, will ya?

R