The Arrivals - Volatile Molotov

The Arrivals have been around for six or seven years now, representing for the Chicago area and playing some blue-collar punk rock for older punks to have a beverage to. They first came on my radar through their sharing Patrick Costello in the bass slot with the mighty Dillinger Four. There are a lot of parallels between the two franchises spiritually, if not out and out musically, so the uninitiated would do well in considering The Arrivals a Chicago D4 as a touchstone. There has always been a Celtic and Clash leaning to their sound, but wonderfully enough the Thin Lizzy has erupted in them with strong stead with the new record. Volatile Molotov reminds me a whole lot of Lizzy with the guitar solos cut out. Granted, that removal does put a lot of pressure on the song end of things for The Arrivals, but our boys hold up their end of the bargain nicely. Isaac and Lil Dave are in fine form; paired with Matt Allison in the production chair and some help from Neil Hennessey you've got a new-school Chicago dream team. Not really a bad song here, Pull Down The Willows and Simple Pleasures In America have been the personal faves of late, but Volatile Molotov has received lots of spins at JS-NYC HQ in the last couple months and lots of tracks here are vying for the top slots. This is one of maybe 5 records I've paid for this year. Do the same here from your friends at Recess Records. Hopefully we'll get them back in town soon for a slot that isn't 2am on a Tuesday.

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Brendan Kelly and Joe McMahon - Wasted Potential

This digital age we live in allows for a lot of releases that maybe should have stayed in the realm of one-off tapes passed amongst friends and prospective paramours. This split release pairs one Joe McMahon of RVA transplants Smoke and Fire with Mr. Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms and adheres to the time-honored 'acoustic versions and some covers' format. It's ok, but far from anything that anyone should go out of their way to pick up.

Smoke and Fire were always kinda sorta ok for me. I had seen them at least once when they were Jericho and from Boston and definitely saw them on a couple of the last Fifth Hour Hero shows, but they never really caught on for me. McMahon fares the best here, revisiting a couple tracks and doing a Johnny Cash cover. Kelly sounds like he got shit-housed and dashed off the seven tracks in the time that it took to sing them. It's that attention to detail that has kept me out of Lawrence Arms shows in recent years. There's a fine line between being shit-housed and non giving a shit and I'm finding Kelly more and more over the line. Wasted Potential, indeed. That said, I'm sure that Kelly is not losing a moment of sleep over the lack of JS-NYC advocacy and truth be told, his blog Bad Sandwich Chronicles is one of the best on the interwebs. Here's hoping he musters up an appreciable level of enthusiasm for his next release. Superfans and stalkers can get Wasted Potential here from Red Scare or as, it is a co-release with Anchorless here from them.

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Noise By Numbers - Yeah, Whatever...

Hey, Danny Vapid is back. They sure do have a work ethic in the Midwest. I believe that Danny is still a member of Screeching Weasel, The Methadones and the Riverdales when those franchises are active, yet he still has time to team up with Neil Hennessy (the only man who can lay claim to anything close to Mikey Erg's claim to the punk rock polygamy crown) to come up with his best project since Sludgeworth. There are touchstones from all the aforementioned projects, as well as a little Alkaline Trio and Raygun for good measure (and perhaps Union compliance). Props are due to Eric for hipping me to this. Pick up Yeah, Whatever cheap here from your friends at Asian Man Records. Keep tabs on when and if they are going to make it out of the Midwest here. Hennessy jockers should be aware that he only played on the record and, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't play with them live.

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Banner Pilot - Collapser

Finally, the long talked-about new Banner Pilot record is here. It's called Collapser and it's on Fat Wreck. It's not terribly surprising that a new label is in the game, as I'm pretty sure their demo got better distro than Resignation Day got through Go-Kart.

Lest you be concerned, Collapser sounds like a Banner Pilot record. That is not to say it doesn't sound a lot like various Blake Schwarzenbach franchises we've enjoyed over the years, or that the gents are ignorant of The Lawrence Arms and Asian Man era Alkaline Trio. Both readers here realize than none of the aforementioned bands are hated at JS-NYC HQ and that I am pretty queer for the Minneapolis punk rock, so let me make the shocking disclosure that I'm pretty into Collapser. I think it takes a little bit of time to get under way, but Farewell To The Iron Bastards and Losing Daylight are two tracks that will definitely be highlights of the new live set and all of the songs are more than worthy additions to the BP canon. When we will see them in this small town we call NYC is up in the air. I spoke to Nate at Insubordination Fest and he thought they might be out here with Dead To Me and AmSteel. Doing the math, I hope it's a proper tour and not a CMJ show. CMJ gets to be more of a nightmare every year, and since it's easily been five years since Banner Pilot played in town I think we deserve more than 25 minutes. Don't get me started on the regional record release shows wherein the East Coast show is in Chicago. Really, guys?

My bitchy douchebaggery aside, you would do well to pick up Collapser pronto. The twelve songs pass in just a little over a half hour, making repeated plays pretty much a necessity. Set those wheels in motion by popping over to Fat Wreck and grabbing a copy here. The Banner Pilot web presence can be found here, should you want to enter their little corner of cyberspace.