BailoutFormed in 2004, these guys from the surrounding suburbs of Washington, DC have released a demo, a split 7" with The Spark, and self released their own 7" all while playing shows throughout the DC area and the rest of the East Coast. Sadly, the band has decided to call it quits because Porter (guitarist) has joined the Peace Corps (good luck with that man). As much as it sucks to see them go it's also a good thing, because otherwise this discography wouldn't be out. The album is full of 36 fast-paced, straight to the point hardcore tracks that usually struggle to get to the one minute mark. In terms of music, these guys do a good job of keeping things interesting in one minute doses. Although what they play isn't even remotely close to being "groundbreaking" they are able to craft songs that have their own identity. The nice bass playing also adds a great deal to the songs with some random slaps and pops here and there. Lyrically, I'm really liking these guys, they don't take shit too seriously. Even though the bulk of the lyrics are about having a good time, skating, egging people houses, and hating on the Cowboys, which you'll get praise from me all day long(GO EAGLES!), they also have some songs about the shortcomings of the hardcore scene and a song about date rape. Good stuff.
The production is what you would expect from a hardcore band's discography. Nothing fancy and polished, just a healthy dose of raw recordings to compliment the bands thrashing hardcore sound. The songs new to this release obviously sound better than their demo and first 7", that's not to say that the old recordings sound terrible, just not as streamlined sounding. For the most part the guitar tone sounds pretty good, though it sounds a bit thin at times. The bass sounded solid throughout this album, letting some of nice slap bass moments ring out nicely. The drums were a little flat on most of the recordings, but on the newer songs they had a bit of a better sound. The vocals throughout were solid, right in the mist of things with the instruments.
Can't complain about the layout. I'm liking the front cover art which features a cartoon illustration that looks like something you would've watched when you used to wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. And I'm loving the photo on the back of the album with the band members photos super imposed on to weasels. Now I ask you, who doesn't like to look at a funny weasel? Definitely a nice change of pace after you've seen so many albums artwork done on photoshop. Even though all of the fliers and photos were added to the enhanced part of the CD, I would've liked to see a little more in the booklet. Maybe some linear notes about the bands history and why they broke up, etc., but you do however get a nice collage of band photos and the artwork for the bands previous releases as well as the lyrics to all of the songs, which are displayed plainly in black and white. The enhanced cd section is a nice little treat; there are some show fliers, some band shots from shows, some extra songs that weren't included on the CD and even some videos which are all displayed over a nice pizza backdrop.
Rating: 3/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Warpath, Brain Dead, I Don't Understand
Thesis: This thing is going for $5 bucks from the band, label, and various distro's, so be sure to pick this thing up if you like these guys. I mean shit 5 bucks for fucking 36 tracks and all kinds of extra goodies.