posted 09/18/2005 (Sun) @ 10:31 pm
>>> Music Reviews
Rx Bandits - The Resignation (2003)
Skank!
- Sell You Beautiful
- Prophetic
- Newsstand Rock (Exposition)
- Overcome (The Recapitulation)
- Never Slept So Soundly
- Taking Chase As The Serpent Slithers
- Republic
- Mastering The List
- Falling Down The Mountain
- Dinna-Dawg (And The Inevitable Onset Of Lunacy)
- Pal-Treaux
- Decrescendo
Assuming the acid-wrought art damage cover art didn’t immediately pique interest, here is a consumer exercise:
Imagine your favorite punk rock album. Now, replace the sloppy playing, half-baked guitar solos, and whiny, Rotten vocals, and replace them with one of the tightest rhythm sections ever witnessed by human ears, gorgeous, harmonized sax-plus-trombone riffs, and a singular voice that positively drips sincerity.
You’re not listening to the radio. You’re listening to the RX Bandits firing a shot across its bow.
Whichever background you hail from, there’s something to like on “The Resignation.” From blistering punk rails against superficiality (”Sell You Beautiful”) to politically-charged reggae rave-ups (”Overcome”), to moody, dark dance-rock that, for once, actually takes absolutely no inspiration from Depeche Mode at all (”Taking Chase As The Serpent Slithers”), it’s a record that fires on all cylinders and never fails to deliver (”Decrescendo”). If none of this is intriguing, there’s also at least one 7+ minute prog-flavored adventure present, and enough energy to power a steel drum factory.
You can complain about the lyrics in a time where one of the recent pop hits of the moment included the line “you make me wanna la-la.” You can pretend that it’s not interesting music and that you’re “above” such “juvenile” endeavors. You can even play the part of the checker-pantsed ska ubermensch and myopically declare that there are better ska records to be found, in blind assumption of a singular genre’s uncontested dominion over all things musical (see: metalheads).
You can do any or all of these things… and you can also get the hell out of my car/apartment/place of business.
Tags: best of 2003, hard rock, political, punk, reggae, rx bandits, ska, vocalists
