World Famous Record Reviews

Some Record Reviews from Reglar Wiglar #21 for you to enjoy until the Website goes back up, hopefully, tomorrow

A18
Dear Furious (Victory)
www.victoryrecords.com
Would someone kindly, please tell me just what the FUCK everybody is so angry about? For Christ's sake, people, lighten up. A18 is a SoCal hardcore/metal band that's been growling around the scene for about a half dozen years or so. Heavier than some, angrier than most. Don't worry. No new ground was broken in the making of this record-Irresistible Frank

THE BRIEFS
Sex Objects (BYO) www.byorecords.com
Love it. Love. It. The Breifs are a living, breathing homage to the best punk rock of the 70s and somehow they do it without sounding cliched, out dated or too terribly derivitave. A welcome blast from the past that's planted firmly right here in the present. IF you have one Good Charlotte CD in your collection you should buy three copies of Sex Objects to get your punk rock karma back on track . . . and so you won't burn in hell-Irresistible Frank

THE GAMITS
Antidote (Suburban Home)
www.suburbanhomerecords.com
The Gamits kinda float to the top of the bowl in the power pop/punk genre in my esteemed and much sought after opinion. It's got some catchy hooks and singer Chris Fogel doesn't milk the whine so much. Not like some of these guys, know what I'm sayin'? Antidote starts off with the "Dotted Lines," a high note not duplicated on the rest of the album, although some moments come close. "Golden Sometimes" being an example-PC Jones

A Haiku Review
ENGINE DOWN
Engine Down (Lookout!)

Emotional rock
fighting angst and ennui
living is hard, no?

TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS
Shake the Sheets (Lookout!)
www.lookoutrecords.com
An accomplished guitar player in his own right and a literate lyricist, Ted Leo and his RX buddies, create a sound not unlike his predecessors, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, and others in the angry young man, singer/songwriter category. Perhaps angry is a bit overstated. More like disappointed. Disappointment in people or things (or governments maybe?) that don't live up to their own high expectations can lead to anger, which can in turn lead to such cathartic measures as Shake the Sheets -Jayne Wayne

THE UGLY BEATS!
Bring on the Beats! (Get Hip)
www.gethip.com
Nobody understands my pain. Maybe God does, but he lives way up in space and is therefore removed from my mortal sufferings. But maybe, maybe The Ugly Beats! understand my pain. They certainly sound like the do-Irresistible Frank