Not Fun was the first Brutal Knights song I ever heard, not counting the possibility that I may have been at one of their shows, drunk and not paying attention years and years ago.
This E.P. was also one of the first 7 inches I ever bought. Yeah, I haven't been collecting for long, but why the hell would I have bought records before I had a record player?
Anyway, Brutal Knights were my favourite local [Toronto] band for a couple of years (no offense, guys), probably from 2004-2006 (don't quote me on this). The Pleasure Is All Thine is still one of my favourite albums to come out of that city. I have many fond memories of Brutal Knights shows both in Toronto and in Kingston, including my then-future-boyfriend drunkenly teaching me how to skateboard after their set (I found out later he doesn't know how to skate at all), and the set they played in Kingston that was 2 songs long before they stormed offstage and vowed never to return again. I also have some not-so-fond-memories, like the time I realized that both Brutal Knights and Fucked Up were getting popular because I went back home to Toronto for a show they were both playing only to show up at 9:30 to find out it was sold out (i got in anyway, thx Mark) and full of hipsters, one of whom later tried to beat me up because she wanted my seat.
I far prefer The Pleasure Is All Thine and this E.P. (and anything else released around that time period) to Feast of Shame and Living By Yourself, but I know a lot of people who still fucking love them. So, download this shit.
Ideas Are Bulletproof-The Pist 01 - Still Pist 02 - Never Question 03 - Street Punk 04 - Dead In Its Tracks 05 - Alternative 06 - The Customer (Is Always Right) 07 - Slogans 08 - Ideas Are Bulletproof 09 - Small Town 10 - Energy 11 - Textbook Salvation 12 - Do What You're Told 13 - New School 14 - Great American Sportsman 15 - Perceptions 16 - Not Your Problem 17 - Song For You 18 - Black And Blue Collar 19 - Deal With It
THE PIST basically defined punk rock for me back in 1996 when a friend gave me a copied tape of their full length record IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF. I really had no idea what the record actually sounded like until about 3 years later though because the tape I had was in at least it's 6th generation: a copy of a copy of a copy etc. The best way I can describe this tape is to mention the cocaine that gets repeatedly stepped on hard by every biker in town before eventually ending up for sale to college kids at the local strip club. But, maybe everyone didn't grow up in a town like mine so I guess I'll just say it was shit and it was a relief when I finally got a hold of a vinyl copy.
All my tapes were like that back then though. I think I even got used to it and started to prefer the distorted and overly treble heavy sound. See, the only way I could get good music when I was a teenager was to copy tapes from travelling punk kids who actually saw the band play at some point, and were now stuck in Kingston, ON for some reason. These tapes were copied way too many times more often than not, but it had to be suffered. The local bookstore only ordered one copy of Maximum RockNRoll per month, and it was always on lay away for one of the employees (why they never seemed to want to order two per month was beyond me). The Internet was still a useless bag of smashed assholes for a lot of reasons then too, so even if you could find anything good on there it would take a week to download each song. With very limited access to mail order through zines and no good Internets it was tough work getting good records. But, I'm way off topic here now...
So anyways, the tape I had was of low quality but the album wasn't, and it was a big deal to me. Simple three chord hardcore/street punk put to some of the most genuinely pissed off vocals I've ever heard. Singer Al Ouimet sounds like a 50 foot tall skinhead who probably has cinder blocks for hands and could jump out of your speakers at any moment to rip your fucking head off because you bought a pair legit Chuck Taylors and everyone knows they're technically Nikes now. The delivery also makes it easy to understand every word on the record, which is rare, and perfect in this case.
Although most of the the lyrics don't have a lot of depth in the ideas they address, I think they are effective at conveying frustration and anger with American/western culture, and they put forward positive messages of equality, animal liberation, feminism, getting off your lazy apathetic ass etc. There is only so much that can be covered in a 2 minute song anyways, and I think it's important to keep these kinds of songs common in punk rock. There can never really be too many songs about how Nazi skinheads are shitty dudes and I don't think the punx should start ignoring how fucked up "the system" is either. I wonder if I would have bothered to educate myself on some of the issues that are so important to me now if it weren't for the politically charged punk songs I listened to as I grew up; as shallow and sloganary as so many of them might be.
All this being said, I hope I'm not giving the wrong impression... The lyrics are really well written, clever, and are a big part of what makes this album so fucking good. They are brutally honest and straight forward, and sometimes pretty funny. and I can recite every word on this record cold. Here's an example of why:
The Great American Sportsman
Here comes the Great American Sportsman With camouflage and a gun Here comes the Great American Coward If the odds were evened up, I bet you’d fuckin’ run
This ain’t no sport cause the deck is stacked against the prey You’re armed to the teeth, and they can only run away You’re a tough guy hunter, a real fuckin’ man If you are so tough, why don’t you hunt with your bare hands
Here comes the Great American Sportsman A member of the NRA Here comes the Great American Coward Hiding in the bushes, so you can sneak up on your prey Now you’ve jacked a buck and you can kick back with a beer Drowning all your sorrows, keep on running from your fear Finish off a six-pack and your feeling brave again Go brag about your murder to all your loser friends
I want to see a hunter caught in a leg-hold trap I want to see a hunter with an arrow in his back I want to see a hunter with a hook right through his cheek I want to see a hunter carved up like a piece of meat I want to see a hunter’s body, strapped to the hood of a car I want to see a hunter’s bravery when he is unarmed I want to see a hunter wounded and on the run I want to see a hunter through the sites of a gun…
Here comes the Great American Sportsman Who I wouldn’t mind seeing dead Here comes the Great American Coward I hope another hunter shoots you in the head
You carry a weapon to mask the weakness that you feel And your predatory stance mirrors the American ideal When the odds are in your favor, you go on the attack I’ll bet you wouldn’t venture in the woods if the animals shot back
Shoot back
IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF is in my top 5 punk releases of all time, and was a huge influence on me. I discovered it the band the same year they broke up, but luckily they did two reunion shows in 2007 so I got to see them play for the first time after an 11 year wait. The show was at some rented hall outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Cover was $5 or something and there was no stage preventing me from yelling my guts out into the microphone to all these songs. They played with ANNIHILATION TIME, CRIMINAL DAMAGE, and MUNICIPAL WASTE among others. Fucking ridiculous.
THE PIST are from Meriden Connecticut. They have a myspace page. IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF was released on ELEVATOR MUSIC in 1994. THE PIST recently released a kind of discography record, so go look for that. If you like THE PIST then you might also like EAST COAST PANIC and VOMIT PUNX.
I'm not good at making internets so had to include this (non) video so you could hear the opening track from the record without having to download the whole thing. I'm sure there was better way to do it, but whatever.
Leftover Crack - Fuck World Trade 01. Clear Channel (Fuck Off) 02. Life Is Pain 03. Burn Them Prisons 04. Gang Control 05. Super Tuesday 06. Via Sin Dios 07. Feed the Children (Book of Lies) 08. One Dead Cop 09. Ya Can't Go Home 10. Rock the 40oz. 11. Soon We'll Be Dead 12. Gringos Son Puercos Feos 13. Operation M.O.V.E.
Leftover Crack is one of the bands that I spent my teenage years listening to, and is probably the most important one for drunken memories that I'll never forget.
When I was about 15 or so I started going to local Toronto shows, as opposed to shows that only more popular touring bands were playing. These shows had a totally different crowd, and the people at the second kind of show, which I had just started attending, were more into punk, generally more active and passionate about the music, and lived downtown like I did. In short, they were more like me. This made for more frequent hangouts since we lived closer together than the people I met at bigger shows, and we all had similar passions, interests, and were stupid kids with nothing to do but homework. I made closer friends, I'm still close with most of them even though we've all grown up a lot, and most of us are still into punk and hardcore, though our tastes have evolved.
Leftover Crack was one of the bands we all had in common. Being troublemaking punk kids in a big city, we needed a place to hang out that wasn't our parents' house or a bar (since we were underage and the Q Bar didn't always let everybody in, and alleys at Queen and Bathurst were bait). We found our perfect squat in the middle of Rosedale, interestingly enough: the Don Valley Brickworks. Though today it's some yuppified farmers' market with like condos in it or some shit, when I was a teenager it was a dilapidated, condemned old brick factory that nobody ever went to. On the outside it was fenced in and boarded up, and the inside was filled with old machinery and spraypaint. We would go at night, drink, and make campfires (inside in the winter, outside in the summer).
Nobody bothered us. We had a tape player and one tape: a mixed compilation of Leftover Crack and Choking Victim, with both their CDs and unreleased demos/unmastered versions/etc. So you can deduce that I listened to a lot of Leftover Crack over the years.
Whenever I listen to Leftover Crack, it brings back a flood of memories of campfires indoors, drunkenly singing along to Rock the 40oz and waving our Black Bull 40s with gloves and hats on in the middle of the winter. Looking for firewood on the floors of a few of the many hundreds of rooms and alcoves in the factory with only a lighter to guide us. Writing the lyrics to Rock the 40oz on my chemistry binder in grade 10. Climbing on the factory roof and Marie falling through rotting shingles to her elbows (she probably nearly died). Crawling through the brick ovens with Jamie. Walking through Rosedale at 3am with a boombox blasting Leftover Crack and yelling along. Memories of my drunken youth that I wouldn't have had any other way.
This album is their newest one, it came out when I was an older teen, about to start university. I think it's vastly underrated by their fanbase, whoever that is. It's fantastic and probably ranks up there with the new Limp Wrist as among my favourite "new releases" from established bands. It's not as raw as their older stuff, but it's amazing. The lyrics strike a chord with me that can't be rivaled by those of any other band.
If you didn't like Leftover Crack before, give this album a chance because it's different and more refined. If you liked Leftover Crack's older stuff, or Choking Victim, give this stuff a chance. It's similar, but not as raw,though I wouldn't at all say that they changed their sound completely. It's still totally Leftover Crack, not better, but different. It'll never replace older LoC, but it has its own place right beside it for me.
if you're in a band that has had music publicly shared on this blog, and you do not want your music shared in this way, please contact me at iisabelllle@gmail.com and I will take it down as soon as I am able to.
please direct questions, complaints and corrections to the above email as well.
Posts
