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Wednesday 26 October 2011

Ear Infection Volume 1 Compilation

Ear Infection Volume 1 Compilation (2011) [DIY]
Holy fucking shit. 42 tracks! However at this length it doesn't make it onto a CD and is exclusively a free online download, which the link to can be found at the bottom. Right off the bat however I'm annoyed. The presentation in this is pityful. This person has went to all the difficulty of attaining tracks from all of these bands, but then never bothered to do a track listing, instead opting for alphabetical order by song title and then not even numbering these. Pretty poor. So after sorting that, cause am I fuck letting that fuck up the order of things on my laptop we're off. I am very excited about this compilation, it could be something really special!!! Track names, followed by the artist and their location

All I Need – Death Punch/Los Angeles, California - An explosion to start us off with rhythmic punk n roll with Davey Havoc inspired vocals. An excellent example of the LA scene.

Anti-social – Distortion UK/Truro southwest, UK
- Distortion UK's offering to the comp is an brilliant fast paced and heavy bass line song, hitting hard as it progresses through with a drumming pace that you'd never want your heart to beat at!

Blood Stained Decks – Rodents Of Unusual Size/La Habra, California - Screwed up face chanting lyrics at you with an element of drunken chaos. Simple guitar riffs however, which doesn't stand out too much, with an element of up and down bass riffs.

Cancerous Gold – Fiction Reform/Los Angeles, California - Progressive sound with female fronted vocals which sounds not unlike the voice fronting physcobilly band The Creepshow. Musically a very misfits sound to it, but more advanced.

Cemetery Shuffle – Stupid In Stereo/Kennewick, Washington - Physcoabilly. Talks about Cadillacs and sounds like country music. Look at the title, will Physcobilly ever write anything other than this? Not a fan of this genre at all, few people can pull it off.

Chameleon – Grandpa’s Porno Collection/Upton, California
- Possibly one of the worst band names I've ever heard! A very Bad Religion sounding band and while not a bad song, doesn't really stand out for me.

Changes – Saints Of Sorrow/York, Pennsylvania - Heavy handed bass lines right from the off set with this one from Saints of Sorrow and with a very early Rancid style to them they're not half bad, but again not a stand out for me.

Cheers To Beers – For Fuck Sake/Riverside, California
- This is more like! Hardcore duel vocal (female and male) that screams brilliance. A drunken sing along anthem, which you'd expect with the song title, that I'd love to hear more of. Do I detect a hint of Aus-Rotten? yes, yes I fuckin do. Lyrically it's simple, but when you're singing about beer, you don't need to be a fuckin poet.

Criticized – Pipes And Pints/Prague, Czech Republic - To say they're not influenced by the Dropkicks I'd be an idiot, but boy do they make it their own. As good as any Murphys song going and a rival for the, so-to-speak, number 2 spot of bagpipe punk with the Real McKenzies.

D.U.I. – Beantown Boozehounds/Boston, Massachusetts
- A relaxed but catchy drum start to this song and as it hits.... it's not what I expected! What sounds like a banjo kicks in instead of the heavy guitar I was expecting, but it's still pretty good. The vocals kick in however and this guys voice sounds like he's trying to sound gruff, but just doesn't quite get there. The songs about drink driving home.....

Diamond Geezer – Bin Laden’s Daughter/Elgin, Scotland
- The only band on this compilation I've seen live and had the pleasure of putting on. A weird offering from the band, with purpose no doubt, but the verse sounds a bit.... shit I don't know how to describe it, like it belongs in a 70s disco of sorts! Still, a good track somehow!

Domestic – Husbands N Knives/Newton Abbot, UK
- All I can see in my head is that band that way on the Young Ones, Amazulu! Its a nice song though and the women's voice is too die for, I just hope she's able to diversify it with their other songs and be as good as she is on this track. Musically it's simple, but effective.

Drinking Beer – K.I.L./Apple Valley, Colorado - The drums and bass will keep you bouncing when you see this live, the guitar will tell you what to do next and the vocalist will be yer best pal for 2 minutes as you share a beer and sing about it. Quite interested to follow up on this band.

Eat Sleep Work Repeat – Dorm Patrol/Stromstad, Sweden - Heavy pop punk... you read that right, heavy ass pop punk. And it's not half bad either. The quick repetitive bass lines in the chorus allow this song to remain heavy with the vocalist's voice being very pre-puberty sounding, but it works for them and if you're into pop punk, you should check this lot out.

First In Line – Throb Zombie/Tempe, Arizona - Light hearted sound of pop punk returns with a lovely bit of technical guitar playing and the vocals are strange as well, but again they seem to work quite well though, and again if you're into pop punk, they're not bad. They need to lose the backing vocals though on the chorus.

The Foremost – Into The Morning Sky/Bogor, Indonesia - Emo hardcore with an Enter Shikari

Friendshit – Stereodaze/Roanoke, Virginia - The vocalist sounds confused, like he's just been handed a lyric sheet and a microphone and told to go for it. Very slow pop punk, but to be honest there's a slight detection that the guitarist won't be able to play any quicker or better even if he wanted to.

Goldfish Think Tank – God Given Ass/Helsinki, Finland
- Hints of Anti-Flag and Punk n Roll combined together make this band a not bad listen, but to be there's just too much ripped off of anti-flag in the verse riffs.

Incisor – 20 Days In/Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - This is very slow grunge rock more than anything else. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden sort of stuff, with a drummer that wants to go faster, but his bandmates won't let him, but that doesn't stop him from throwing in some random double bass pieces. Not that bad if you're into grunge.

Maggie – Mouth/Falmouth, UK
Excellent street punk stuff without being lyrically over zealous as most bands are. The women on vocals sounds a mix between a good old English lass and Avril Lavigne, strange but for reason unbeknown to me, sounds fuckin ace! If this lot get a decent quality recording of their music they'd be very damn good. Go see them Live if you can, they sound like they'd be amazing.

Mother Theresa – Dead Sara/Los Angeles, California
- From sounding like Avril Lavigne, to musically sounding like Avril Lavigne. To be honest this doesn't sound like it would be out of place in Hugh Grant's next RomCom. The vocalist trys to drag it into punk with her vocals, but where Brody Dalle sounds like a gravel truck, she sounds like she's a got a bit of sand on her burger by mistake and ate it.

My Hometown – Baldwin Park Disasters/Baldwin Park, California
- This is some good hardcore music. Another duel vocal combination, they seem to be all the rage these days. A good song to get chased in a car by the cops too, screams energy and demands that you do something about it!

My World – The Marksmen/Bury St.Edmonds, UK
- Finally some Physcobilly/Rockabilly that doesn't involve talk of zombies or a shit Elvis vocal impersonation. I'm afraid for all those positive points, the sound is rather mono tone sounding and although a nice wee solo in the middle there, the drummer doesn't sound like he's even playing with two hands.

Nation Of Sedation – Girlfixer/Nottingham, UK - Punk n motherfuckin Roll here baby with the ever impressive Girlfixer. Good enough to rip apart any local venue in Britian and still good enough to compete on the main stages. Would love to get my hands on their album, this is punk n roll at it's finest.

Necromaniac – The Horny Bitches/Montreal, Canada - It takes a while, but once we get there it's 100mph. There's something about an all female band, I'm hoping, called the Horny Bitches that just screams "Fucking cool!!" and guess what, they're fuckin quality. The 3 separate vocals work well. With the main vocalist sounding pretty rough in the throat and it adds a great edge to an already musically awesome band. Again, would love to hear more from this lot!

The New Censorship – Static Anthem/(???) - I kept waiting for something to happen. It's like 70s Beatles style rock n roll from California. Horrible. Worst track on the record so far, so out of place and mind numbingly boring.

No Escape – Stench/Wolverhampton, UK - Holy Shit, when and how was this recorded! Asides from sounding like on a tape deck player in someones concrete garage in 1977, it's not that bad. Vocally it's very "I wanna beeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." but musically it's very car chase style riffs and the snot nosed in your faceness of this band are not bad. I can see this band throwing their instruments around an awful on stage, and so they fuckin should.

Nothing Happened – Johnathan Mitchell/Madison, Alabama - What is this? Another snorefest, what happened to this being a punk compilation, this is just some rock music with a guy on vocals who wants to sound like a very proficient vocalist, but simply isn't. Next!

Nothing To Do – The Mustard Men/Joliet, Illinois - These lads sound fun. A punk and rock combination, with some bleeding throat lyrics, there's a wee fast bit at the end for a bout a second, that sounds like it's about to spiral out of control, then .... it doesn't!

Paralyzed Glue – No!/Baltimore, Maryland - Right from the start these guys sound odd and then the opening line of "I tried to call you" and then that seems to set the standard for this song. It doesn't even sound very pop punky either it's outwith of that, it's just... music for 14 year old girls. It's just.... yeah, that!

Patty Melted – The Ashamed/Richland, Washington - Fast everything! However it sounds a bit mono-tone of the opening verse. The chorus then sounds rockabilly, then death metal drums for 2 seconds and back to rockabilly. What the fuck is going on here! This lot are covering all areas, then into the verse again and fuck the monotone bit, that's out the window now, this lot are fuckin crazy, and I like it!

Pigs Equals Bacon – Chaos Confusion/Linkoping, Sweden -Street punk, chant along, you know the drill. It's all very repetitive and to be honest the chorus doesn't sound like it was recorded properly, like one guy was holding off on it and couldn't quite find his cue. Not bad, but not great.

Pogo And Provocation – Vision Days/Svitavy, Czech Republic - These boys sound like proper boot boy nutjobs and that's good for me. And one of the best songs on this album. It's got everything, the speed, the beat, the drunken sing along, as well as the na na na na. haha! I don't give a fuck what you think, this song is fuckin brilliant. I want more of their stuff. The sounds like a great band to go and see!

Reality – Narcolaptic/Hamburg, Germany - I don't really know what to make of this, it's punk n roll, it's got a tiny rockabilly edge in there that works well and real rockstar sounding vocalist. The sort of guys who's way to thin and where his trousers as low as Iggy used, wears a cowboy hat and fucks all the women on the tour bus. This is good bloody punk n roll folks!

Shut Your Mouth – Boobie Trap/Orange County, California - It's very repetitive and the women on vocals stays at the same level all the time only changing to extend the word at the end of almost every verse line, just cause you've a women on vocals doesn't make her Beki Bondage folks, there's a few bands out there, big ones who'll remain nameless, that try this. Not a great track.

Sliver Bullet – Within Our Sins/Cleveland, Ohio - Pop punk, too start with that starts in the with the, in my opinion, too loud kick drum recordings. With a soft reassuring voice, before the heavy screaming voice comes in to show that "remember, this is a hardcore song" with the guy trying to rip off In Flames. Another aimed at the mid teen female.

Skaters Haters – Scrap Monsters/Izhevsk, Russia - Now your fuckin talking! Heavy handed, well co-ordinated attack of the senses. Get up and bump into everyone in the crowd with your trophy, your beer, held high in your hand. Proper street punk and the first I've heard from Russia, here's hoping their compatriots have risen to the same standard they've set for themselves. Another band I will definitely follow up on!

Something For The Weekend – Mispelt/Northhampton, UK - This is pretty damn good! The guitar sounds a bit all over the place during the verse, but the lyrics are fantastic as is the vocalist at delivering them, however the part with the backing vocals, doesn't sound good with someone else, their main singer should stick to it. The one with the rougher voice. Very unique sound and something I'm all about finding more of!

Sticks And Stones – Twenty-Nineteen/Rittman, Ohio - While a not bad punk rock song musically, although it's not standing out that much, it's a very whiney voice and it doesn't sound that great. I can hear what they're trying to do, but it just doesn't seem to be coming together for them in my opinion.

Walking On – Combat 77/Hannover Hildesheim, Germany - Musically fantastic, this sounds like a great punk oi band. The guitar riffs, the drums are a bit simple, but they need to be for this song and the bass. But good god, that vocalist has to go or do something drastically different. It sounds like a cabaret act over the top of some proper hardcore skinhead music. It's just all wrong. The lyrics are pretty bad as well. Sorry guys. You're 75% brilliant.

Wanna Scream – The Benwahs/Birmingham, UK - Musically they don't sound unlike The Transplants, with the crazy cracking up lyric adventure of the female vocalist, but it's all very thrown in together and while it just about fits, I can't help but feel like someone has taken a pair of scissors to the jigsaw to get that last piece in.

What’s In The Big Black Bag? – Standard And Poor/Riverside, California - Musically it's rock n roll, with a wee rockabilly bridge thrown in with a standard rock solo. Lyrically it's one of the worst songs I've ever heard.


Overall: In the end this compilation was not that bad. I managed to find at least 5 bands I'll be following up on and 10 more that would not be turned off if they were playing at a party if peoples attention had been drawn to it. But there are some crap tracks on here. Like fuckin horrible. 5 or so. And the rest to be honest is quite generic, neither here nor there, just.... available. 7/10



Thanks: Regardless of what I thought of your track, a big thank you goes out to every single musician who donated a track to this compilation and a thank you to the guy who put it together. It takes a lot of work to get so many bands together. Well Done.



If you would like to download this compilation please visit this link : http://blakow.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/ear-infection-volume-1-a-free-punk-rock-compilation/

2 comments:

  1. dude you are such a hater, and whether or not you like the songs, YOU shouldn't put down the songs these people worked for.

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    Replies
    1. Mate, I'm not hating, I'm giving my honest opinion. If I told people I thought there music was brilliant when I thought it was shit, all that happens is they keep making shit music thinking they're doing good. Someone out there is bound to like it, I don't, I tell it like it is, otherwise this is just a glorified cock sucking contest buddy.

      All the best.

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