Let's get the creative juices flowing shall we?
Brosided - Okeanas - Let us start by saying that this band may not even exist anymore as a functioning unit. Again, we are behind on the reviews. Let us follow up by assuming that their band name is an unfortunate translation issue. These cats are from Lithuania and most Lithuanian Americans I've ever met are pretty cool so we're just going to assume that "Brosided" means something important in their native tongue as opposed to how it sounds in English...which is, of course, like something a frat guy would say to describe a secret handshake. "Hey man, he's cool. He brosided me. Give him a beer."
This didn't do too much for the Beercan ears. Not bad by any means. They can play and "Alternative Amends" was actually a bit of a scorcher, but the whole thing is a little generic. Maybe I've just surpassed my hardcore listening quotient, but I think it's more harbored in that these European bands should sing in, and put song titles in, their native language. It's got to sound better than a song title called "Still Hardcore" or "Gap of Life". Imagine an OK American punk band trying to shoehorn their lyrics into a Lithuanian dialect. Why force it, right? (www.myspace.com/brosided)
The Commies - Preemptive Strike - Let us start by saying that this band may not even exist anymore as a functioning unit. Again, we are behind on the reviews. Let us follow up by reiterating that we here at Beercan must insist that bands send us an actual CD or tape or record to listen to. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when our occasionally self-important review staff shuffles through myspace requests listening through tiny, tinny speakers after having 5 to 7 too many beers. Said reviewer might fire off an email saying something like, "fiucking cool tumes. Send us a CF and whe'll reveir that shit." Then, under more stable states, whilst listening on a proper sound system, the same reviewer might think, "Fuck, I kind of jocked these guys and it turns out it's some ska-punk stuff that doesn't really turn my crank, if I know what I mean."
Let's move on since "said reviewer" is me and I feel like a dick for inadvertantly misleading these guys. (www.myspace.com/attackofthecommies)
The Coltranes - Demo - Let us start by saying...no wait, these guys are definitely still playing. And a lot by the looks of it. This CD that they forwarded to the magical PO Box just had like 4 or 5 songs on it and "the Coltranes" in some sloppy Sharpie handwriting. And that's great. Somebody in this band can fucking belt it out on the vocals and while a couple of the songs aren't completely fleshed out, in our humble opinion, there is some very, very good shit going on. And it looks like they have a full-length CD out since they sent this demo in called "Chrisbenoit". Creepy!
Look, I just got back from my 7th or 8th visit to California (these guys are from Temecula) and I usually end up leaving that state thinking, "man, those people are boring fucking assholes." Maybe I'm just visiting the wrong places, but this is the type of weird shit that my uninformed brain used to conjure up about what was going in in California before the reality of my real-life experiences punctured that mind-thought-balloon.
Check these cats out and help me prove my quasi-fact-based prejudices about Californians wrong. (http://www.myspace.com/thecoltranes)
