This Seattle based band have been kicking around for a good few years now but most notably for British readers they have recently toured the UK with FLOGGING MOLLY and made an appearance at this year’s Wasted festival. BYO Records have re-issued a couple of old releases by THE BRIEFS with this, their debut, being one of them.
What is served up on this thirteen track album is a large portion of old-school influenced pop-punk, now whilst it’s far from being gourmet it does appear to have the capability of satisfying; unfortunately though there are a few unbearable moments on here too, which I’ll come on to later. For the most part however, the good tracks are just too few and far between which, in turn, denies a tip of the balance from a mediocre album to anything better.
‘Poor and Weird’ is not only the opening track but probably the pick of the bunch; admittedly it sounds like RANCID circa ’94 right down to the scrappy guitar tone and simplistic yet highly effective melodies, they pull it off well enough though making it a strong point, if that’s your bag. ‘Sylvia’ makes good use of the group vocals in the chorus, but already, after only a few tracks in, my attention often wonders – haven’t I heard all this before?
As I mentioned previously there are some shocking moments on here; ‘New Shoes’ springs to mind along with the abominable ‘New Case’ which passes reference to a case of genital crabs and I quote from the chorus: “I got a new case of crabs, got a new case of crabs, got a new case of crabs, I got a new case…â€, I didn’t find it as amusing as it was perhaps intended but I’m also not fourteen anymore.
The band do little wrong on this album other than the exceptions above, but there is also little here to ignite a new found passion for this band with this being my first experience of them. For fans of pop-punk (the old style) this lot could well be worth checking out as I’ve heard a lot worse. The problem is there’s just nothing here that hasn’t been done over and over before and ten years ago at that.
-Mike
www.byorecords.com
www.thebreifs.com