Songs From The Penalty Box Vol IV, Various Artists
I hate writing compilation reviews because I always seem to write the same things. I always say "some killer, some filler, 3 stars." But I'm glad to say that for once I have something different to write about. Because this is a high quality purchase.
Tooth And Nail have got some very talented bands on their roster and 'Songs From The Penalty Box Volume IV' is a great showcase. As always there are some crappy tunes, but on the whole there are some very good ones too. Squad Five-O kick things off with 'Bombs Over Broadway' which sounds like something from the hair metal days of the 80's...still, you can always depend on Slick Shoes and although 'Hide And Seek' is short and sweet, it is a cracking song by a great up-and-coming young band.
Ghoti Hook also impress with 'Two Years To Never' and the fantastic The Juliana Theory blast out their emo stylings with 'To The Tune Of 5,000 Screaming Children'. The good times roll further, ahem, with 'The Good Times' by Dogwood and the excellent 'Head In A Cloud' by Craig's Brother. And things get even better with the superb 'Tonight' by Ace Troubleshooter. Pop-punk with an edge, if the rest of their stuff is as good as this expect big, big things...
Shorthanded sound a bit like Lagwagon and 'Doing Better' is pretty good. Huntingtons are good old fashioned punk and roll in the syle of old Bad Religion, and it's not too bad and although they are a lot slower, Puller's 'Hold On To Me' rocks in its own little way. Off The Record sound like a lot of the other Tooth And Nail bands and 'Another One' is likeable enough Ten Foot Pole-esque punk rock.
Things go a bit downhill from here though. The Deadlines play a kind of gothic punk and the vocals of Calibretto 13 aren't very good. And that's being kind... Still, Fanmail make up for it with the cracking 'Shut Your Mouth' and 'Standing At The Edge Of Night' by Element 101 is a nice perky chunk of female fronted pop-punk.
Blenderhead border on hardcore territory, but 'Twinkie Insanity Verdict' just lacks cohesion and The Deluxetone Rockets are just beedin' awful. So it's a good job that bands like Hagnail and The Undecided can still rock the pants off you. Infact The Undecided's 'Lifted' is one of the best tracks here. Stavesacre are legends and their brand of post-hardcore is well represented here, but unfortunately the sampler ends with two awful tracks by Furthermore and The Dingees.
As far as samplers go, for the price of a budget record you get 22 tracks of which two-thirds are really good. If you want to get into some new bands that have more than an ounce of talent, then this is the record that you need to buy.
Paul Savage
