Cinema Beer Buddy Cd and DVD, Various Artists
Compilations are ace. When I first started getting into punk music many moons ago I scrabbled around to get my grubby mits on the early Punkorama and Fat samplers to discover 'new' bands. Since then compilations have become ten-a-penny and the number of truly great ones has fallen by the wayside. 'Cinema Beer Buddy' is a good, but not great, CD and DVD collection that is a must-buy if you're new to the genre, but not really worth splashing out on if you're a veteran.
Looking at the tracklist you will see some of the world's heavyweight current artists. Jimmy Eat World and AFI have sold sackloads and if the music mags are to be believed Thrice and Poison The Well won't be too far behind. Throw in fans favourite's Taking Back Sunday and Midtown, not to mention Thursday, and you have some of the hottest young talents around. The thing is each song chosen for this sampler is one of the respective band's best known hits. 'Bleed American' and 'The Days Of The Phoenix' were over MTV2 like a rash and efforts by Audio Karate and The Ataris have also made underground TV channels. So while you are getting great value for money in terms of quality, with not one rare or unreleased song on offer, don't expect too much. Obviously there are some surprising gems hidden in amongst the more well-known tracks, with Stairwell amd The Beautiful Mistake coming over well.
The DVD features each song on the cd so you can listen and watch at the same time if you so wish. Some of the videos (AFI, Jimmy Eat World) have been seen a million times before, but the Taking Back Sunday, Thrice and Midtown efforts are particularly welcomed. Poison The Well and The Beautiful Mistake feature strongly too. But punk DVDs of this ilk aren't as impressive as they were a year ago, with the internet a perfect tool to download your favourite band's latest track. Bearing that in mind the difference between a good and great effort is the quality of the layout and the added extras. Unfortunately 'Cinema Beer Budy' doesn't really score highly on either account. I guess it's a budget sampler for a reason...
Taken for what it is this release has plenty of great songs and some good videos - so job done. Unfortunately, the chances are you've probably heard or seen the best bits before. If you're new to punk/emo/hardcore and want to get into the more melodic and popular end of the scale, then you really need not look any further than this record. Otherwise this record is a very good heard-it-all-before effort that probably won't top your wanted list...
3 stars for the CD
3 stars for the DVD
www.hopelessrecords.com
Paul
