American static - Soundtrack of the struggle CD (2005)

Tracklist:
01. Stick to your guns
02. Freedom
03. Independence
04. Youth
05. Take the world
06. Summer of '76
07. Poor and the proud
08. Hooligan
09. Bloody friday
10. Stand our ground
11. Handout
12. Bloodline
13. This is our lot

Released by Street Anthem Records in 2005.

An Oi!-ish sideproject by the streetpunk band Roustabouts.
The band comes from California and consists of Mark Roustabout on vocals and guitar, Jeremy Duffy on backup vocals and bass, Dj on guitar and Kurt on drums. This was the bands only release before going back to recording music under the name Roustabouts again.

The band is a good example of how most bands are far from bad... they just play bad fucking music. Roustabouts is one out of a million of generic and "straight out the mold" streetpunk bands that makes my stomach turn every time i hear their noise. The same members decide to get a bit tougher and start recording songs about working for a living and fighting for their class (branding it Oi!). All of a sudden i quite like the band and this makes me think about how many bands there might be out there that would actually speak to me if they cleaned up their act a bit.

The sound is far from Oi! in my oppinion but also far from any streetpunk. On some songs they remind me of their friends in Pressure point and on others they even make me think of the later Patriot.

Like most popfriendly punkbands the songs on their album are either hit or miss. I like most songs untill the chorus comes into play since thats when their streetpunk roots comes up to surface. Independence, Bloodline, Handout and the fantastic Stand our ground are the few that rise above the candycoated mass. The best song on the record though is the workingclass anthem called Bloody Friday. A fantastic song with some angry lyrics and rough vocals. Though just like their friends in Pressure Point they seem to mention a whole lot of problems and a whole lot of "fighting for freedom" but never seem to give an example of how they are actually going to achive anything. Instead of listening to this cd i would like to sit down and talk economics and social integration with them one night to see if they even have a clue what they are talking about or if they simply make confused "revoltpunk" for confuced kids in Che t-shirts.
A good and long step away from the Roustabouts but still many steps left to actually be my kind of music.
6/10

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The record is still up for sale at:
Interpunk
Ghettorock