Noi!se - This is who we are LP (2011)

Tracklist:
01. Living for today
02. Brothers in arms
03. Warrior down
04. Take 'em all (Cock sparrer cover)
05. This is who we are
06. On the outside
07. What happened to the kids?

Released by Longshot in 2011.

First of all i dont know what crack i was smoking when i took the photos yesterday. Out of focus and no lightning but i just cant find the strength to do it all over again since i took pictures of about 20 albums all in all. Expect horrendous coverarts to come in the future.

Excellent 10'' release by the band. Starts of strong with the youthful Living for today and even if the rest of the A-side is below good they look good when compared to the cover of Cock sparrer (seems they really lacked inspiration when they decided to make this song). Anyways the b-side more than makes up for it.

This is who we are, On the outside and What happened to the kids are in my eyes all modern classics and to throw them on a B-side is wierd when they kick the shit out of tracks 2to4. Guess most songs on B where a bit old at this time but still deserved the A-spot if one asks me.
Good and solid streetpunk with a heap of slingalong anthems. One of those records that i probably wont ever stick in the back of the crate and well worth your cash as well.
9/10

Download

Can still be bought at:
Interpunk
Machete
Rebellion

This is who we are (live)

Brassic getting ready to drop 7''

Brassic with new guitarist performing Justice which will be on their upcomming 7''. More info on label and distros soon.

Court Street - Demo (2012)

Tracklist:
01. Dance with the devil
02. Scrappers 'til we die

Court st scrappers have recently changed name into Court Street and are releasing a record solely sold through Bandcamp. This means all money straight into their own pockets just how punk should be. If this band sells 1 record they have instantly made more money than any band that "sells" it through Longshot and some other shady labels has since they get 0 money for every sold copy of any records but instead get "the promotion" that they could get for free if they sent it out for free to zines and  sites. No sucker deals and no need to censur anything so someone else can make money on your music. It has my support thats for sure.

Like their old release this is skinhead hardcore a genre i am far from comfortable with but have come enjoy more and more the last year. I think my main problem with the genre was that the majority of the bands where making this instead of pure Oi! but now when most trendy bands play Mods-influenced Oi! i can relax and quench my loathing.

Both songs are fast and rely quite heavily on good guitarparts that wont let you down. On top of that they both use audio from Batman (1989) which any kid of the 80's-90's can enjoy in the old "hey i know this" kind of way. Personal favourite is Dance with the devil which sort of reminds me about the hoodie hardboy stuff that came out of NYC in the 90's. Good and hard somethingcore that even i can enjoy.

Download from me

or give them a dollar over at

Bandcamp

Almighty Lumberjacks Of Death - Always out of control but never out of beer 7'' (1989)

Tracklist:
01. Almighty lumberjacks of death
02. Devil girl
03. Drink beer
04. Motor City trick or treat
05. Voices of the dead

Released by Force Majeure Records in 1989.

Classic band with a classic record that was included in the ALoD's discography album from 2005. This is the proper vinyl rip though and with full coverscans some of you out there might be interested in it.

Won't go in on the album itself since i already reviewed the discog-cd. Devil girl is still the best track and all of that.
Click Almighty Lumberjacks of death for review of disco-album and one of the most nerdy bandintroductions ever
8/10

Download

New 7'' from Concrete

First EP in connection with their CD entitled We are all subculture street troopers has just been released. Rebel Music does the pressing and it's called Subculture Street Troopers (yes it's awesome). It can be bought here for the time being but will probably end up on Rebellion Records and Rebel Sound in the future.

Subculture Street Soldier (live)

More current than ever.

http://usofoiofsweden.blogspot.se/2009/11/lyrics-for-bandera-by-first-strike.html

Purchase in US
Purchase in Sweden

Broken Heroes & Armed Suspects - For the punks and skins LP (2011)

Tracklist:
01. Armed supects - Broken & bruised
02. Armed supects - For the punks and skins
03. Armed supects - Leather tramp
04. Armed supects - Regret
05. Armed supects - ...and on the speakers
06. Armed supects - My life
07. Armed supects - Left to the sharks
08. Armed supects - Viking quest
09. Broken Heroes - Zero tolerance
10. Broken Heroes - Newton mutant
11. Broken Heroes - Oi! don't pay the bills
12. Broken Heroes - Park west diner
13. Broken Heroes - PC bastards
14. Broken Heroes - Rich mans war
15. Broken Heroes - Skinhead Rock'N'Roll
16. Broken Heroes - Sick
17. Broken Heroes - Cougars
18. Broken Heroes - You Suck!

Released by Oi! The Boat in 2011.

One of the albums i was most psyched about before it's release. Broken heroes which is one of my favourite oldschool US bands hadnt released a proper album for over 6 years and Amred Suspects had just released their phenomenal acoustic album the year before. So.... on paper this looked like the perfect split but as soon as i watched that awful musicvideo that was supposed to spark some interest before the release i knew something was a bit of. First of all i noticed that AS vocalist had started rapping in the songs and secondly this album entitled "For the punks and skins" seemed to cateer for everyone except the diehard punks and skins.

Armed suspects might be a bit to soft for me but i have always liked them and their East Coast attitude. This time around they really let me down and i cant understand what went through their heads when recording these songs. One proper good song in the bunch (Left to the sharks). AS are all nice guys the few times i have talked to members but this is one of those albums that should be dismissed and forgotten for the sake of everyone involved.

Broken heroes didnt get their comeback with this album but the reason was not really "bad songs" but instead "old songs". Most of these songs are re-recordings of old songs or songs that had already been released on comps by Neck Records etc. Broken heroes DID prove that they still deserved the scenes respect in 2012 when they changed vocalist (Scotty Violence who actually played in Armed Suspects before) and released what in my oppinion is a modern classic called "This is Oi!". Superb album and the comeback this band of old needed.

Weak A-side and a good but far from exciting B-side resulted in the biggest letdown of 2011. Stay away from this record and purchase "This is Oi!" from 2012 instead.
5/10

Download

Or buy it from:
Oi! the boat
Black Hole
Step1

Rebellion

Armed suspects - For the punks and the skins

Note to US Oi! bands: Don't look at what retards like Skinhead Rob does and copy it.

The Booked - Harbor City Rock and Roll (Music video)

Awesome song from their 2012 album called On the attack. Has that distinct sound of other Texas bands like Roots of Exile. (Review and upload comming according to the 3-year rule i have)
Purchase the album at Cadre

V/A - A Better Tomorrow 7'' (2011)

Tracklist:
01. Noi!se - Idle Action
02. Razors in the night - Frustration
03. The broadsiders - The good men do
04. Sydney ducks - Brannan's fall

Released by Longshot Records in 2011.

If modern hitrecords in Oi! is a thing then i guess this is it. A little ep that sold out almost at the same time it hit the distros. For good reasons since its a damn good comp but also much thanks to the fact that it gathers up all sides of the more comercial Oi! in the states today. Compare this compilation to the Werewolves in the city LP released around the same time and you will realise that there's two degrees of Oi! in the current scene. One is stillstuck at streetlevel and is as uncomfortable and politically awkward as the bands of old in the UK where. This EP gathers up the bands that you can easily bring home to your mother for dinner. It's easylistening with few nails in the eyes of the listeners. It might sound like i see this as something negative but it's a ying/yang thing and i'm happy these bands exist to the degree they do. It can't all be about killing politicians and marching on Washington with the head of your local sherrif as a banner.

Starting the comp of is one of my favourite modern US bands Noi!se with their now wellknown streetOi! sound. Band needs no introduction and if i have to pick favourites this would be the one.

Second band is a band that i might have been shitting on when they first came out. This is for the sole reason that i never liked their sound and couldnt understand what all the fuss was about. Calmed down a couple of years on and i can understand it (even though it's still not my thing). They play rough Oi!core (if that still is a genre in the 00's) with the typical stops, breaks and shoutouts. It's what it is and people seem to be all over it like fat kids on cake so hey who am i to judge.

B-side is more for the rockin crowd and has the southern kings of Rock'n'oi! delivering an awesome and brand new song then handing the torch to Sydney Ducks that finnish things of with their more mods influenced sound. It's a good combination of what modern US Oi! is and the varied sounds that coexist but i feel that it somehow skips the sound that is the most important. The unpolished and Oi!-sounding Oi! and if they would have featured any of the werewolf bands from the eastcoast or some of the classic bands that where all doing comeback albums around this time i think it would have gone full circle but for now it's an almost perfect representation of the modern US scene (with some of the best coverart to ever leave the presses at the Longshot studio).
9/10

Download

Or buy it from Corpitus.

Noi!se - Idle action

Empire Falls - Terror Born CD (2011)

Tracklist:
01. Terror Born
02. Seekers of truth in an age of lies
03. My Eternal Antagonist
04. Left Wing Nuts
05. Fresh Blood Invite
06. Coup Detat
07. Where do i turn
08. Intolerant Crew
09. Death by Omission
10. 15 Years
11. I stand in Defiance Alone in the crowd
12. Harder they fall
13. Distant hopes, Immediate fears
14. Written Word
15. War is Inevitable
16. Deity
17. Sacrifice (Flipper cover)

Released by EF Records in 2011.

A real new record from EF with only one old song? It sure is and even though it's far from Oi! i am happy to announce that it's far from crap.

EF is one of those bands that many like me just can't stop to be facinated about. They often go out of their way to annoy their own "crowd" and in some mission to become the ultimate outsiders they burn all bridges and as soon as you think you got them figured out they jump out of the shower and smack you over the head with the biggest fuck you ever. It's not in the way Anal Cunt annoyed their crowd with Picnic Of Love but in a way they tend to piss of even their most devoted listeners when flipfloppin back and forth between genre's and pissing everyone of with their anti-PC rethorics (me included at times). Once pissed of though you can take a step back and just enjoy the music wether it be metal/punk/hardcore/rac/oi and realise that they are actually a bunch of quite competent songwriters and musicians.

I am not a huge fan of guitarmasturbations or lyrics about world conspiracys but even so i like this record. Songs like Terror Born really gets addictive with it's pure hatecore sound mixed with some (what i think is) distand bongodrums going on all while Bryan shows of his skills of 15 years as a hardcore singer. Add the anthemtrack Intolerant Crew and the metaldownbeat madness of Fresh Blood Invite to the mix and you got one hell of a reason to get this album. It's far from Oi! with many songs like Alone in the crowd falling flat before they even start it's far from perfect, but still.

Empire Falls might be dicks but with this album they're a dick i'll gladly have poking in my ear for the comming months.
8/10

Download

Terror Born

More issues with uploads (perhaps).

Seems most folk get their downloads without any issues since i switched to uluz but some are still having problems it seems. Got this message today:

"the fucking uloz.to site wont let me download anything since tropel. everyting from tropel til now comes through into my downloads, (im on a mac) with the file name "Ps", and when I click on it to convert from rar to mp3 the file opens with textedit and looks like ten million lines of code. ive tried copying the code and inserting it into my rar decoder (UnRARX) and the decoder wont let me."

Are more having problems of the same nature or even more importantly a solution for the problem? My technical skills end somewhere  around uploading music and downloading pornography so not my strongest side really.

Noi!se - How we made it through (musicvideo)

From their latest record The Scars We Hide.