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