Boston's
Explosion
make the major-label leap with
Black Tape
, but their decision to leave the independent ranks hasn't diluted their exuberantly revivalist sound. Recording
Tape
with helmer
Jason Carmer
at a remote outpost of Idaho, the quintet triangulates the
Social D
streets of Los Angeles with the urgency of the D.C.
hardcore
tradition, and runs it all through the 1977-begging street
punk
of Boston's proud neighborhoods. There's more clarity in this approach than the tack taken by some of
the Explosion
's peers, who blend the rawness of
with somewhat incongruous elements (elaborate string sections, say, or
hip-hop
beats). Instead of blowing up their sound,
have constricted further the already economic playing of their
Jade Tree Records
past.
concentrates on 12 songs with righteous vocal melodies and an array of guitar tones that recall 1993 (think
Jawbreaker
's
24 Hour Revenge Therapy
) or even earlier. First single
"Here I Am"
and the twin kick of
"I Know"
and
"Filthy Insane"
are undeniable jags of group choruses and devastatingly effective
revivalism; they hurl empty pint glasses in the direction of
"Atrocity"
"Go Blank,"
where
Matt Hock
wonders with true honesty about the broken world we're living in. "I won't fight in any wars and I can't stand to see much more...But if you want a better world/Then I'll be right behind you." His lyrics connect
to that sense of volatile hope that pulsed through American
in the early '80s. Back then, kids started bands to get angry, but also to have a voice, and hopefully find some answers.
The Explosion
preaches for unity in that tradition, and scene honesty in the rousing
"No Revolution."
On
, they're always railing against something larger (as the
-derived opener
"Deliver Us"
does right away), instead of dwelling on the inner pain and heartbreak that seems to so preoccupy their revivalist contemporaries. ~ Johnny Loftus