This Is Not Entertainment

01. Iceage – New Brigade, (What’s Your Rupture.2011)
02. “Flaming Wreck” by The Pernice Brothers, (Ashmont.2001)
03. The Church – Heyday, (Arista.1986)
04. The Church – Of Skins & Hearts, (Second Motion.1981)
05. Army Navy – The Last Place, (eMusic Selects.2011)
06. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient, (Secretly Canadian.2011)
07. Beach Fossils – What A Pleasure, (Captured Tracks.2011)
08. The Capstan Shafts – Fixation Protocols, (Rainbow Quartz.2008)
09. Carbonas – Carbonas, (Goner.2007)
10. Harlan T Bobo – I’m Your Man, (Goner.2007)

It feels like it has been a year since I was able to listen to a significant amount of music. If you follow me on Twitter, you saw my tweets about the Iceage record. Admittedly, they were heavy on hyperbole, yet I still feel really good about the record. Punk is a genre that I fell in love with about 27 years ago, it is my go-to genre when I’m sick of current music (always The Dead Kennedys, The Sex Pistols). I’ll admit that most punk is one-dimensional and is difficult to hear something “new” (remember my love for Psyched To Die, while great punk with a serious songwriting bend, the sounds are totally 80s hardcore revivalist).

The first time I heard a fresh take on punk was in 1989 and the LP was Wrong by Nomeansno. They fused post-punk, jazz, avant-garde with the 80s hardcore movement and created a deadly blend of fury and vituosity. Nearly ten years later Swedish punkers Refused released the now-massively-influential The Shape of Punk To Come (perfect title for the sounds contained within). Refused took seriously confrontation to the nth, criticisizing the capitalist machine without compromise and creating songs rooted in punk rock but augmented with electronic music, technical math rock, emo (?!?), and 60s mod/garage rock.

After listening to Iceage about 10 times this week, I hear much that injection of something unique into the punk mythos. There are bonkers changes, Wire-esque post-punk, standard three-chord thrash, and at times catchy as hell. Is this the shape of punk to come? Maybe. I need some more time, but it is a record that continues to capitivate me.

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