Go Team No Hope

Midway Still

Go Team No Hope

(Bitter and Twisted)

It’s albums like Midway Still’s latest (Go Team No Hope, their sixth LP, due out March 18^th) that keep me going and the very reason why I love music so damn much.  This band inspired me back in the early 90s with their brand of punk rock, which was more in favor back in the post-Nirvana haze, and now, almost 25 years later, they’re about to unleash their best album yet! 

In fact, when I listen to the frenetic opener, “Wicked World,” I feel like I could be that hopeful younger kid rocking out to “Wish” or “I Won’t Try” back when turning thirty seemed a world away (not to mention forty).  It’s refreshing!  Yet, at the same time, many of their songs are written for the older, the downtrodden, and the hopeless.  There’s no reason why we can’t pump our fists, play air guitar, and try to bounce around to instantly memorable kick ass songs like “Where’s Your Sunshine?,” “Hey Summer,” and the momentum gathering “Can’t Take It,” where drummer Declan Kelly goes about beating his drum set into submission (How does he do it?  My arms get tired just thinking about it).  The odd “Insect Limbs” reminds of SST era Dinosaur Jr, as bandleader Paul Thomson adds a layer of strummed acoustic guitar to the mix to lighten the sound a tiny bit inside the din of buzzing electricity.  Plus, like on their last album (2012’s Always Ends), there are two absolute stunners: the ultra-catchy “Only time Will Tell,” an earworm that I never want to lose, and the sharp and stuttering “Don’t Walk Away.”  “Only Time Will Tell,” along with the sort of ballad, “Next Life,” and the closing ode to the lost people of the world: “Go Team No Hope,” would all make excellent feature songs in an updated John Hughes flick, where the protagonists are still trying to find their way well into middle age.  Actually, scratch that, this album is better than that – the whole freaking thing should be played on repeat any time one needs to turn the volume up to 11 and let loose.

I say this about a lot of criminally overlooked musicians, but it amazes me that Midway Still aren’t more well known then they are.  Music this good – this addictive – should be heard and enjoyed by the masses.  Dive in now before they decide to disappear on us again.

(https://midwaystill.bandcamp.com/)

Water

China Drum

“Water” 7”

(Too Pure)

Oh my, did I love China Drum from the mid-90s or so until they disappeared from view a few years later!  All of their incredible singles and EPs leading up to their 1996 debut Goosefair were so stuffed with energy, excitement, and unstoppable hooks!  Don’t even get me started on their frantic and absolutely electric second album Self Made Maniac, where the songs all flowed into one another – turning it into an album that could not be turned off.  Doing so was a massive crime (there was a third album under the moniker The Drum, which I missed entirely).  The 90s was when the UK punk scene exploded with amazing bands like China Drum, Midway Still, Leatherface, Mega City Four, and Compulsion and unlike here in the US, they were all unique in their own ways – avoiding the sameness of the punk-pop Warped Tour sound that wore out its welcome the second the Warped Tour was conceived.  These UK bands were heavier, more substantive and gifted with better songs.  But this isn’t about who was better, this is about the fact that Midway Still rejoined the fold a few years back with new material, and now, 25 years after they began kicking ass, China Drum have graced us once again with some new music – this simple limited edition two song 7” single.

The original trio is back, but now bolstered with a second guitarist and a new drummer to allow singer Adam Lee to be out in front (I don’t know how Lee sang and played those frantic songs live, even though I witnessed it once at the Satyricon here in Portland).  “Water” kicks in with some muscular mid tempo drums and serious power chords letting us know that they are back to rock.  Each verse grinds along open and spacious, before the huge chorus kicks in with buzzing guitars and even some female background vocals from Kate Stephenson, the new drummer.  This is the “sound of water rushing past your ears” – refreshing as it washes over you.

On the flip, “Kitty’s Burn” returns the band to their speedier selves and another one of those killer sing-along choruses.  For a three minute song, it manages to be both hyper catchy, off-kilter with stuttering drum fills between lines during each verse, and dynamic with a tempo changing bridge. 

This is a solid reintroduction to a much missed band.  Now let’s see what happens next.  I sure hope this means they will continue to offer us new material.  Now, I’ve gotta go crank up the old collection and jump around the room.  Excuse me.

(chinadrum.co.uk)