The Blood Brothers
Young Machetes
(V2)
by Anthony Stassi
11.12.06
You either like the Blood Brothers or you don’t. And since they’re a band that will never, for any reason, stray too far from their thrashy, grassroots sound, no new album will ever change that. In that sense, they defy the preconception that bands, as they get older, should mature and write “tasteful” music. You know, tone it down. But isn’t tasteful kind of boring? If there’s anything the Blood Brothers will never be, it’s boring. Instead, they will continually evoke the mental image of kids in a garage sniffing glue and beating on brats; the Ramones of our generation, if you will.
The story with Young Machetes is no different. It’s still the same brand of A.D.D. punk rock; maybe catchier and better produced but the spazticity is still there. And while, with each album, they bare more of their potential to write accessible songs, it’s potential that will never be fully fulfilled. That’s the best part. Deliberately unrealized potential is so in these days! The two or three tracks of focused, stripped songwriting allowed for Johnny Whitney to break some new ground vocally. At times, he channels the ghosts of Jeff Buckley and Joe Strummer; I shit you not.
On a side-note, if you don’t go see the Blood Brothers and ...Trail of Dead on their co-headlining tour then you’re a boob.
Editor's Note: And on another side note, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO JOHNNY WHITNEY'S HAIR? u-g-m-o.
More on The Blood Brothers: www.thebloodbrothers.com / www.myspace.com/thebloodbrothersband. |
