BANQUETS really need no introduction. You will be hard pressed to find many Best of 2011 lists in the DIY punk scene that don’t have Top Button Bottom Shelf listed somewhere amongst the writer’s favorite records of the year. In the past year, the New Jersey quartet has really hit their stride as a band, [...]

CAMPAIGN is sort of an interesting anomaly. They have received a fair amount of buzz and internet hype, but have played no more than five out of state shows, and only a few handfuls of shows in their native Atlanta. When you talk about bands who, under a traditional sense, have “done everything right,” Campaign [...]

You know, I never really listened to SAVES THE DAY much back in the day, but after giving CARPENTER’s Sea to Sky a couple listens, I feel like I sort of get what was going on. For some reason, “classic rock” and the likes of Jon Cougar Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen are constantly associated with [...]

One of the hardest parts of listening to a new record from a band you previously loved is the anticipation of “what is this going to sound like.” For most people, it is almost impossible to disconnect the album from the bands discography. I went through this with SMALL BROWN BIKE when they released the [...]

Oh, MAKE DO AND MEND, where to begin. I suppose it’s entirely meticulous that the only line repeated in two different tracks on End Measured Mile is “And it’s not right, now that all I know get caught between the gnashing teeth of the hype machine.” I don’t mean to throw these guys under the [...]

The plight of an aging punk rocker is an interesting one to say the least. In your late twenties, after a decade and a half of full throttle, angst-driven records and songs about the struggles of counter cultures, how many more fast, gritty, and snotty songs can you take before you just feel over it. [...]