Just watching Vagrant bloom into this rather large and dominating label in the punk rock / indie-emo spectrum has been pretty cool to see, and yeah, it certainly does help if you like their music along the way. This is the second installment in their “Another Year on the Streets” label sampler, and this one features a slew of unreleased, mostly upcoming material, that does its job in getting me encouraged about what is come from these guys and gals. HOT ROD CIRCUIT are probably their most anticipated “new band” and with good reason, since these guys have been playing their hearts out across the country for the past few years, getting on good tour after good tour. There’s two new tunes by them, “The Pharmacist,” and “Radiation Suit,” and I like them both, as they don’t stray far from the sound created on their last full length (poppy, catchy, and simple). Both AUDIO LEARNING CENTER and VIVA DEATH caught me somewhat on the wrong foot, with bands using snyths more than I appreciate it, but the former does a good job in the smooth vocals department. The best spot perhaps on the disc for me is the new material by FACE TO FACE. I don’t know why, but it sounds as if FACE TO FACE now has vocals done by Al Barr of the DROPKICK MURPHYS as Trever’s voice is gruffer than ever before. Both of these songs, “Bill of Goods,” and “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” are fairly hard, and in line with the edgier material on “Reactionary.” “A Wolf…” has some great bass-work, and the production quality is just supurb. NO MOTIVE and the ALKALINE TRIO toss up one released and one unreleased and both are consistent with past work, though A3′s song “Metro,” has a wildly cutting guitar lick that helps the song stick out like an infected toe-nail. Neither of the two DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL tunes are unreleased but both are favorites of mine, “Hands Down” (from the So Impossible EP), and the epic, “Screaming Infidelities”). Finally, HEY MERCEDES tidy this disc down with two strong songs, proving to me that Vagrant’s roster is not only chock full of hard-working bands, but of musicians who are rather talented in what they do. If Epitaph’s “Punk-O-Rama” is considered to be the “gold-standard” of cheap punk label compilations, then I’d say that the “Another Year on the Street Volume 2,” follows just as strong with a poppier, more rock laden audience. I dig it.

Vagrant

www.vagrant.com