Goldfinger
Hello Destiny
Side One Dummy (2008)
Men in their late-thirties making vague statements about the future's uncertainty under the guise of it being punk rock, there's something concerning about this. It's as if their quarter-life crisis is stretching into mid-life, arresting their development into adulthood. Hello Destiny, the newest album by Goldfinger, finds the SoCal band exactly in this position, angry at the world, rehashing the same bland rhetoric they started pushing since they became a "political" band at the turn of the century. While the music - fast paced, somewhat heavy punk that characterized the early Fat/Epitaph sound - certainly isn't anything to be ashamed of, it also seems kind of stale for a band that's been doing this for close to fifteen years. I'm not saying you have to reinvent yourselves every album, but a little variance would keep things interesting. And no, the ska/ reggae tracks on the album don't count because that, too, is a shtick now tired. Of course I can't say that I didn't see this coming, this was released on Side One Dummy. Their releases by MXPX and the Suicide Machines prove this is a label where bands that once were go to die after being eaten up by … Read more
Eugene Robinson
Fight
Hydra Head (2008)
Okay, so the more that I thought about this, the more ridiculous this concept feels to me, books on tape … Read more
Russian Circles
Station
Suicide Squeeze (2008)
Russian Circles' Enter was practically a life-changing album for me. Never had I heard a heavy instrumental band with such … Read more
The Tim Version
Decline of the Southern Gentleman
No Idea (2008)
At The Fest last fall I saw a lot of bands, most of which I had a previous idea of … Read more
