Album Review: Descendents - "9th & Walnut"

 

We're a little bit late to the party with this one but the prospect of a new Descendents album is always something worth a listen. However, this is a bit of an odd one as the songs on 9th & Walnut actually date from the very early days of the Descendents, before even Milo Goes To College. Long story short, these songs were re-recorded in 2002 by the group's original line-up before Milo finally got round to remastering the thing and re-recording the vocals during lockdown last year.

9th & Walnut is pretty much classic Descendents formula with 18 songs zipping by in 24 minutes (the longest track on here, Nightage, clocks in at 2 minutes and 22 seconds) but, similar to Danko Jones, this is a group who are simply very good at what they do and lightning fast bursts of aggression like You Make Me Sick and Baby Doncha Know. However, there's definitely a more Ramones style sense of melody here than you'd maybe expect especially on the likes of I Need Some, Mohicans and It's A Hectic World - lest we forget these songs pre-date the thrash/hardcore punk movement that the group would base their sound on through the '80s (although the likes of Grudge definitely show this tendency was already developing in their music even at this early stage). The speeded up cover of the Dave Clark Five's Glad All Over (also covered by the Rezillos around this time) is pure early Ramones as well.

The production here is pretty good as well, allowing both the power and aggression to rise to the surface without sounding as if it was recorded by a tone deaf speed freak in a tin shed - plenty of power but a bit of finesse here as well.

Overall, 9th & Walnut is more than just an interesting document showing the genesis of this seminal band, it's also a collection of songs which really stand up well in their own right over forty years on from being recorded. Definitely well worth seeking out.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A brief return from the dead...

Image
  Yup, we're back. Don't all get excited at once. I’d been toying with the idea of doing an end of year list again this year and after a lot of umming and aahing eventually decided to go for it. As with last year, inevitably there were bumps along the way. As of the start of December, I thought this list would be around 40 albums but inevitably reading other people’s lists pointed me towards a bunch of stuff that had passed me by earlier in the year. Plus of course there’s always a few teasing buggers who put stuff out at the last possible moment. So 40 became 50 which became 60 which finally became 70. You lucky people. Actually though, reading through this list, the main thing that strikes me is that I think this might be the most musically varied end of year list that Nite Songs has ever done. From gentle acoustics through acclaimed indie veterans to punk thrash and good old fashioned scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll via some decidedly unexpected diversions (industrial folk music? Check...
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #90: Soho Roses - "The Third And Final Insult" (1989)

Image
  "If you won't love me then I'll find someone who will!"  - Soho Roses  - So Alone The Soho Roses were a classic case of right band, wrong time. If they'd broken on to the scene in the last few years then they'd have had a ready made audience on the 21st century power pop scene and probably be regulars at Some Weird Sin and similar club nights in the Smoke. The reality? They broke through towards the tail end of the '80s and got lumped in with the dying embers of the Soho glam scene, leaving behind one sadly underappreciated album and a few EP's before self-combusting. In a way, I sort of see the Roses as a British version of Enuff Z'Nuff. Not so much in terms of their sound but more of the fact that they were a group crowbarred in with glam who weren't really a natural fit there and kind of paid the price for it - I've always thought Enuff Z'Nuff sounded more like a Britpop band with flashbomb guitars than a hair metal band. Oh sure, ...
Read more

Album Review: The Fades - "Night Terrors"

Image
  Hailing from South London, the Fades are gaining a reputation of one of the premier garage rock bands in the capital these days and, as with a few albums we've reviewed in these webpages of late, Night Terrors  was written during the lockdown as it was a recurring feature of life for the band's frontman Dave during the lockdown. As befits its title and subject matter, Night Terrors  is an off-kilter effort which might take a few listens to get into but rewards those who persevere with it. Certainly, the discordant vocals and guitars often give the impression of the whole operation being on the verge of collapse on the likes of The Pessimist  and Known It All Along  while Lost My Job  goes into XTC/Nightingales style post-punk territory. However, the likes of People In General  show that they can rein the weirdness in and build up an intriguing multi-part epic which starts off as tuneful new wave before drifting into a nightmarish state-of-the-nation ...
Read more