Tagged: big drill car
TOTAL Pop Punk Nostalgia: The FIENDZ are BACK!
Waaaaay back in 1991 I discovered one of my favorite pop punk albums of all time: ‘Wact’ by The Fiendz. This was before the term “pop punk” was a dirty word and the mainstream was flooded by countless generic bands trying to ride off the back of Green Day’s success. Bands like the Descendents/ALL, Big Drill Car, Jawbreaker, The Parasites & Doughboys (amongst so many others) were changing the punk scene in the late 1980’s and one band that’s often not mentioned enough is indeed New Jersey’s The Fiendz who dropped onto the scene in 1987. They brought the pop punk classic album ‘We’re The Fiendz’ in 1989 and got to see them for the first time in Green Bay Wisconsin’s legendary punk venue Kutska’s Hall with Portland OR band Crackerbash in the early 90’s. Their albums ‘Wact’ and ‘We’re the Fiendz’ were part of my soundtrack of teenage years.
I think the NJ three piece had just as many chops as Green Day did in their heyday but unfortunately the band around that time time changed their sound quite a bit, leaving their peppy punk sound behind and going for a more polished refined style that to me was more reminiscent of Elvis Costello than the earlier guitar driven anthems. Looking back I think The Fiendz could’ve grabbed the gold with their original sound at the time but also respect (and liked) their later albums. I got to see them several times and even share the stage in the 90s while on tour with my bands King Friday and Ben Grim-not only were The Fiendz a great band live but also great humans.
Well as the years passed I’d sort of assumed I’d maybe I’d heard the last of them, but lo and behold it’s now 2023 and they’ve returned with a brand new album called ‘Dummy’ that’s indeed more of a “return to form” to their original crunchy guitar rock sound. Packed with 15 solid nuggets of chunky pop punk/power pop is just what I’d been hoping for when I originally heard they had a new album on the horizon. Even better yet they took the album to their old pal Bill Stevenson (Descendents/ALL/Black Flag) to mix it and it sounds pretty awesome.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Fiendz they definitely had that classic sound that fit the bill (no pun intended) with Stevenson’s Descendents/ALL brand of frenetic pop punk styles. ‘Dummy’ is filled with their unique brand, cool unexpected time/tempo changes, huge harmonies and wildly catchy guitar work. There’s no mistaking a riff from The Fiendz for any one else’s either and it’s evident here they’ve went back to what originally made my teen self love them so much and appreciate even more so many years later. There’s some fast paced stuff that harkens back more to their late 80s debut album, mid tempo rockers and a few slower power pop style numbers to give ‘Dummy’ a nice balance while keeping the distortion on guitar amped up. Most of all it’s just a record that’s a ton of fun, with plenty of pop hooks to chomp on.
The band here really is flawless too, my only “complaint” is that I’d wished their original drummer Joe Darone, who contributed in other ways to the record would’ve been behind the skins again. Don’t get me wrong the playing here is excellent, but his style on the drums was one of the big highlights of their earlier albums and to really kick the nostalgia factor into hyperdrive his presence would have been the icing on the cake as a big fan myself. However this isn’t the first album he’s been missed on. That being said this a pretty nice return for a band that really deserves more praise from lovers of the genre- before it was watered down by mainstream record deals and MTV. The Fiendz are back and if you’re missing the classic sound of pop punk from the late 80s and early 90s the way I’ve been for so many years this album will bring it all back around full circle.
I’d love to see them on tour or at least get them opening a few shows for the Descendents (once Milo’s all healed up), fans of the iconic band would most definitely find their new favorite band they might’ve missed out on for all these years! Check out their new album HERE!
Plus here’s one of my favorite Fiendz songs from their classic second album:
DESCENDENTS/ALL Fans: Sign the Petition Demanding a New ALL Record!
I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while now as I’d recently seen someone had made a super cool petition to get one of my favorite bands, ALL to record a new damn record!
If you don’t know who ALL is, you should probably be ashamed, but hey no worries, let me give you the scoop, basically they’re the Descendents minus Milo Aukerman and formed after he left the band in 1987. Similar sound but with several different singers through the years and basically the soundtrack of my teens and beyond! Pop punk perfection. However they never quite got the recognition of the Descendents yet had definitely made a stronger run for “rock stardom” in the nineties then the ‘Dents ever did, even signing a major label record deal.
Over the years we’ve luckily gotten a good amount of new Descendents material, and don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking stoked about that! But let’s get serious and most importantly let’s get ALLULAR! It’s going on 22 years since ALL’s last record, ‘Problematic’ and we’re well past due for a new one.
Over the last two decades the band has also played shows with ALL three of their singers, Dave Smalley, Scott Reynolds & Chad Price, which has led many legions of fans to request a new ALL album that features ALL three of them on lead vocals! The best way to decide who’s gonna sing on this epic-ness is simply to get them ALL! Like a sort of 3-way split full length divided up equALLy, In fact I was so pleased to see that the maker of this petition had the same idea!
Has any other band in history ever made a brand new album featuring ALL of their previous vocalists? I’ve never heard of it happening. How epic would that be for the fans? So not only would I like this post to circulate around with THE PETITION to get the band to make a new freakin’ album, I also am hoping the 3 headed monster of ALL will indeed return and merge ALL vocalists onto one new album, in other words: ALL of ALL!
So if YOU’RE a fan of the band please get this out there and let’s make it happen, I think this petition needs and deserves WAY more fucking signatures! Kudos to whoever put that together you’re totally ALLULAR! So maybe this thing can get the attention of the core band members, Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez & Stephen Egerton. When I first came across the petition on Facebook it was slightly confusing what the petition was for if you didn’t click on the actual link, so I’m hoping with this to clear up any confusion and get more people to sign it! Let’s get the band to know we want this dream album to manifest! ALL? Yes ALL!!! SIGN THE PETITION HERE!
U-Dork Rock: 90’s Alt Pop Punkers DOUGHBOYS + MEGA CITY FOUR Lost Vids!
I rarely ever do music posts here, but every now and again I’ll throw something up that really means something to me. Well today I wanted to share a few videos that recently surfaced from one of my all time favorite nearly forgotten bands, Canada’s own DOUGHBOYS. The Doughboys, who formed in ’86 have been a staple in my teen years right up to today. My best description of them would probably be to call them Canada’s answer to HUSKER DU (except with more focus on vocal harmonies) another of my all time faves. Blending their punk roots with crunchy power pop before the likes of Blink 182 was everyone’s go to idea of what pop punk is. I’d even go as far to say that in the early 90’s they were kinda like what the the classic early Foo Fighters would eventually become.
They also were one of the most entertaining & energetic live bands I’ve ever seen, I often felt bad for any band who had to follow them on a bill and the sheer amount of hair this band had collectively would leave any metal band envious. If you like the sound of what I’m laying out here I recommend checking out their 5 albums, you won’t be disappointed. So back in 1996 these guys released their last album ‘Turn Me On’ and it was one of their best. My old band, Ben Grim, even opened for them once in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the iconic ‘Concert Cafe’ during this period, ah those were the days.
Ok so the one thing that was exciting about this era of the Doughboys was that they replaced their longtime lead guitarist. Normally I’d have been upset by the news, but they chose Darren “Wiz” Brown (RIP), the singer/guitarist of one of my other all time favorite bands, Mega City Four, to keep the band in tact. Mega City Four is basically the British counterpart to bands like Husker DU and the Doughboys & Wiz even co wrote songs with the band. So hearing he’d joined made me and my friends most excited for what they might come up with for their next album. However that sadly was not the case, the Doughboys career didn’t last much longer and to my knowledge they only recorded one song with the Wiz in the line up (unless of course they did some demos?!). Still, he was clearly a Doughboy and was pictured on the album and also in the videos that ‘Turn Me On’ produced.
Yeah there were a couple videos back then that never saw the light of day here in the USA, but now 25 years later they of course surface on Youtube! The damn wonders of the internet, I tell you. So hopefully this post might be seen by other fans of the band. who like me. missed out on them decades ago, it was a big deal for Mega City Four and the Doughboys to merge back in the mid 90’s. For a few minutes upon watching these videos I felt the pressures of the modern day vanish into simpler sweeter times of alternative 90’s rock. Check out ‘I Never Liked You’ one of the band’s best songs from ‘Turn Me On’ that also features the late great Wiz on guitar…
….and another great one ‘Everything and After’ from the same album:
Also some footage I posted from the same era:
Don’t Fear The Davis Baby! Just Download it for Free!
I’m taking a moment here to share a new song from my latest musical endeavor The Davis Baby! Yes it’s named after that little mutant monster baby from the 70’s horror flick “It’s Alive”. See back in the mid 90’s I lived in Wisconsin & I played in a pop punk band called Ben Grim, we were inspired by bands like Descendents/ALL, The Doughboys, The Hard-ons ect, we released some records and toured around the US with our best buddies Fun Size (one of the best pop punk bands of the 90’s). It was some of the best times of my life, as Bryan Adams might say. So I decided to put together a group today that sort of brought that old Ben Grim sound back.
We wrote four songs of crunchy old school power pop the way we would have done it back in the Ben Grim days. The project features my former band mate Joel Vega, who sang and played guitar in Ben Grim with me, my old pal Kevin Carl from lates 80’s/90’s band G-Whiz & Jim Wadsworth my good friend/fellow D&D player from Portland, Oregon band Danger Death Ray. We posted a FREE/name your price download of our new song “Laid to Rest”. It’s meant to be free but bandcamp doesn’t just let you list the track as purely “free”. So please no need to pay just download it!
It’s gonna be featured on our upcoming split ep with Higley (Kevin Carl & Duane Kiener of G-Whiz, Kris Roe of The Ataris & Bill Stevenson of Descendents/ALL/Black Flag) out soon on SP Records. The song also features Mark Arnold from Big DRILL Car on guitar. Which we were fully stoked to have play on it as Big DRILL Car remains to this day one of my favorite bands ever!
Download The Davis Baby for FREE here https://thedavisbaby.bandcamp.com/
Like us on Facebook HERE!
I’m trying to get the word out on this project, and it’s tough in this day and age to get anything out there on your own in the vast sea of the internet, so if you like it please help me share the song-maybe we’ll record more or start playing live!
HIGLEY : Re-Mastering Old Skool Pop Punk!
I love old pop punk! Especially the stuff from the late 1980’s and early 90’s like The Descendents/ALL, Big Drill Car, Chemical People, The Hard-ons & The Doughboys. I’ve posted here several times about the upcoming Descendents documentary “Filmage” and just how excited I am to see it finally released. So naturally I am super stoked on Higley, who just released their first two songs to the public last week!
I know, I know who the fuck is Higley?! Well it just so happens to be some people from a couple of my favorite pop punk bands of all time namely Kevin Carl & Duane Keiner of G-Whiz along with Bill Stevenson of Descendents / ALL & Black Flag. G-Whiz has been a fave of since the early 1990’s and I’d go on record to say that they’re one of the best pop punk bands of that era hailing from Tempe Arizona. My old punk band King Friday had a split record with them back in the day and currently I have an EP’s worth of material recorded with Kevin Carl for our long distance band The Davis Baby. Higley however has been a work in progress for Carl who recorded the tracks years ago with Bill Stevenson at the Blasting Room (Stevenson’s studio) in Fort Collins Colorado. However the songs had been demo’d with several singers over the years (the first I am told had Stevenson on vocals) but finally found the perfect fit in Kris Roe, known better for his band The Ataris.
Some might want to call this a super group but at it’s core it’s the baby of Carl who wrote all of the material with a little help from his friends to execute it. What we have here are two new songs, the first of many that are already recorded (I have heard eight more tracks, without vocals yet) that will become the bands first full album. Check these out below, if you’re a fan of any of the groups I mentioned you’re sure to love this. If you like what you hear go buy the songs on their bandcamp page as it will help get the full album out of the studio and into our ears….
Universal Dork 