The debut album on Victory from The Reunion Show is a 11 track record that could be described as innovative, catchy, funny, and amusing, even tough sometimes boring. This four piece reminds me of The Get Up Kids meet Weezer meet some Vagrant or Drive Thru band. “Kill Your Television” is filled with easy listening melodies, catchy choruses and harmonies created by guitars, the double vocals and some good amount of keyboards; such songs as “Television”, “Star Training”, the ironic “New Rock Revolution” and “On A Scale From One To Awesome You’re Pretty Great” show how this band is really able to put up good stuff, and I bet their shows are energic and they have a great pop rock punk attitude. I enjoy this record a lot, even tough as I said, it is a bit weak compared to what there is around today; very interesting and catchy as hell, tough. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

The sophomore solo album from Mu330’s Dan Potthast - the first was “Eyeballs” - is a collection of 15 tracks that are quite unlabelled. Described as a cross between Mu330 and Weezer, I guess that Dan’s music can be best described as rock, or pop rock if you like labels, and “Sweet And Meats” is here to prove it. The songs are mosly acoustic, slow and passionate, even tough you can hear electric guitars and such stuff, the best part of the album is the “positive” feeling you can feel, ason “How To Suffer”. Such tracks as “They’re Telling”, “The Letter”,”Tornado Joe” show the open mind of Potthast, who is able to put on just one album so many influences that go from rocksteady ro reggae to ska to acoustic rock’n'roll to blues. I think that if you’re looking for quality music, “Sweets And Meats” is a good way to start. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

One of my favorite Victory band, the River City Rebels are back with a new album entitled “No Good, No Time, No Pride”: this CD delivers 12 of the best tracks the Rebels ever wrote, plus some very cool enhanced materials taken from the band’s 2002 tour. Talking of the music, you can hear how this band is able to evolve with every album. Differenly from their previous works, on the new album we can hear how the River City Rebels are not drunk punks, but are smart punks with the great capacity of writing amazing punk songs. From the opening “Such A Bore”, to “Drunken Angel” to “No Good”, it’s wasy to see this band take inspiration not just from ska music, but also from rock, punk rock - obviously - and reggae, to put together 12 of the best track I had to hear on a so called “street punk” or “Punk rock” album. If there should be any need to prove this band is talented, I guess “No Good, No Time, No Pride” is what it takes. Big props to Victory for releasing such a great album. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

I must say, I am not the biggest Sum 41 fan, I guess mall punk is somewhat out of trend, but when I heard “Does This Look Infected ?”, I had to think back and admit this four Canadians have a good taste for music, are able to play damn catchy good songs, even tough someone say they have no talent. Who knows? The album features 12 tracks, and I will tell you, expect for a couple of tunes, forget what you heard on this band’s previous works. The new album, from the Misfits-isque artwork to the songs, is very influenced by metal: the opening “The Hell Song” might not show this, but as you go on and on with the tracks ( “Over My Head”, “Still Waiting”, “A.N.I.C.”, “Mr Amsterdam”, “No Brains”) you will get to hear the new side of Sum 41: infectious metal riffs and almost screams put this record on the top of my surprises this year. The tunes are not poppy ( expect “All Messed Up”, “My Direction” ), they are interesting and finally the lyrics are not dumb. “Billy Spleen”, “Hooch” and “Hyper-Insomnia-Para-Condroid” close the album in the proper way: especially, in the last song “Hooch”, after the bridge, we can hear some quite angry screams that are catchy and very well done - I hope this band will play more like this way in the future. The album is not a real revelation, I would not dare to say that, but is what I’d call a good surprise. The package also features a bonus DVD which is full of extra goodies, and it has two songs from Sum 41’s side project “Pain For Pleasure”: very metal! Not to mention, there are tons of videos taken from Sum41’s life on the road, shows, interviews and other things, as the Tommy Lee scenes. The DVD also features bonus stuff as songs from Autopilot Off and a band called No Warning:check out this band, they rock hard.| carlo@staff.truepunk.com

The debut on Solid State Records from Demon Hunter is a ten track album that is not so easy to desribe. I guess the best way to have an idea of what Demon Hunter sound like is to listen to them. Their music is very influenced by what is commonly known as metal-core, with a lot of screams and growls that alternate to more melodic parts: in this way, it is almost natural to name this band as the hardcore version of Slipknot, and the songs “I Have Seen Where It Grows” and “Screams Of The Undead” show this. “Infected” is another dark and very fast song, with some very fast drumming, guitar riffs and very powerful bass. Anyway there is always space for melodies and almost romantic moments, as on the song “My Throat Is An Open Grave” or “A Broken Upper Hand”. I guess this fieve piece band is one of those bands that you listen to and you fall in love with, especially if you’re fan of some metal music. I recommend this album to all of the people who like metal/melody and want to have some new very interesting album to listen to. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

Finally we can hear new good stuff from Fueled By Ramen! Their latest release is the self-titled debut from Slowreader, a due formed by two ex-Impossibles guys, Rory Phillips and Gabe Hascall. These rockers started this new band which is not strictly rock. I’d dare to call it way more “emo” or electro-acoustic rock, whatever, as a cross between Yo La Tengo and Belle And Sebastian. This record features eleven tracks that are very different from the ones you would expect from ex-Impossibles members: these tunes are slow, soft, emotional, they deal with feelings and very intimate issues. From the awesome opening “Politics, Music And Drugs” through all of the tracks like “Cold, Cold Death”, “Every Part Of Nothing” and “Anesthetic For The Amputee” you’ll be put in a different world: the world of Slowreader. I do not hear such music so often, so I guess if you want to hear some good “emo” tracks - if the stuff released on Deep Elm is emo, then this is emo-, I suggest you to lend your ears to Slowreader. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

I think the whole world is getting back to pop punk. I don’t know why, but I see it is still getiing out, after Green Day and The Offspring today we have Sum41, Blink182, Good Charlotte 15 ( because all of their fans are 15 )…and Lucky 7. This number thing is weird. Anyways, Lucky 7’s self titled album is a collection of 15 very catchy pop punk songs in the vein of the above named bands - nothing original really, but the tunes are all potential hits for Mtv: “Gray Summer Day”, “California Girl”, “Where Are You?”, “Falling Asleep” are just a few example of how these four dudes can mix together elements of attraction ( choruses, guitar hooks and harmonies ) and not much more. I guess the whole album is very enjoable, I like it and I wish this band can go far, but maybe Lucky 7 takes too much insporation from other bands without thinking they can do something very cool on their own. I mean, this record is a good collection, a very good collection, of songs that in some way I already heard: I enjoy to listen to them again, but I don’t think the aim of a band is playing already heard stuff. Maybe I’m wrong, who knows. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

I think reviewing a CD that was in part done by the Ramones is a very offensive thing to Joey so I guess every person that is called “punk” should figure out why. Let alone the Ramones, don’t touch them anymore and don’t try to exploit their name anymore. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

Tora!Tora!Torrance! is a five piece rock’n'roll band and let me say this band makes sound The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Vines like they had stomach problems. Tora!Tora!Torrance! is THE rock’n'roll band of today, forget about the rest. “Get Into It” is the proof: every song on this album is a rock anthem, from the opening “Killer Cut The Phone Line” to the amazing “Shot Down In America” or “Wear A Ski Mask If You Wish To Be Avoided”. This record brings band rock’n'roll, with some mix of hardcore elements ala Refused. Tora!Tora!Torrance! is three step above any other rock band of today, they are young, have energy and fresh blood for all the people who need to get a good adrenalin dose: speed, energy, fast and destroying music for any rock fan. This album might be considered “too young”: written very fast and someway pissed. I like it for this reason. I guess with their next full length they will even do a better job, growing up and stuff, but right now I am getting into “Get Into It”. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com

My favorite Fearless band is back with a new six songs EP after a superb debut full length album entitled “This Vicious Cycle”. The new songs are someway even better than the ones on this old album: the production is very tight, the songs sound complete and perfect in everything, the ability of Junction 18 to write good tunes is simply amazing. From the opening “Life Is A Racetrack” to “Lil’ Joey” and my favorite “Flooding Up The Deep End” you can see how this band is growing up fast and is developing a very nice taste for pop melodies mixed with hardcore and rock energy: every tune is quite different, but the constant thing is that Junction18 are always looking for blistering harmonies and melodies. The singer has a gorgeous voice and all of the instruments sound perfect right as they are put on the record. “The Weight” and “Wrong Way Out” are two pop songs where the band shows all of their inspiration, creating some very catchy and nice mid-tempo tunes. If I had to pick a new band that I want to see big, this would be Junciton18: I bet that with their next full length album these five guys will make you forget New Found Glory, Saves The Day and company. Keep an eye in this band, buy both “Heroes From The Future” and “This Vicious Cycle” and you will have two very fine masterpieces of emo influenced rock music. | carlo@staff.truepunk.com