I must say that I have always been and will always be a fan of Dave Smalley and Down By Law, for some good amount of reasons: they were one of the first band to introduce me into the beautiful and magic world of punk rock in the 90’s, they did some albums and songs to whom I am very devoted, and then, they’re a living legend: who can stop them from putting out good music and doing shows? Nobody.

I really do not know why they felt the need to do this greatest hits album instead of a new ful length ( maybe due to the work of Dave with Dag Nasty), but “Punkrockdays: the best of DBL” features all of the best songs from more or less any Down By Law album, 19 songs, one unreleased and two videos to see on your computer. Anyway it is quite impossible to do a greatest hits of a band that is older than some of their fans, and in fact Down By Law let their fans voting through their website some time ago: and what came out is the answer of the people who love this band. “Indipendence Day”, “FLower Tattoo” and “Punk As Fuck” open the record, and I started wondering how they put so many songs off “All Scratched Up” on this: I know that record is the best from DBL, but six songs are a lot. “All American”, “No Equalizer”, “Ivory Girl”, Superman”, “500 Miles”, “Hit Or Miss” and “Bright Green Globe” are surely my all time favourite tunes from Down By Law, and I am glad this album has any songs I’d like to hear.

If you never got the chance to listen to a record from Down By Law, either because you are too lazy or too young, I think that “Punkrockdays: the best of DBL” is the best way to start knowing this band, also thank to the story that Dave and Sam tell in the booklet. Great band not to be forgotten.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com