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THE BOILS- From The Bleachers
TOMMY AND THE TERRORS- Unleash The Fury
(TKO Records) Each
sold separately!
Ever hear about the many similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy?
All those coincidences that made some think Kennedy was actually a
reincarnation of
Lincoln
or that history had literally repeated itself in regards to both men?
I’ve set out to discover if there’s the same sort of connection
between these two releases. Since
From The Bleachers came out 2
months before Unleash The Fury,
we’ll consider The Boils as
Lincoln
and Tommy and
the Terrors will play (appropriately) the role of Kennedy.
First off, The Boils are from Philly and T&TTs are from
Boston
. Both cities are prominent in
early American history, and each municipality can arguably lay claim to
having the worst accent in the country.
Moving on to their album covers, both feature comparably drawn
scenes of punk rock chaos accented with each band’s respective local
color. Inside the CD booklets
themselves, there are onstage and good time, yukkin’-it-up-with-friends/fans
photo collages (though The Boils triumph here because they’ve got more
shots of punk rock chicks flashing and making out).
Additionally, both bands sound like any single individual member
could beat the shit out of me even while blindfolded and suffering from
the avian flu. (This isn’t unusual, though- even a band like Hanson,
back when they were all pre-teens, could probably achieve the same thing).
And then there’s the Dropkick Murphys connection.
The Boils’ feature a voicemail from Ken Casey on their disc while
T&TTs’ CD was produced by Matt Kelly.
Mysterious…But enough triviality- let’s move on to the music.
Oddly enough, the 7th song on both discs (“The
Promise” by
Lincoln
, er, The Boils and “Here We Go” by Tommy and the Terrors) were the
first tracks on each release to really jump out at me.
Both rock like sumbitches, and if we were to add another 7th
song to this duo, would we have a Holy Trinity?
Or would we hit the jackpot? Or
should I shut the fuck about this already? Lyrically, both bands delve
into themes revolving around standing & fighting together, scene
politics and whiskey (though to be fair, their messages can hardly be
considered carbon copies, touching upon several more subjects than I just
mentioned. The words are also generally intelligent throughout each disc).
Musically, The Boils and T&TTs play mostly straight up,
balls-to-the-wall street punk- though the Boils try their hand at ska
(decently) and country (not so decently).
And here’s the rub with that: A lot of people love street punk,
but I’m not really one of them. While I’m also not a connoisseur of
street walkers, if I were to
classify each release in these terms, I’d rank both somewhere solidly
between crack whore and high class call girl.
And while I don’t actually know a goddamn thing about the overall
comparative quality of the presidencies of both Lincoln and Kennedy, I’m
going to speak from that perspective of ignorance and grade them the same
way. –Ben Hunter
editor's notes: The Boils' "Bed of
Whiskey" tune is one of my 2005 favs, and NY/RI accents are far worse
than Boston and Philly's. Ben must have had 20 too many Jack & Gingers
while writing these reviews.
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