'Punk' and 'Acoustic' generally aren't two works that, when conjoined, evoke a pleasant reaction from me. Bleeding from the ears, painful distention of the bowels and a quickly degrading sense of self...that's normally what I feel is happening when subjected to the tortures of acoustified punk rock, even if it's performed by the band credited with creating a song in the first place.
Why do I hold such disdain for an artistic decision? Primarily because the majority of punk music wasn't crafted with the intent of presenting the work in as bare a form as possible; and when conveyed through such a means it comes across as an abortion, robbing the original of any of it's immediacy and presence.
Two examples come to mind: Emocapella, and the Punk Goes Acoustic compilation. One is a novelty, as best I can tell, created by a group of college students as an homage to their musical heroes (which wasn't all that good before they got a chance to put out an album, and wasn't improved much by the time they put out said album). The other is an ill-advised comp of some the genres up-and-comers and a couple of more established outfits that have reworked their own songs to prove it's not all about knowing three chords and having a frenetically paced low-end...admirable, but still not worth much.
Is "Acoustic" any different? Well, yes and no...
Tony Sly & Joey Cape / "Acoustic"
Fat Wreck Chords, 2004
Unlike recent adventures in lo-fi (Matt Skiba & Kevin Seconds' split immediately comes to mind), this isn't all new stuff that hasn't been, and likely never will be, performed with Tony and Joey's respective bands (No Use For a Name - Tony; Lagwagon and Bad Astronaut - Joey), so the 'freshness' factor is severely lacking. This isn' to say that all this album offers is rehashed stuff, quite the contrary, both Messer's Sly and Cape put forth a brand new song...Tony gives us "Body Double", while Joey lays down "Violets". Both of the new tracks fit quite well into the overall feel of the album, which is decidedly somber.
Upon first hearing about this project, I had hoped that different cuts would make their way into the final version...maybe a nice "Making Friends" or "Stokin' the Neighbors", then some "Dumb Reminders" and "Any Number Can Play" with a slightly slower tempo. What they went opted for were more introspective, socially relevant selections at a markedly slower tempo. At first, I was quite disconcerted by this, as part of the draw of these two bands has always been their energy that they project, and I was left with a sense of the soul of the songs having been sucked out,. After a few listens, however, I realized that this wasn't some grand bastardization of the music, it was something so much more.
Ultimately, the songs on this album (Joey - "Wind In Your Sails", "Twenty-Seven", "Violins", "Tragic Vision", "Move Your Car" and "Violets"; Tony - "International You Day", "Not Your Savior", "Exit", "Stunt Double", "On the Outside" and "Justified") lost only two things: speed and level. The heart was still there, only more exposed, more vulnerable. The fact that, on many songs, the lyrics were finally audible to me in their entirety (being partially deaf, I sometimes struggle with vocals) and this helped me to appreciate the songwriting abilities and the voices of the artists. They also chose to shy away from the single guitar, single voice arrangement and go with utilizing tasteful instrumental accoutrements. These additions rarely detracted from the acoustic theme, but rather accentuated it, giving the album a kind of Fat Wreck 'Unplugged' vibe.
Song-wise, the real standouts for me were the new track from Tony, "Stunt Double", which struck a very personal chord with me, and the stripped down "Wind In My Sails", which has probably been my most often played 'Wagon song over the past few years. Other notables are "Violins", "Justified Black Eye", and "Twenty-Seven". On the whole, I tend to gravitate more towards Joey's half of the album, owing to the fact that I prefer 'Wagon (I should take a picture of my dirty black LW hat some day) over NUFAN in my every day listening habits (I will always hold NUFAN a special place in my heart, though, being that they were the very first band I had ever seen live...they opened for Quicksand (Jesus, they still have an official site?!) and The Offspring).
While it's certainly not something you'd want to throw on at a party (I'd go with "Double Plaidinum" or "Hard Rock Bottom" for that, personally), it's a pretty damn good record that goes a long way towards repairing the damage done by past acoustic outings in the genre. I'd give it four cigarettes out of five...assuming I was passing out addictive substances as a reward for good music.
Next Up From Me on the review front: Bad Religion's "Empire Strikes First";Guttermouth's "Eat Your Face"; and (MAYBE) a retro-review of a great (relatively unknown) band's greatest album, Stiffs, Inc.'s "Nix Naught Nothing...and, this is exciting for me, I hear that the former front man has a new band, so I'm going to see what I can do about wrangling a preview of any new material and an interview with Mr. Whitey Sterling!
So, yeah, new stuff is about to be flooding in...calendar updates, new reviews (games, books, movies, music), some news and new features...so check back and whatnot.