
Colton Cerny – The Fist Fighter
The world’s a safer place for many but also a much less truthful place. People won’t admit their feelings for each other, especially when revealing their thoughts, which would mean having to tell someone else just how much they hate them.
We’re all civilized, and our rockstars reflect that. They hold sermons on stage about how we ought to all get along. Then, like the hobbit-looking Antifa fella in Anti-Flag, they are forced to run off to a foreign country.
People in rock bands used to be damn stupid. They used to kick the butts of other band members. They used to provoke audiences and get their heads kicked back in the alleyway after the concert. And, boy, the music was good.
Colton Cerny’s “The Fist Fighter” could be a prank or an old country number about the benefits of learning to fight and get forced to visit the dentist once in a while too. Choose wich ever option makes you happier, but you’re likely to enjoy the way this sounds, and look differently upon the Peacenik gatherings hosted by Chris Martin and his minions.
Old Pup – Spider Towns
I’ve recently been forced to listen to a great many Nordic bands writing songs about trees, wizards, and their desire to go to Spain to get a tan. Most of these bands are also loud, couldn’t find a groove if it was marked with a big red dot, and look like fishermen taking part in a Viking reenactment.
Those are bands are wonderful, of course. But, never did I want to listen to Neil Young, Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen more, and to use their music as palette cleanser.
I blame the aforementioned songwriters, the weight of their words, and the weightlessness of their subtle performances for killing any possible enjoyment I may have of the aforementioned bands. Hell, I could’ve gotten runes tattooed on my knuckles and joined forest-worshipping pagans in Lithuania.
I’ll just have to settle for Old Pup’s “Spider Towns.” This music specializes in clever observations over understated country rock. “Spider Towns” sounds a bit like “4th Time Around,” but then again, so does “Norwegian Wood.” Old Pup is masterful in his storytelling and good at directing a movie for your mind. It’ll make you hate Finnish power metal and Lake of Tears, I tell you.