Blood Brothers, 'Burn, Piano Island, Burn' (IM Recordings/Artist Direct)

Wanna break stuff?

Some punk bands scream at walls. The Blood Brothers just reach for their sledgehammers. Sometime in the mid-'90s, hardcore stopped being obsessed with staying on message and started spazzing out. At basement shows and VFW halls, grimy guys with chain wallets and watch caps traded the genre's solemn idealism for musically hellacious, lyrically obtuse chaos.

Everclear, 'Slow Motion Daydream' (Capitol)

Art Alexakis in his own right.

If you were taking an undergraduate class on the music of Everclear, you would eventually come to two conclusions. The first is that you're probably never going to get a job. The second is that Art Alexakis is a storyteller in the tradition of Garrison Keillor, Spalding Gray, and that dude from Puddle of Mudd. The finest Everclear songs--"Santa Monica," "A.M.

Syndicate content