Star Fucking Hipsters

Until We're Dead

Written by: PP on 07/11/2008 20:22:20

I'm just tossing the hard part out in the beginning: Star Fucking Hipsters is a side project of a couple of Leftöver Crack members, and while I do own a single album by that band, I don't really know anything else about the band except a rough idea of how they sound. So with that out of my system, it's time to move on to the review of "Until We're Dead", a Fat Wreck Chords album that, for once, doesn't actually sound like most releases from that label usually do.

So what do they sound like? Everything between NOFX-influenced ska, Leftöver Crack type screamo-punk, and slow paced melodicore with nods to NUFAN and Lagwagon in places. Take "Until We're Dead", for instance, which features a silky classical piano-intro before launching into fast power chords and half screamed-half sung vocals. The song is hanging halfway between melody and annoyance (listen to it and you'll know what I mean), and then compare it to the polar opposite title track, which features some of the fastest vocal work I've heard on a record to date, bringing a nice cheerful, joyous vibe to the song, making it one of my favorites on the record. That's two styles already, and "Two Cups Of Tea" sounds just like any NOFX song from the "So Long & Thanks For All The Fish"-era could have, except for its frantic screaming chorus which pulls the song down a few grades. Or how about "Snitch To The Suture" which kinda sounds like the Gypsy-punk of early Against Me!, or the slow ballad "Only Sleep" which features a female voice on the verses. Whether this is someone from the band I have no idea, blame my research laziness instead, but nonetheless it's another highlight on the record.

Just to point out, in case you didn't already figure it out from their name, Star Fucking Hipsters are quite a socio-political band, as songs like "Zombie Christ", "This Wal-Mart Life" and "9/11 Was (An Inside Joke)" suggest. The lyrics of the latter are especially pointed: "...cause 9/11 was an inside job, [...] like the media portrayed [...] and it makes no fucking sense, like a failed air-force defense, because corporate oil got paid"

Back to the point though. For you to like "Until We're Dead" as a whole you need to fit into the following personal profile: You like screaming on your albums, you need your dose of melodicore every now and then, you absolutely LOVE IT when someone injects ska into punk rock, and you like a fair bit of variation to your usual punk rock diet. If all these apply, this'll be one of your favorite records this year. If only some of these apply, I advise to skip the majority of the songs before track 7 and focus on the rest, because pretty much all tracks that follow are awesome, simple as that. Interestingly enough, when the band avoid the Leftöver Crack style screaming, they are at their best. When they resort into that frantic style, it damages the songs and the album as a whole, and as such, I can't warrant the band a higher grade even if I wanted to.

Download: 9/11 Was An (Inside Joke), Zombie Christ, Immigrants & Hypocrites
For the fans of: Leftöver Crack, NOFX, No Use For A Name
Listen: Myspace

Release date 30.09.2008
Fat Wreck Chords

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.