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Perhaps I should've abandoned stoner comedies after college,...
NOFX
“Self-Entitled”
Fat Wreck Chords
3 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Another excellent NOFX album with a lot of tracks that are good enough to qualify for a greatest hits collection. (The band performs Nov. 10 at the Reno Events Center with Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise and Alkaline Trio.)
Truth be told, I hated “Self-Entitled” after the first two listens. It sounds like it could be any other NOFX album, only consistently speedier (no ska or lounge music this time). I got tripped up by clumsy lyrics in “72 Hookers” and dated lyrics in “Ronnie & Mags” (about the relationship of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher).
But repeated listens, as usual, reveal a lot of deep thoughts, self-reflection and real songs.
Highlights include the atheist hardcore blast “I Believe in Goddess” (“I don't want an afterlife, I wanna transcend”), “She Didn’t Lose Her Baby” (an emotional story about a drug addict having her baby taken away), “Secret Society” (a polysyllabic Bad Religion-esque treatise on BDSM where “we find freedom through slavery”) and “I’ve Got One Jealous Again, Again” about singer/bassist Fat Mike’s divorce.
Inspirational lyric: “I knew it was over when I put on ‘Walk Among Us’/ You grabbed the TV remote control/You put on ‘Survivor’ and I put on some headphones/And cheated with my first love rock and roll.”
Download: “I Believe in Goddess,” “I’ve Got One Jealous Again, Again”
— Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
Strike Anywhere
“In Defiance of Empty Times”
Bridge Nine
3 stars
This live acoustic album by the Richmond, Va. political punk band comes from two benefit shows for the International Workers of the World union. It gets docked a half-notch because the sound quality drops noticeably in the second show as it switches to an audience recording, which especially detracts from the great performance of “Extinguish” where you can hear poseurs chatting about what they’re going to do after the show (but I love the track anyway).
The audience noise, however, helps with the finale of “Sunset on 32nd Street” as the crowd takes over the lyrics “I am not resisting you!”
Honestly, I don't enjoy listening to this album in one sitting but I love the songs on shuffle mixed with other music. And I created a playlist where these tracks are alternated with the originals, and that’s a blast. Fans who don’t mind some bootleg-quality should seek it out.
Download: “Sunset on 32nd Street,” “I'm Your Opposite Number,” “Extinguish,” “Infrared”
— Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
Morning Glory
“Poets Were My Heroes”
Fat Wreck
3 1/2 stars
After a 10-year hiatus, Ezra Kire is back with his band Morning Glory and a big album that brings to mind Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” albums — only much better.
Things start with a vintage recording of Kire at age 7 singing one of the first songs he ever wrote, “Stevie Dinner,” about his step-dad going to the liquor store for dinner (the wordplay in the title shows a natural songwriter).
From there, the songs take on a grandeur with lots of gang vocals. A number sound like they could be James Bond theme songs, as sung by Sid Vicious, and there are six-minute tracks, violins, French horns, epic guitar solos, gentle piano moments, a military marching chant, a reprise of one song and a choir. It’s definitely ambitious, but never pretentious. And unlike a lot of albums that are intended as a single piece, the individual songs work well by themselves.
I liked spending time with this one.
Download: “Quemar Las Fronteras,” “Divide By,” “Poets Were My Heroes,” “Shelter From the Spoon”
— Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
