Kill The Rock Star: A New Jersey Compilation – Review

Kill The Rock Star: A New Jersey Compilation

(Tarr/COA)
by Jon Sarre

New Jersey: The butt of many jokes. The home state of Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. The… the… the capitol is Trenton, I think. I can’t say I’ve spent much time in the Garden State, but I’ve met some really swell people from Jersey and there’s some pretty good bands kickin’ around. Sure, they’re not all winners, but here’s the rundown: Murder 1 kinda sounds like Motörhead with bad “angry” vocals and great fuzz guitar sound. Anger is Brit-influenced UK Subs style punk and they do a funny song about the gun lobby. Bullsession is similarly old-school G.B.H.-esque punk and their selection, “The Real World Sucks” has some truth to it. In their short bio, Empowered claims to be “brutally honest.” Well, to be brutally honest, I’d say pack it up. Ditto for Faction Zero. There’re two bands with singers who can actually sing: Odd Man Out and Masred; the former band in a pretty heavy, metallic way; the latter are sort of techies. Snag is “rarrgh, urrgh, ack” hackcore, as are Gomez’s Childhood and Stronghold (who actually all have last names). Defiant sounds like a fuzzy TSOL with better vocals (i.e. the singer doesn’t fake a British accent).

The highlight of the comp is My Cousin Agnes. They play noisy, garage punk that moves, and the high-speed lurching riff at the end is classic. Only New Jersey bands (or Florida bands, I suppose) have the right to write songs about pro-wrestlers, so it’s fitting that Candy Pants provides us with “Hulk Hogan.” I’m sure the man would approve. Felix Frump plays solid pop-punk that kinda reminds me of the Lemonheads’ early stuff.

The Hard Corps returns with “Fuel.” At least you could pick them out of the genericore crowd. I can’t say the same for Rule of Thumb, Suplex, All-Time Low, or Distress. Well, where does The Ballrooms of Mars fit in? Nowhere, but if there’s ever gonna be a hardcore opera, this will be the band to do it. Core rounds out the whole shebang with a heavy, jamming, hard greaser rock thing. Great wa-wa guitar. See? There’s more to NJ than just highway exits.