Down By Law

Fly the Flag (Go-Kart)
by Scott Hefflon

Dave Smalley’s been around the block, sung for a lotta bands you oughtta know (DYS, Dag Nasty, and ALL), has a master’s degree in political science, and now he wants to tell us about the state of the world. Unfortunately, I don’t care. Down By Law’s best, in my not-so-humble opinion, was Punkrockacamedyfightsong, even though the best songs were the “Punk as Fuck” snippets (reminiscent of ALL’s “All!” and “No, All!”) and their cover of “500 Miles” (with the brilliant line “and if I haver, whatever the fuck that fuckin’ means, I’m going to be the guy who havers next to you”). Everything else has been semi-punk, droning pop dreariness. While Dave has a distinctive voice, everyone let’s him produce his stuff because, well, he’s Dave Smalley, and you just can’t understand what he’s saying. But seeing as he’s bent on spouting on about how everyone in the world is struggling, I’m glad I can just ignore it like a perky theme song to some dippy sitcom.
(PO Box 20 Prince St. Sta. New York, NY 10012)