The Briggs

Leaving the Ways (Side One Dummy)
by Grady Gadbow

Playing punk rock is one of those things – like firing a shotgun or fucking – which anyone can do, but only a few folks are really good at. The fundamentals are pretty straight forward, but the finer points take talent and technique. The Briggs don’t do anything fancy, but the songs are solid and the sound works.

The six quick tracks of Leaving the Ways build in intensity as they go along, and the big sing-along choruses are good fun, what with the crunchy guitar and vocals that eat broken glass for breakfast every morning. There’s a little bit of call and response at work, and a lot of unison howling as opposed to harmonizing which is nice and all, but this is old school punk rock. Even the dub-reggae type deal at the end is tough and fits in with the band’s overall sound.

The Briggs get their roughhouse rock on by playing rad and meaning it, not by playing all shitty and acting like it’s 1977 or something. Even back then, the good bands took the music pretty seriously, and it’s never been cool to suck. While I suspect they do their best work on the stage, The Briggs studio stuff will not disappoint anybody who likes good old punk rock.
(www.sideonedummy.com)