Written by GE 138.

A beautiful piece of red white and blue splattered vinyl that was put out to benefit a few Local charities that these 2 bands support. This 7" record is a split EP featuring Anti-Flag and Hostage Calm, a band I only know of as being a Hardcore band from Boston, so thus my reluctance to listen to them. Phooey to all that tuff guy BS, says I. But I gave this a listen with open ears and I gotta say the track they contribute to this, Olly Olly Oxen Free, is really fucking good. A touch of keyboards give this sugary sweet piece of Dag Nasty-ish Pop Punk a bit of a dark tinge about it, and that just makes the song all that much better. I like it! And what I thought was a lame ass title when I first saw it is now a memorable melody stuck in my head. This song is really catchy. Thanks Hostage Calm! LOL And Anti-Flag... Wow. What happened to them? Their track sounds terrible, both in aural quality and musical performance. I gave up on them years ago and after hearing the track they contributed, Branded Rebellion, I can hear why I did. Tired, cliched, music with faux-sabre rattling lyrics that promote Rebellion to impressionable mall kids. And those 'whoah-whoah-whoah' bits sound soooo forced. Whatever. Like I said earlier, this record is a benefit for charity, so if you're feeling generous give a couple of bucks towards it and get this nice looking addition to your over valued colored vinyl collection. It's worth it for the Hostage Calm track alone. :-) Available from Run For Cover records and on iTunes as well.

Written by GE 138.

I love getting music to review, especially when it's this good. No idea who these guys are, or what they're all about, but the material on this CD is pretty good. Some very nice sounding tunes here brought to you by a band from Seattle called The Loss. Couldn't tell you if this is their first release, or their last, because again, I don't know shit about the band. I did a Google search for them and came up with nothing. Oh well. This CD is chock full of crunchy, thrashy, guitar work with hoarse sounding screamed / sung vocals, and a really tight as fuck rhythm section. Very A Wilhelm Scream like, so if that's your thing, then you'll dig the anthem-like music that The Loss are putting out there. Standout tracks on here include December 8th, The Loss, and Domestic Relief. Oh, that song The Last Time We Talk About This is pretty good too. I like this. Check it out and see what you think about it. :-) Available from La Escalera Records, or you can stream it and download it from The Loss Bandcamp page by clicking here.