Today's album is Gorilla Biscuits' Start Today. This might be my favorite hardcore punk* album of all time. It's been about ten years since I listened to all of it, so I thought it would be cool to check out again. It held up fine. If you aren't familiar to Gorilla Biscuits, each of their songs are in the one minute to two minute range, so even if you don't like a particular song it will be over soon. They weren't the most spectacular musicians in the world, but they were passionate.
*hardcore punk should not be confused with metal. This is definitely not metal.
1. "New Direction". Starts with trumpets. Then a guitar. Drum stick count off. Bass and drums. This song is the absolute best. "Rebirth of hardcore pride". It's hard writing along to this album because I just want to jump up and break stuff. A couple verses, a couple courses, slow down into the best breakdown in history. Then the song is over.
2. "Stand Still". This song starts off talking about how you are sitting on a couch, as a slave to a TV show. Similar to yesterday, when we talked about being eternal slaves to a vampiir. Today, we are slaves to a tv show. This album came out in 1989...back when TV didn't even exist. Were their competitive tattoo shows in 1989? No. TV has won.
"OUR LIVES ARE LEAD BY TV SHOWS YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE." Then he asks a rhetorical question on whether or not it's ok that we play Donkey Kong instead of thinking. I'll answer anyway: Of course there is nothing wrong with that.
Commercial for Hyatt Place. They are going with the goldilocks approach. How's your porridge, Hyatt Place?
3. "Degradation". This song is about people degrading the scene. A real no-no. It talks about how boring it is to just hate everything all the time, everyday. "YOU GOT NOTHING BUT HATRED". Probably talking to the cats in Dark Funeral.
4. "Good Intentions". 29 second song. Nothing wrong with that, but I do think they intended it to be longer.
5. "Forgotten". A pretty forgettable song, up until it gets to the breakdown (which comes like 45 seconds into the song). Singer sings how he won't forget you. That's real nice. He also thinks it's ok that you don't hang out with him anymore.
6. "Things We Say". It's important to remember what you say might be offensive to someone else. But at the same time it's really surprising that you can't take a "(f-wording) joke".
7. "Start Today". The greatest song ever written about procrastination. Although to be honest, there may be better ones out there, but groups never got around to getting them recorded. The first few chords of this procrastination song sound like they were played in a room down the hall. Possibly the guy was too lazy to drag the amp to the studio. A quick remedy and a replay of the same chords and we're good to go. "My room's a mess and I can't get dressed, I gotta be out by 8 o'clock. Deep inside I know the answer" What is the answer? "Procrastinate, It can wait, I put it off". Ohhhhhhh. We can all relate. Hardcore breakdown, followed up by a little harmonica riff. That harmonica part is under-appreciated. I need a tattoo of that harmonica part.
8. "Two Sides". Not a song about a circle.
9. "First Failure". We've all been there. We worked so hard for something, and still end up messing up. Gorilla Biscuits are here to remind you that we all go through it. Try it again. You messed up before. You'll mess up again. You were let down before. You'll be let down again. Kind of bleak. Gorilla Biscuits think you should just keep getting up. They like watching you fail.
10. "Competition". I think this is a continuation of song #9. Competition will get the best of you. There is a cool whistling part in it. Probably couldn't find the harmonica.
11. "Time Flies". This song is one minute and 45 seconds. You're not getting younger, you are getting older. THAT IS SCARY. Thanks for the reminder Gorilla Biscuits. Where's your harmonica? Honestly though, wouldn't it be just as scary, if not scarier, if you got younger instead of older? Never saw that Brad Pitt movie, don't intend to.
Subaru commercial. The picture accompanying the audio has a slogan of "Before MP3s it was LPs". Listen to song #9, Subaru.
12. "Cats and Dogs". This song makes me cringe. The idea of it is fine. It's about taking care of all animals, not just your cute pets. That's fine, but saying "cats and dogs have all the luck" is a bit of a stretch.
13. "Sitting Around at Home". This is like an attempt at being a rock and roll song. It's not that good. They already covered tv addiction earlier in the program. The song should have been eliminated.
14. "Gorilla Biscuits". This song is cool because the singer sings "G-o-r-i-doubleL-a" extremely fast over and over again. Then a bunch of his friends are allowed to sing on it, and it kind of works. Everyone is real mad, but I think they are all just joking around because it ends with them laughing. Probably not meant to be taken seriously, but I take it very seriously.
This album is a classic.
5 out of 5 decapitated goats (fake goats, GB).
Top tracks:
1. New Direction
2. Start Today
3. Stand Still
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