Down by Law: punkrockacademyfightsong/All Scratched Up!

Down by Law: punkrockacademyfightsong

1994

Epitaph Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Punk Won  2. Hit Or Miss  3. Flower Tattoo  4. Sympathy For The World  5. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)  6. Brief Tommy  7. Bright Green Globe  8. Minusame  9. Drummin' Dave, Hunter Up  10. Punk As Fuck  11. 1944  12. The King & I  13. Haircut  14. Chocolate Jerk  15. Sam I  16. Heroes & Hooligans  17. Soldier Boy  18. Goodnight Song  19. Sam II



I loved Dag Nasty and All, but I had no idea Down by Law existed until I heard the Punk-o-Rama CD sampler that everybody owned at the time...

 

 Man, Epitaph must have sold a kajillion of those things...I lived in a tiny town that had maybe a 1000 people in it and everybody there seemed to own it, so I can only imagine its larger cultural impact...This and "Fat Music for Fat People" were the first of the super-cheap CD samplers that I encountered...We were used to paying 16 bucks for a CD back then, so one that only cost $5.00 and had a dozen different bands on it was too good to be true! So needless to say, I snatched it up and one of my favorite tracks turned out to be Down by Law's "Bright Green Globe"...And the singer was that guy that sang Dag Nasty's "Circles" (which was one of my favorite songs back then, check it out of you haven't heard it), so I was thrilled...

I started off with their first two albums, and I liked them very much...Nothing too remarkable...Just solid, well-crafted, heart-on-yer-sleeve punk rock with nice clean vocals...But it was "punkrockacademyfightsong" that really hit me...You can hear them absorb the snottier, cartoonish pop-punk style that was all the rage in '94 (see "Flower Tattoo")  which added a welcome sense of humor to the band...The whole thing kind of flips back and forth between short, comedy numbers (like "Drummin' Dave, Hunter Up"  or "Brief Tommy") and the more serious, adult stuff (like "Sympathy For The World" or "Heroes & Hooligans") that's really the real heart of the album...Although it seems that the song that's made the biggest impact is their gimmicky cover of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by those Irish fucks, the Proclaimers...

And I have to admit...I'm kinda embarrassed to say it's pretty awesome, although it's one of those tracks that I roll up the car windows before cranking up...I think I finally understand what they mean by "guilty pleasure"...But, it works so well...You can almost imagine the band writing it and the altered lyrics are a vast improvement...Here, check it out if you don't believe me...

Stay far away from "Goodnight Song," by the way...It's the cheesiest, most horrible song ever written...It almost makes me take back every good thing I've ever said about the band...Check out these lyrics:

"Every minute that I dream,
I dream of you.
God that sounds like such a used line,
but fuck it, its true,
now most of my words are social,
the human condition we all share,
and I'm not very good with love songs,
but I just saw you sleeping there,
and I didn't want to wake you up,
but I feel us so strongly right now,
thanks for being so great,
and thanks for being my friend...
When you wake up, let's make out..." 

Puuuuuuuke!!!!!!!!!!  It might be tolerable if the song was even the slightest bit good, but the music is just as bad as the lyrics..."Cloying" doesn't even begin to describe it...

Oh yea, in recent years Dave Smalley's personal politics have become problematic in the punk community...So depending on how seriously you take politics that might pose a problem for you...The politics in the lyrics are so general as to almost be non-existent, so it doesn't really bother me...Really, someone would have to be a card-carrying Nazi before their politics would make me stop listening to them (although I have a couple of Wagner records floating around in my collection, so maybe not)...Besides, let the Republicans have some good music for a change...Sometimes I almost feel bad for them...Every election year whatever song the Republican candidate chooses ends with the artist eventually telling them they can't use it...

So unless they want to use Ted Nugent's "I Love My BBQ" as their campaign song, they're usually out of luck...Might I recommend some Down by Law to some promising Republican candidate? Maybe bust out some "Bright Green Globe" to liven up your campaign? He even tosses in Rush Limbaugh's name (although I can't tell if it's complimentary or not)...Can't you just see it now?

               ♪  "Nobody Knows it all-ll..."♪

Down by Law: All Scratched Up!

1996

Epitaph Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Independence Day  2. Cheap Thrill  3. All American  4. Hell Song  5. True Believers  6. Giving It All Away  7. Gruesome Gary  8. Radio Ragga  9. Attention: Anyone  10. Superman  11. Post Office Lament  12. Ivory Girl  13. No Has Beens  14. Kevin's Song  15. True Music  16. Far And Away  17. Punks And Drunks



Woah! Two posts in a row that have a good song about Superman (the fictional character who possibly has the greatest number of shitty  songs written about him)...

But yea, there's a song on here called "Superman" that's a little cheesy but awesome nonetheless...That "I'm gonna be the one..." hook is brilliant...I've always thought of this album as "punkrockacademyfightsong Part Two:The Secret of the Ooze"... but it's much more consistent, so I'm giving it the nod as their best album...I've come to this conclusion by realizing that if the "500 Miles" cover was on this album, I would probably skip it...

(Yes...These guys are definitely Irish...)

"Independence Day" is the most explosive opener ever...It just ratchets up the energy to 10 from the split second it comes on...Easily one of the band's best tracks, despite being only a minute long...I could (and routinely do) listen to it 10 times in a row and never get tired of it...

The other big song on here was "Radio Raga" where the band tries out the reggae/punk style that the Clash excelled at, and they pretty much nail it...Lots of yearning, nostalgic lyrics about the power of music...This is going to sound weird, but the song's best moments almost remind me of prime Springsteen in the way that it's unabashedly overwrought and corny, but hits you square in the heart anyway...I remember at the time being confused about why this guy liked the radio so much...Was Dave Smalley really that big a fan of "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Stairway to Heaven"?  Then later on in life I learned that there were other places in the country where radio wasn't always a big shitbag of moldy, overplayed tracks...In fact, my good friend Russ confirmed that in California, the radio is indeed awesome... Y'see, we had nothing but Joe and the Poorboy farting and boobing their way through the latest (by latest, we mean songs that were recorded a million years ago) by Bob Seger and George Thorogood...And I just can't fathom there are still people out there who simply must hear Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" once an hour...Blugh!!!

(God! I even hate the album cover! It's the brownest, shitteist, Lawnmower-Man-iest garbage ever created...I demand that all citizens of Planet Earth destroy every copy ever printed...Dig through the piles of Taco Bell wrappers and empty Coke cans in the backseat of your car until you find your old, loose, wrinkled, soda-damaged copy of the "Human Clay" CD booklet and toss it in the trash where it belongs...By the way, I can't find a copy of the cover online that isn't blurry...Is the album cover itself that blurry?)

Wait...Why am I rattling on endlessly about Creed? Everybody hates them...Why kick them when they're down? (Answer: Cos it's always fun...) So let's get back to "All Scratched Up"...

There's a coupla duds, which is to be expected for an album with nearly 20 tracks (I can't understand what people see in "Ivory Girl" and "Grusome Gary" barely gets a pass from me), but the minute you hear "All American" or "Post Office Lament" all is forgiven... I'd say if you haven't checked out Down by Law yet, this would be a fine place to start (If I remember correctly, the vinyl version had a bunch of extra songs on it, including a Jam cover...I haven't been able to find a copy of that version yet, but you can always find this as a three-buck used item in any respectable record shore)...

Here's "All American" by Down by Law...Enjoy....