The Blank Fight: House Band Feud

 The Blank Fight: House Band Feud

2002

Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club Records (whew...That's a long 'un)

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. This Bike + This Guitar  2. Madison Truckstop  3. Song For K80 Bigtoe  4.  Three Songs  5.  Driller's Song  6.  Rusted Freedom  7. John Henry  8.  Song For Todd X + Others  9.  Graveyard  10.  The Hutterites in N. America  11. Old Trick  12.  19 Years, 40 Years  13.  Death Warrant  14. Cry For Help  15.  Jack Johnson


Aaron Cometbus  stuff...Whenever I see a xeroxed cover with lush eyelashes and a sleeve full of booklets I usually just buy it...It's generally good stuff...This is a one-off band who were put-together for a house-band showdown...This differs a bit from the other Cometbus records I have since "House Band Feud" has a very pronounced folk influence to it...Streetwise pop-punk with a good country gallop...Crimpshrine meets Johnny Cash...A circle pit set to harmonica...

 I'm not too familiar with the other band members...I've heard "This Bike is a Pipe Bomb" once or twice, who I might also classify as folk-punk, but of a different species (The Blank Fight has more of an older, dustbowl, hoe-down folk thing going on)...The singer is from a band called Headless Marines and he's a great choice...He sounds exactly like the sort of person who should be singing on a Cometbus release...Shaky, hoarse and anthemic...Maybe think Jeff Ott if he had a bit of early Henry Rollins in his DNA...The bass is quite possibly some of the most amateurish bass guitar I've ever heard on a record (outside of maybe that John Lennon "Live Peace in Toronto" record)...But its primitive rutting kinda works perfectly (unlike that John Lennon "Live Peace in Toronto" record)...

 The record works best when it goes straight for uplifting, gut-felt anthems like "Madison Truckstop" and "Rusted Freedom" and "Old Trick." "19 Years, 40 Years" has that same gravelly sweetness that reminds me why I fell in love with Crimpshrine in the first place all those years ago...

Damn. This is just some super solid punk...I've yet to hear a shitty Cometbus record...He's always had impeccable taste in collaborators, even if they're not always the obvious choices...More! MoRE! MORE!!!!

Here's "Madison Truckstop " by the Blank Fight...Enjoy...