If
you asked me what I was doing back in 2008 or 2009, odds are I wouldn’t really
know without checking some journals aside from living in Texas so the idea of
what music I was listening to at the time also becomes somewhat of a mystery. At
almost any other given point in time, you could take a five year chunk and
things would stay pretty consistent, but from 2009 to 2014 there have been many
changes within music, in terms of the digital qualities of it as well as the
platforms in which it is out there (from social media expanding to Bandcamp not
being around or as prevalent)
In
fact, one of the first songs on this cassette by Marko and the Bruisers makes a
shout out to Myspace, which still remains as a shell of its former self but is
clearly not the monster that it once was even five years ago (Though this song
would have been six years ago plus any added mileage for having written
it)
What
I find to be of particular interest for this cassette is that many of the songs
are acoustic in their delivery and as such this would adhere more to the modern
standards of what has become known as folk punk. If indeed folk punk was a thing back in
2008/2009 it wasn’t nearly as advanced as it is now and as such you might say
that Marko and the Bruisers were some sort of early pioneers of the genre.
On
some overall level, I can hear undertones of Social Distortion coming out and
thus assume that was a big influence on Marko and possibly the Bruisers as
well. On the 2008 side, we get electric
and that brings out some NOFX comparisons as well. There is also this raw quality to the 2008
side, especially near the end, where it might not sound like the best recording
quality but I feel it remains true to the time.
On
Side B, which is 2009, there are some pretty solid songs- the third being one
of them- and some of them repeat from that acoustic vibe into the full on
electric band feel. We also get some
audio clips, which bring out the likes of Bill Murray amongst others, and it’s
nothing short of what it happening right now in the folk punk/cassette scene.
See
what it comes down to is that Marko and the Bruisers have made a cassette here
that in terms of 2014 folk punk would be up there as one of the top releases of
the year. Yet, this wasn’t released in 2014 in the sense
that it was recorded within the last few years but rather is a new collection
of older songs. You could call them
ahead of their time or whatever you will, but this is a solid release that
perhaps is more credible now even than when it originally came out.
No comments:
Post a Comment