Dillinger Four - Higher Aspirations Tempered and Dismantled (1995)

 

Dillinger Four - Higher Aspirations Tempered and Dismantled

D4's ANGELFIRE PAGE

TRACKS:

1. Shotgun Confessional

2. Unemployed

3. Smells Like OK Soda

4. One Trick Pony

I don't really know what to say about Dillinger Four that hasn't already been said.  If you're checking out this blog you should probably already know this band.  D4 are from Minneapolis, MN and play gruff, raw, and fast pop-punk.  They play a style that has been aped and poorly imitated by hundreds of bands of recent memory, but this is the original and the real deal.  I love the dual vocals, switching between melodies and aggression.  The music is the same way; nice melodies and fast aggressive punk.  The lyrics are very tongue in cheek and satirize modern society and government. Y'know, and pop punk stuff like being poor and lonely.  This is their first release, as far as I can tell, and its definitely a good one.  This stuff is on the "This Shit is Genius" LP that collects their splits and 7" so you may already have this, but whatever.  It's still great.  The band is still around from time to time, and put out the wonderful "C I V I L W A R" in 2008.  Members play in a couple other bands, but Paddy plays in The Arrivals, who you should definitely check out, and Cleveland Bound Death Sentence, who shares members of Crimpshrine!  FULL CIRCLE!  Sorry I don't have a better picture, my scanner is broken.  FFO: The Midwest, Crimpshrine, Toys That Kill, Green Day, Pop-Punk, Latterman

Crimpshrine - Quit Talkin' Claude EP (1989)

Crimpshrine - Quit Talkin' Claude EP

MYSPACE

Tracks:

1. Butterflies

2. Situation

3. Easy Answers

4. Inspiration

Crimpshrine was a band from the Berkeley, CA area in the late '80s/early '90s that was hugely influential on bands in the area and in punk rock in general.  Members went on to form/play in bands such as Pinhead Gunpowder, Fifteen, Tilt, Sweet Baby, Astrid Oto, Cleveland Bound Death Sentence, Thorns of Life, and even Screeching Weasel.  Aaron Cometbus, the drummer, has been in a billion bands since Crimpshrine and publishes the amazing Cometbus zine, still to this day, tracking his adventures over the years.  The band was hugely influential on giants and contemporaries such as Green Day and Operation Ivy.  Their sound is very uniquely their own and modern bands such as The Credentials, Witches With Dicks, Chinese Telephones, Shang-a-Lang, among others, owe their entire existence to this band.  Needless to say this is an important band and this is an important record.  Messy, raw, punk sounding pop-punk.  Calling it pop-punk would be wrong I think however.  It's just poppy punk before there was a name for it.  GET THIS IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IT.  FFO: Witches With Dicks, Screeching Weasel, Fifteen, Green Day

Here is an interview with them from a 1988 issue of Maximum Rock'N'Roll:

http://www.besound.com/crimpshrine/mrrint.html