Agitpop - Open Season

Name:  Agitpop
Album(s): Open Season
Years: 1988
Style:  Garage Punk, Alternative
Similar Bands:  Dead Milkmen, Pavement, Early Soul Asylum
"One-Word" Review:  Aggressive Jangle Pop
Based Out Of:   Poughkeepsie, NJ
Label: Twin Tone

 Open Season - Cover & Record

Open Season - Back & Record

Open Season (1988)

1. Straight Through to Nashville2:57
2. It Won’t be Long Now 2:49
3. Getting Up to Go Down 3:17
4. Top of the Stairs 2:25
5. Three Boys and Space 2:31
6. Memory-Go-Round 3:48 /
7. Kick Back the Hands 1:53
8. Stagnant 3:12
9. Out to Pasture 2:25
10. Without a Trace 2:28
11. Girl but Not A Friend 2:30
12. Inventor 2:32

Album Rating (1-10):  8.0

Members & Other Bands:  

Mark LaFalce – Drums, Percussion, Guitar, Vox

John deVries – Vox, Guitar, Clarinet, Various other instruments

Rick Crescini – Bass, Glockenspiel, Melodica
Albert Garzon - Producer, Piano
David Cook - Engineer
Harvey Sorgen -  Asst. Engineer, percussion
August Henrich - Photography
S. Millman - Harmonica

Unknownness:  I’ve never heard of this band, but the name alone denotes a certain trait I find in bands I like. I get the sense, from the name, that this is going to be pop music that is agitated. In other words, neurotic, angular pop music, which is what I strive to find. However, the cover gives the impression of a cold, jangle pop band with shoegazing / tedious music. It is stark, with organic, non crisp lines which suggest free-flowing music. If the cover were geometric, with cutting lines and angular shapes, the imagery would mesh with the band name, and I’m sure it would be a 9 or 10 rated album.

Album Review:

“Straight Through to Nashville” Begins with a bit of melodic jangle pop without much angular anticipated chord structure. The vocals are a bit rough, shouty, like Earlier David Pirner in Soul Asylum. A few guitar angles come in the bridge that is entirely too short-lived, because the preface a plodding, droning repetitive chorus. There is a harmonica added, theoretically, because the song references going to Nashville (by train?), but it seems a little out of place.

“It Won’t be Long Now” starts off like it can’t start off. Broken chords and repetitive, skipping like hooks make you feel like banging your head against a wall- in a good way. The melody of the verse seems to be disjoined from the music, as it is much catchier. The song eventually either finds its mark, or is persistent enough to force it’s melodic idea down your throat, and the song becomes a steady head nodding song with a lot of seemingly needless guitar work going on in the background.
"Getting Up to Go Down” has a nice steady pace to it. The guitars create a nice driving space for the vocals to glide up and down in their aggressive speak-singing. There is a nice adolescent aggression in the tone. The guitar hook that repeats over makes me think of “A Whole Lotta Love.” This is a fun, yet angry song, with some nice “broken notes” in the process.

“Top of the Stairs” begins with a folksy janglepop melody that reminds me of Dead Milkmen a lot, between the melody, instrumental production and vocal style. It is a downright campfire sing along with nasally not-quite-sung lead vocals.

“Three Boys and Space” begins with a wood block and bell pipe percussion. The vocals are more like a chant than anything else. This kind of feels like a stripped down Man Man demo before all the hoots and odd instruments are placed over top.

“Memory-Go-Round” starts off as a jangle pop melodic song. But then the chaos takes over, fuzzy production takes over and the simple melody is buried under a façade of anger chords. It is angular, one note chord, like, Gang Of Four, but there is more warmth here. The wood block and carnival strong man mallet bell are featured odd instrumentations in a couple of sections. But they share the stage in separate sections with the featured artist; the fuzzed out electric guitar.

“Kick Back the Hands” starts with a Violent Femmes-esq jazzy psycho jam freak out, which transitions into an offbeat tempo driving poppy song. Still, it comes in a bit punk with the aggressive vocals.

“Stagnant” has guitar feedback as the first sign of aggression, followed by a building gang of four like guitar chords and sparse yet driving drum beat. The vocals are quiet at the start, but the feeling that something is building continues to grow through out the song. Rather than explode into an ultra catchy & satisfying release, the song, instead, as true to the name, stays stagnant and resides in that ever building limbo without a foreseeable delivery. And it ends like a top teeters over from losing the momentum that kept it up.

“Out to Pasture” is a nice, fast, guitar paced aggressive pop song. The melody sways side to side in the verse. The bridge is an aggressive build that climaxes in a simple release, without a proper hook. The end of the song fades out with angular, disjointed chords played on top of each other.

“Without a Trace” has a weird synthetic cow effect repeating like an alarm over the song, which is somewhat distracting to the anthemic anger-ballad playing in the background. This song features a transition of the song winding/ breaking down, only to wake up and put itself back together. It feels like a work of art more than a straightforward song.

“Girl but Not A Friend” replaces the synth cow with a cowbell as the foreground, scene stealing, attention grabber. The song itself is another solid paced, driving pop song. The melody of the song, at times, reminds me of Soul Asylum’s song “Spinning;” especially when the chorus in the background joins repeating the lead vocals.

“Inventor” kicks off in true punk style with a fast driving drums and loud, aggressive guitars. It tires itself out after 30 seconds, and relaxes with a third speed drum beat, an array of triangle/bell sounds and a vocal style that was stolen and improved upon by pavement. The end of the song is a sloppy drum breakdown, followed by an album ending bold, Beatles “Day in the Life” like piano chord, as if to say, this has been our Sgt. Pepper.

Stand Out Track: Getting Up to Go Down

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(the) Magnolias - Concrete Pillbox

Name: (the) Magnolias
Album: Concrete Pillbox
Year: 1986
Style: Punk/Garage Rock
Similar Bands: Dead Milkmen, Social Distortion, Violent Femmes,
"One-Word" Review: Billy-Angst-Punk
Based Out Of: Minneapolis, Mn
Label: Twin/Tone

Concrete Pillbox: Cover & Record

Concrete Pillbox: Back & Record

Concrete Pillbox (1986)

1. Reach Out 2:21
2. Keep It Inside 2:21
3. High Class 2:10
4. Don't Know you Anymore 1:44
5. Didn't Want It To Happen 3:42
6. Together Again 3:48/
7. Got No Place 1:45
8. Entertaining Bad Thoughts 2:59
9. My Own Life 2:33
10. Going Down 2:38
11. She Cracked 3:23
12. One More Reason 3:57

Album Rating (1-10): 8.5

Members & Other Bands:

John Freeman - Vox, Guitar (Pushbacks, Acrtion Alert)

Grant Hart - Producer (Husker Du)

John Paul Joyce - Bass

Ron Anderson - Drums

Steve Fjelstad - Engineering

Tom Lischmann - Guitar

John Freeman - Cover Photo

J.P. Joyce - Painting

Unknown-ness: I've never heard of these guys. But the picture on the front of the album was very appealing to my musical sense. Since I classify my musical taste as evil carnival music, the cover photo of amusement rides in an abandoned lot amongst post-apocalyptic looking apartment buildings set against a nuclear orange sky could be great. The album name concrete pillbox also works as cookie cutter commentary, like the song “Little Boxes.”  Now, contrasting on the back, is an abstract art painting that usually strikes me as signifying overly-complicated artsy rock, or shoe-gazing blandness (even if the artwork seems to provoke the ideas of violence and blood). So I’m not sure what to make of the musical content. Even the label, Twintone is a good one, but had a variety of artists on its bill.

Album Review: “Reach Out” starts out with bass, and kicks in with a little rock-a-billy edge. But the vocals are nervous and rough, with a little angsty attitude behind them. The song is driving on a one track course with rocking guitar solos but it travels straight on a single line.

“Keep It Inside” begins with a distorted guitar hook that picks up into a garage rock style. The vocals remind me a little of Joe Jack Talcum from the Dead Milk Men: they have a similar nasally delivery, but the song style is similar to Social Distortion. It also reminds me a bit of the plain, simple nature of the Violent Femmes.
“High Class” has a bouncy bass line and a rocking, distorted guitar, complete with slide guitar sections. This is good, punk sense with garage rock application. It is intensely driving and remains catchy.
“Don't Know You Anymore” comes back to the Dead Milkmen sense of vocals, the cadence does not always match the melody, it can be stretched our or rushed through, but it carries with it an irritated personality that gives the music youthful energy, even if it is comes out chaotically or misdirected.
"Didn't Want It To Happen” is a more mellow, complicated musical heavy piece. After the first minute and a half, the vocals come stumbling in, feeling like they forgot their cue. But by the chorus, they meet their mark, and the lazy slacker rock vibe takes effect. And it was bugging me for a while, but the jangley guitar in this track reminds me of Fine Young Cannibals' song "Don't Look Back."
“Together Again” rocks out from the start with a short and repetitive guitar hook. With this song, I feel like I’m listening to a not-quite-as-angry NoFX, with the nasally vocals and repetitive chording guitars. The chorus consists of a bunch of La-La-lala-la-La-La’s

“Got No Place” goes back to the feel of Social Distortion music wise on a more amateur level. I could hear Mike Ness singing this song. Even the vocals have a similar cadence. The strained vocals, though, remain constant through out the song.
“Entertaining Bad Thoughts” is a pop-punky song still brimming with youthful angst, but with a much more melodic delivery. The vocals are nasally and lack a deep musical wealth, but work well with the music.
“My Own Life” also has the punk-rock-a-billy bass and lead guitar riffs. But over all, a casual listen might not reveal the theme. It is buried below the vocals and rough production.
“Going Down” starts with a jangely, short repeating guitar section. The theme carries through, with the only signs of “punk” being the vocals’ don’t-give-a-shit delivery.
“She Cracked” rings in with echoing guitar, and quickly takes off running with a chugging rhythm guitar tempo. The timing of the vocals feels punk, with short syllables mixed over down scale guitar chords. This recipe is mixed up a bit as the sections repeat.
“One More Reason” does not feel like an album closer. It has jangley production, mixed with rockabilly time signatures and foot stomping tempo. But it is a fun song, and it feels like it promises more material, not the final track.

Stand Out Track: High Class

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