Review Summary: When dealing with newer music, it's always great to go back to the originals.
Do you remember when Punk music was fast? Yeah, neither do I. It is hard to tell what is punk anymore with hardcore, screamo, metal and all the sub-genres involved. Today our selection is a heavy riff for an intro with whiney male vocals about love and girls. When we do find something that catches our ears, the new album is always horrible compared to the old stuff....am I right? Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to some post-hardcore and alternative punk bands, but I miss real punk. I'm not trying to speak for every band but, if you find a good punk band that started like after 2008...tell me.
Fans of the band "Frenzal Rhomb", can tell you how great these guys are (they are fans, of course they will), and fans of pop punk bands will probably argue they are bad. In 1992, they formed in Australia as Jason Whalley (guitar/vocals), Lex Feltham (bass), Ben Costello (guitar/vocals) and Bruce Braybrooke (drums). When the first EP "Dick Sandwich" came out, the band's drummer was dropped and Karl Perske took over. Dick Sandwich was released under labels Smash Studios, Sydney and New South Wales, though the EP can no longer be found. Luckily, I found the album for listen on the interwebs.
If you are not a true punk fan just give this album a couple of listens, it just takes your attitude over everytime you listen. I'm not saying that it's only for punk fans, I mean fans of today's "punk", may not understand it. Every song is made up of heavy, fast, distorted guitars with great drum beats and vocals ranging from clean to very grunge-like screams. The very first song, "Richer than You" starts straight into the song, no intro, no unnecessary movie clips or anything. Listening to this album is like the first time you hear Kurt Cobain (love him or hate him), Jason's voice is magic and draws you in. Sound quality wise, the demos are not perfect but, still good. You don't have any fuzz or any breaks in the song like as a garage band would record their first demo tape. Ask a random person their opinions on punk, this album sums it up. Some will hate it, oh well.
Overall, this is a great EP. To any punk fan I would come out and say "Listen to Frenzal Rhomb, I would start with their first album". I'm rating this a 4/5 just because as I stated, the recordings are not perfect, but they are still damn good! Everything from their recordings to their looks, Frenzal Rhomb makes a good band and with an album title like "Dick Sandwich", you just have to take a listen. Plus, this band is still alive, well and continues to release new material all of it great!
Recommended Tracks:
-Richer Than You
-You're Okay
-Who Can You Trust?
