CD Reviews

Pennywise

Full Circle

(Epitaph Records)

Southern California is known for a vast array of punk bands playing homage to bands such as the Descendants, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks. Pennywise, one of the best bands in the area, has been storming the scene since their formation in 1988, bringing their brand of insanely fast melodic punk to the masses. Known for their ballistic live shows, Pennywise has accumulated a dedicated following and established themselves as one of the punk elite. Their latest release "Full Circle" solidifies Pennywise's position as one of the best punk bands in the world.

"Full Circle" is dedicated to the life, music and memory of Jason Thirsk, their original bass player who committed suicide July 1996. Pennywise hired their former roadie Randy to replace Thirsk and haven't missed a beat since. Songs such as "Fight Till You Die" and "Running Out of Time" show that Pennywise has remained strong despite Thirsk's suicide. All of the songs on this album are extremely fast and remind me of their sophomore release "Unknown Road." This album ends with a re-release from their first album, "Bro Hymn Tribute," featuring the late Thirsk on vocals.

So as Jim (the singer of Pennywise) says, "rage hard and live everyday as if it were your last." Good words to live by.

-Andrew Berenson

Various Artists

The Buzz from the Southwest ...Made in Arizona

(Best Buy)

When someone puts out a compilation claiming to have the best music from a certain area of the country like, say, Arizona, you have to wonder how they determine what is "the best."

Case in point: Best Buy is marketing "The Buzz from the Southwest ... Made in Arizona" as a compilation that "captures the musical identity of Arizona."

The extent to which they fall short of this goal is sad.

There are some good bands on this disc. Dead Hot Workshop, Shoebomb, Greyhound Soul and Blackmoon Graffiti definitely earned their place on the compilation. No matter how you feel about them, they've all been around for a while and are part of the music community here.

Bands like Chronic Future don't belong on the same compilation. Don't get me wrong - when I was 14, I could barely get it together long enough to save up for new ski bindings, let alone pull off a musical career (with or without daddy's help). But they're still not really the best of anything.

Sludge Nation's (hey, wait a second, aren't these guys from Sweden?) slamming track "Monkey On My Back" drives home the depressing point that foreign bands can write better lyrics than most American bands - catchy and unpretentious.

Some of the pleasant surprises, for me at least, include Space Rig (these guys ought to be incredible live) and Pollen. Check them out if you get the chance.

If you're from this area, what you will notice is what's missing from this compilation. Where are Giant Sand, Helldriver, Al Perry, ... ?

-Dorothy Parvaz

Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind

(Elektra)

When I heard Third Eye Blind's first single, "Semi-Charmed Life," this band instantly became my new hope for a group that might be the next great American band. When I listened to the rest of the album, I was more than a bit disappointed.

This is because not only is "Semi-Charmed Life" the best song on the cd, it's the only good song. What we have here is a perfect example of the "One Hit Wonder" phenomenon. It's really too bad, since their first single showed so much promise, sporting funky guitars, extremely catchy pseudo-ska vocals and enough hooks to snag a whole school of fish. With the rest of the tracks on their debut album nearly all of those elements disappear. The guitars become tame, the vocals slip into typical alternative wailing and the tunes just seem flat-out generic.

It seems impossible that a band can write one song that's so good, but can't follow it with even one more decent song, especially considering there's fourteen songs on the album. The only other track I even paused for is "London," a song about not wanting to move to London.It may have caught my ear more for the subject matter than the song itself. After all, if Third Eye Blind did move to London, they'd be surrounded by great bands that might be able to teach them a thing or two.

After hearing this album, I finally understand the true value of the cd single. For some acts, it's the only thing worth owning.

-Doug Levy

The Saint

Various Artists

(Virgin)

Yay, another ultra-cool soundtrack. Packaged with the same slickness as the movie, "The Saint" soundtrack is chock-full of hipper-than-thou music. If you've been buried under a rock and haven't checked out any of that radio-friendly techno out there, this disc will set you up.

Wait, this sounds like a negative review, which it's not, really. "The Saint" is just too intentionally hip. I can almost see the Virgin executives sitting around a big table muttering, "No, we can't have any Stone Temple Pilots on this soundtrack. Grunge is dead. Generation X is dead. We need to target this to the same kids that wear flared corduroys and retro shirts. Let's get Moby on the phone..."

OK. Back to the music.

There's a little bit of Orbital (with their version of the theme song), a splash of Moby (doing what he does best: techno, not industrial), some Underworld, as well as Chemical Brothers, whose version of "Setting Sun" is mercifully free of that Liam Gallagher punk's nasal dronings.

Luscious Jackson, Sneaker Pimps and Daft Punk do a little something for the soundtrack also. David Bowie proves (once again) that he's aging gracefully with a bum-shaking tune called "Dead Man Walking."

There are some weaknesses. The Duran Duran song, "Out of My Mind," is pure drivel (how do those boys keep finding work in the '90s?) The Duncan Sheik song "In The Absence Of Sun" is kinda lame, only because Sheik seems to be a much, much weaker version of Ben Harper. They should've gone with the real thing.

-Dorothy Parvaz