Leftover Crack / Citizen Fish – Deadline

William Tell, Bixler, Daphne Loves Derby, The Campbells, The Old Ceremony, The Higher. What do those bands have in common? Well, they’re all bands I’ve reviewed in the past week or so; and not one of them are really that “punk rock” per say. Pop-punk at best, and I’ve been waiting patiently for some band to come out and release a decisively solid punk rock record again for me to write about. Lucky for me though, I didn’t get just one band, I got TWO. Leftover Crack and Citizen Fish‘s split full length, Deadline – an album that is punk to the core.

The album kicks off with seven songs from Citizen Fish, the ska alter egos of the famed UK punk powerhouse Subhumans, and kick off is what they do. The blistering trombone introduction of Working On The Inside lures you into the album instantly and they never let you go from there on in. Distorted guitars, an upstroke melody and British accented vocals being spat at you at top speed, Citizen Fish give you myriad of sounds and songs that continually gets you pumped and energized and never, ever, loses any momentum. Meltdown does slow it down a bit as they put a heavy accent on the ska-side of the band but even that doesn’t lose any of the energy; and even if it did, Getting Used To It starts it off again with a lightning fast riff and is backed by a drum kick that would burst open a pit in mere seconds.

Furthermore, during Citizen Fish‘s seven tracks they tackle a cover of Leftover Crack‘s Clear Channel (Fuck Off!) and a cover of Money by Leftover Crack‘s former band, Chocking Victim. In turn,Leftover Crack repays them by covering The Super-Market Song (by Citizen Fish) and Reason For Existence (by The Subhumans) in their half of the album.

Leftover Crack‘s eight songs (one of which is a spoken introduction which has the band discussing the number of excess cops around) are much more skankable and ska heavy than their counterparts (… And Out Comes The N-Bomb! is a perfect example of that), but they’re still rough and harsh with heavy distortion and a crust-punk vocal delivery style. Plus, Jello Biafra even makes an appearance on Baby-Punchers with one of his signature rants, so that’s an added bonus.

Yes, these two bands do epitomize the stereotypical punk rock ideals of “smash the states” and “fuck the cops” – something I can’t really relate to. But when you get past the ideal and concept behind the lyrics and listen to the music for what it is you’ll love it no matter what your stance is on smashing the state. It’s fast, it’s gritty, it’s dirty and distorted. The vocals are venomous and the beat is fast. It’s cohesive and energizing and it comes with a full booklet with lyrics and added commentary by Leftover Crack on all their songs. After all these highly polished pop-punk acts, it’s nice to be able to sit back and listen toDeadline – an album that I’ll highly recommend to anyone who loves the crust punk sound.