Star Fucking Hipsters – Until We’re Dead

Star Fucking Hipsters‘ debut album, Until We’re Dead, stumbles out of the starting gate but soon picks up to become one of the more memorable crest-punk, ska-punk, indie-punk, fucked-up-genre-punk album in recent memories.

It kicks off with Introduccion a los Hipsters – yes, an introduction. Unfortunately, the intro turns you off the record more than it pulls you in. A mixture of spoken words and dance beats, the sixteen second introduction is too long even at that length and feels even more uneven when the title track comes up in with a piano melody. Its a mixture that doesn’t work and hurts even more when the piano melody suddenly explodes into a chaotic frenzy of punk. Stza Crack (or Scott Sturgeon) of Leftover Crack then pops in with rough, raw and incomprehensible vocals. The entire song doesn’t feel that uneven but the opening sequence feels so very unconformable that the entire track is ruined.

So yes, a bad start – but Stza and his fucking hipsters pick it up and suddenly the underground hype makes sense. The first showing of excellence comes on Immigrants & Hypocrites – a song that mixes the style of The New Dress and Gogol Bordello and then speeds it up by atleast ten times. Nicol De Gaillo (Another Dying Democracy, The Randalls, Casa De Chihuahua) takes over the lead vocals duties here and her sharp, crisp vocals perfectly complement Stza’s frenzied style. She spits out the complicated lyrics at a breakneck sped that just leaves you in awe. It’s a stark contrast to her delivery in the following track, Two Cups of Tea – a song about dead cops that starts off much slower with a steady beat and smoothly delivered vocals. Throughout the track they burst into the chaotic crest punk of the opening track but this time it works.

In a way, that’s what makes this record so unbelievable – the fact that it works so well together. They’re not re-inventing the wheel by any standards, but the smash of styles and tempos are thrown together so haphazardly that it should feel uncomfortable and unnatural but other than the opening two tracks, it never does. Maybe its the fact that everyone involved as been around the block a few times – on top of members of World/Inferno Friendship Society, The Slackers and Ensign, Until We’re Dead also features guest spots from members of Lagwagon and The Hold Steady to name a few. Either way, they’re able to make the record seamlessly go from a slow tempo track (Only Sleep), to a ska track (Snitch To The Suture) and a good old fashioned punk rock tune (9/11 Was An Inside Joke) without a second glance. Hell, Zombie Christ sounds like a raw version of Dance Hall Crashers and is followed by This Wal-Mart Life that not only features Joey Cape on background vocals but doesn’t have a tinge of ska to it.

Until We’re Dead is just an odd combination of sounds and styles that work so well together that it becomes surprising; and I couldn’t be happier about it.