The Carry Ons – Is Anyone Listening?

Atlanta’s The Carry-Ons are good at what they do, plain and simple.  And when it comes to lyric heavy mi-tempo upstroke sporting punk rock, their 2008 full length, Is Anyone Listening?, knows few equals.  To be certain, the quintet isn’t here to reinvent but to reinvigorate.  And to that end the album boasts fourteen tracks of direct hit anthems that should have any listener singing along in no time.

The Carry-Ons occupy a great place between melody and good old-school punk.  Chalk full of bouncy guitars, woah enhanced choral structures, and the commanding presence of vocalist Abe Mesaris, Is Anybody Listening? charges out of the gate with a fiery vigor matched only by the album’s passionate political allegiances.  “Fuck The Cliché” gets things rolling with plenty of fast moving guitars backing up a clear and outright judgment call to the scene.  Mesaris shouts “I am constantly subjected to the vain and empty/the gangs of fashion queens it’s all about routine/listen to the lyrics the words are cliché, you get a sense of fallacy in every word that they say,” and as those who hear the message will no doubt agree, few others could carry the message more genuinely.

Compounding on the band’s tongue-in-cheek delivery, the hopeful number “The War Is Over,” follows suit, painting a picture of a world at peace as a tragically unattainable goal still worth fighting for despite the seeming futility.  Another notable track, “Common Cents,” takes a more traditional note, but questions even the motives of those working to subvert capitalist structures, to the point where even a corrupt government riles a chuckle.  Then there’s also a somber sense of survival inherent in the rallying cries of tracks like “I Remember.”  Mesaris reminisces “I remember standing on the corner smoking cigarettes… we didn’t care whether or not we had a dime to our name, but now those things have changed,” making for a passage as much about moving on as it is a warning for those living in the past.

Furthermore, from start to finish the band flexes some pretty meaty musical muscles.  For starters, the riffs of dual guitarists Neil McCarty and Eliott Virula come across with a commanding combination of amped up distortion and production clarity.  The biggest moments come in those like “Zero In,” boasting both the thickest fuzz, and instances of some of the biggest distortion circa reverberating chords that sound as if ripped straight from the Nekromantix or some other psychobilly group.  But like any good gutsy group, The Carry-Ons know when to back off.  To that end they’ve reduced the tempo of the rock n’ roll lament “Apocalypse Song;” a tale about life in an underground bomb shelter.  It goes without saying, every song embodies more than enough uniqueness to keep them standing strong and cemented in memory as accessible sing alongs worthy of consecutive listens.

For such an accessible group I find myself at a loss when thinking of concrete comparisons.  Mesaris is abrasive, but not really what you’d call gruff, so that rules out a whole slew of No Idea Recordsequivalents, and then there’s a ton of outright pep, which makes for an easy pop-punk copout, but feels far too raw for anything on that spectrum.  The best I can offer is bring up a loose Cobra Skulls reference with a bit of a disclaimer.  But whatever the case, The Carry Ons really hit the spot, and deliver fourteen tracks boasting everything I look for in well balanced punk rock that isn’t afraid to keep things raw yet refined.  Definitely a standout for the archives.