Various Artists – Rock Against Bush Vol. 2

He’s baaccccckkkk! That’s right, Fat Mike has returned to bring us yet another installation of the Rock Against Bush compilation series. Back in April Fat Wreck Chords released volume one in the series to rave reviews by fans and critiques. It debuted number 53 on the Billboard top 200 chart, and hasn’t left the charts since. It reached number one in the Billboard indie charts since then too. After having shipped over 230,000, it would be weird not to have reached those marks.

If you have the first volume, then you should know that the 26 tracked disc featured 17 unreleased and rare songs. Improving on both those numbers, the second volume has 28 songs featuring 20 unreleased and rare, making it a real gem for most punk rock fans. Like the first volume, Rock Against Bush Volume 2‘s standout tracks are all over the place. They open it up with a new Green Day song called Favorite Son. This gives you a bit of a preview of the band’s new CD, and it sounds good. Next they jump into Let Them Eat War, a song of Bad Religion‘s latest CD, The Empire Strikes Back. The Lawrence Arm‘s new song, which has an incredibly odd name, Necrotism: Decanting The Insalubrious (Cyborg Midnight) Part 7, is a short, fast paced, energetic song sung by Brandon; and it is by far my favorite track on the album. Lagwagon throws in a song called Status Pool, which if you remember, was released onto the Internet a couple months ago through a secret link on the band’s site. Yellowcard‘s song has a surprisingly small amount of violins on it considering it’s called Violins. It doesn’t quite sound like Ocean Avenue, but its still a really good song. This great compilation even has three live songs, one by Jawbreaker, one byThe Bouncing Souls, and one by Mad Caddies all in a row. This changes the pace of the album a bit, but doesn’t slow it down at all. Useless ID‘s State Of Fear and Autopilot Off‘s I’m Thinking also stand out while you’re listening to it the album. Luckily, unlike the first volume, this one doesn’t feature any weak songs. You can listen to it without wanting to skip any of them, which is always a good thing.

Once your done with the CD, you still have an entire DVD to watch. The DVD features videos from Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, NOFX and Though Riot. Alkaline Trio‘s We’ve Had Enough is one of the best music videos I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m really glad to have it on this disc. The DVD also has three comedy pieces by Will Ferrel, Patton Oswalt and Greg Proops; the best of the three is Greg Proops. And then there’s the real reason for the whole compilation. Six political shorts informing you about the horrible working ways of George W. and the damage he has done. Unfortunately, a few of these political shorts also appeared on the first compilation. I think they should’ve kept it new and put in some new pieces.

This is another compilation I recommend picking up. I wonder if they’ll release a volume three anytime soon?