The Rock Blogger

Loma Prieta . Last City . 2008. 3.5 stars .

Short and sweet, thats how I would describe Loma Prieta’s Last City . This Oakland CA band plays speedy hardcore/screamo jams with impressive technicality, running through time signatures and epic melodies with incredible ease. As the mathematical riffs swirl around cymbal crashing and rapid fire rhythms, the howling vocals provide the emotional release for all the tension that’s built up. The occasional piano melody and gentle guitar parts help balance things out as well.

As these tunes move at feverish pace, most of them clocking in at around 2 minutes, it comes on like an adrenaline rush, leaving you in a state of shock and exasperation as you wonder what happened to that lovely and mellow post-rock guitar passage. Oh that’s right, it was destroyed under a barrage of drums and screams. But that’s ok, this is a screamo album after all and its focused on angst-ridden catharsis, throwing raw emotionalism like red paint to a wall.

Lyrical themes? Hard to discern at first. The phrase ‘Last City’ recurs, so this, along with the general tone of the album, tells me that has something to do with urban alienation and escapism. ‘The name "Loma Prieta" itself might be a reference to the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake , so maybe the anguish here is about wanting it all to fall down - or maybe they’re just observing it - either way its a fitting name.

I would recommend this to fans of any kind of punk music, well except that radio-friendly bullshit, as its hardcore attitude and complex musicianship will give your day a quick and brutal shot of energy. While its very short, and the vocals could have been a little more understandable, its still an entertaining and refreshing listen.

Follow the Loma Prieta link above to be taken to their Myspace page, where you can find links to listen to this album for free.

Amebix . Arise . 1984. 4 stars .

(Note to readers: this started out as a conventional review but soon became a rant about politics and punk music. Please bear with me).

What a difference 24 years make. Since the heyday of Amebix, the UK’s famed anarchistic, squat dwelling crust punks , punk music has been filtered and manufactured into easily digestible soma tablets for the kiddies to swallow, filling big chain record stores and malls with self-absorbed twats who don’t know what real music is.

What a bloody shame.
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In this video from one of 2007’s most underwritten bands, The Future of the Left compiled footage by fans taken at their concerts and massed it together to this propulsive tune. I’m hoping they create a video for “Small bones, small bodies” and “Suddenly its a Folk Song”, two of my favorites from Curses.