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Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell (Deluxe)
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Being an avid reader of punknews I think you’ll all agree that there are not enough reviews of English punk bands. ‘So what’ I hear my American cousins shout. Well in fact the British punk scene has crawled out from the shadow of Johnny Rotten and clan and has begun to inmate the imitators. Confused? Well the amount of fun, middle class punk bands that has satirised our shores for the past decade has spawned modern British punk.

Anyway Not Katies are one of the bands to take the American blue print for punk and used it create a catchy record. The quartet (now quintet) from Southampton has decided not to make boats or whatever they do down there and have instead jumped on the carriage of pop punk. Described by their label as ‘Midtown meets Gameface’ they play the kind of music that you can’t but help sing along to. There are no songs about the queen on here, instead you have eleven tracks mainly focused on topic of relationships and that kind of ‘great’ stuff.

Track one ‘2 Halves of 2’, which is being quite heavily promoted in England (they even have a video on cable) is a simple three minute tune with a catchy chorus and should be the easiest to get hold of, if you yanks want to download it. Track four ‘Gratitude’ is the stand out track for me with guitar riffs that made my trousers fall down when I first heard it. The Midtown influence can best heard on ‘Always Them’ with dual vocals that would make many emo rockers wet their plastic bed sheets. The title of the last track sounds like some Ataris cast off ‘Summer Break in San Remo’, and begins as a sweet ballad until the second minute when the guitars kick in and it totally blew me away. The lyrics are cleverly written without the ‘cheese’ factor of many of the bands that try and impress us Brits. Also well down to Deck Cheese, who are not massive label, but have given the record awesome production and it sounds excellent.

Of course the album doesn’t ooze originality as another band tries to squeeze the already dry udder of the pop punk cow, but unlike some bands they use it to fine effect. This record is good enough to convince me that although influenced heavily by you Americans, the future of British pop punk is in good hands. Possibly the best of its kind by a British band, simple as that.






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    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 at 12:31 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    gotta sya that every british punk band that gets air time on the teevee sucks!

    four 4ft fingers, bleh!

    i love the socal style of punk, but there are so many better english punk bands!

    Posted by Melvyl on 2003-02-24 18:38:59
    My Score:

    violent delight is possibly the worst band ever.

    it's basically crappy bloodhound gang covers crossed with that silly uk-mosher-trend.

    the band were together in 6 months before signing to warner.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 11:52 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Heh while Im at it I might awell give some other decent bands some credit- Jerry Built,Joe ninety ,Fig 4.0,Dugong(all the bombed out record guys pretty much :P) Buzzkill,Mr Shiraz,King Prawn,Funeral For a Friend,The Deficits.Alot of the stuff by these artists might be hard to get hold of...but check out mail order suppliers like: www.disclocate.com -Im sure youll be able to find some of them on there.Really,if you want to judge the UK scene dont rely on bands like VIolent Delight(ew)....check some of this talent out.
    Have fun
    ~Pad~
    Padster666@hotmail.com

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 11:44 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Are we forgetting the fantastic Peter and The Test Tube Babies here?
    I know my local punk scene rocks(even the ska/skacore! Check out mr shiraz and buzzkill as examples).
    Anyway the Not Katies suck....they just use the whole cliched american pop punk band thing...even the singer sounds american :P.
    ~Pad~
    Padster666@hotmail.com

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 21, 2003 at 4:25 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "An obnoxious oik."

    No.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 21, 2003 at 1:36 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    punktastic.com is a zine which mostly covers shitty English pop-punk.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, February 21, 2003 at 7:59 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    sadly violent delight are english and suck balls for a living. Deck Cheese rules though.

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, February 20, 2003 at 9:59 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Leatherface rule. Coral suck.

    Posted by Melvyl on 2003-02-20 17:09:01
    My Score:

    it seems like any british band that gets big, is overhyped and overrated. It's is SOOO hype-controlled.

    I'm not saying all bands in england sucks, because they really don't. I just don't like the hype thing. I mean what the fuck is up with creating a stir, then waiting 6 months to release the cd? InMe, Hell is for heroes, violent delight, all these are english bands (i'm 90% positive that violent delight is from the uk) has been really hyped up the last 6 months, and it was just a few weeks ago since they released their debut albums. And Deck Cheese is a cool label, it supports bands who needs it, cheers to them! he majority of good bands in england gets picked up too early by major labels, that sucks.

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, February 20, 2003 at 4:38 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Check out Funeral For a Friend, download 10:45 Amsterdam Conversations. Best Welsh/British band for years.(Yes Wales is part of Britain) I know them, that makes me cool.

    Propagandi forever.

    Posted by eyeball_kid on 2003-02-20 13:45:57
    My Score:

    Belvedere is Canadian, eh?

    Posted by mintymoose on 2003-02-20 13:27:40
    My Score:

    my british mate suggested 'em to me..and i quite enjoyed the song "Two Halves.." in my opinion..they don't sound much like Midtown..or any Drive Thru band for that matter..
    sheejus! you yanks should check out some more up and coming/not well-known British bands..such as
    Simian, Stapleton, Jerry Built, KillingHerName, The All New Adventures Of Us, Mighty Stars, Belvedere, Funeral For A Friend, The Libertines, Ikara Colt, blah blah...there's sooo many brilliant british bands...oh yeah..and The Coral!!! are super..if you haven't heard of em yet..you will soon!

    Posted by insinceredave on 2003-02-20 08:11:36
    My Score:

    Johnny Rotten was GREAT!

    Posted by eyeball_kid on 2003-02-19 20:11:44
    My Score:

    An obnoxious oik.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 at 8:03 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "my bad, its 'imitate' my good men."

    Who did Rotten imitate, in that case?

    Posted by eyeball_kid on 2003-02-19 19:05:37
    My Score:

    Leatherface rules all the way (Sunderland!!). This band make me embarrassed to be English.

    Posted by opiated on 2003-02-19 17:26:15
    My Score:

    they don't speak english well in england . . . do they?

    Posted by degenerate on 2003-02-19 16:55:55
    My Score:

    my bad, its 'imitate' my good men. oh and capdown is another great uk band.

    Posted by waste_elite on 2003-02-18 23:00:31
    My Score:

    good english punk band?

    LEATHERFACE

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 at 9:08 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    awful awful awful band. Horribly uninspiring. Bland nonsense. Theyre even worse live. Eugh

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 at 8:47 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    you lost me when you said they sound like midtown

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 at 4:29 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "Well in fact the British punk scene has crawled out from the shadow of Johnny Rotten and clan and has begun to inmate the imitators. Confused?"

    Yeah, I am. That whole sentence means NOTHING to me.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 at 3:23 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    yeah, theres not enough uk reviews, id write myself if i had any kind of skill and time. dont have a clue about this band though, never heard of them.

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