Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

Various

Deep Elm Unreleased No. 2 (2003)
Deep Elm Records

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

Contributed by: Scott
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on August 15th 2003

When I reviewed volume 1 of this series a year ago, I commented on just how wonderful the basic idea of this compilation was - a label puts out a CD of only unreleased tracks from their bands. It's definitely a "fans-only" release, but at the same time, one could argue that some of these bands' best material is appearing on these compilations. Unreleased No. 2 is no different, including the following bands:
01. The White Octave - "A Chinese Character"
02. Cross My Heart - "Complications"
03. Benton Falls - "Occupied For Now"
04. The Appleseed Cast - "The Spider Wall"
05. Walt Mink - "Downright Presidential"
06. Drive Til Morning - "Tell Me A Story"
07. David Singer - "A Mercenary Love Song"
08. Race Car Riot - "Discontinued"
09. Camber - "Lantern Circle"
10. Slowride - "This Train"
Once again I get frustrated with the only 10 songs limit, as there's only a half hour of music on here. Then again, being this short makes the disc easier to digest, so I guess there's always a plus side to everything.

So out of all the unreleased material, David Singer takes home the medal for "best song" with "A Mercenary Love Song" [which reminds me of "Always Something There To Remind Me" every time I hear it's opening]. Other highlights on here include super-old songs from the now-defunct Walt Mink and Cross My Heart, as well as a fuzz-rock Appleseed Cast gem. The only song that just rubs me the wrong way is Drive Til Morning's "Tell Me A Story," but if you read my review of their most recent full-length you would have expected that.

Deep Elm claims that this CD isn't supposed to be a sampler, but in the end, that's what most every compilation turns into [especially a label-exclusive one such as this]. The beauty of this CD is that, if you like the unreleased song so much, you're almost bound to enjoy the band's released material even more.

MP3
Benton Falls - Occupied For Now

MP3 CLIPS
The White Octave - A Chinese Character
Cross My Heart - Complications
The Appleseed Cast - The Spider Wall
Walt Mink - Downright Presidential

Login to rate this album

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Anonymous (August 18, 2003)

Yeah, but keep in mind it only takes me 2 minutes to write my comments that piss people off.

-BSD

Anonymous (August 18, 2003)

eh, why do people have to spend time thinking about things they don't like? think about something else then. who cares if someone likes something you think is trendy?

Anonymous (August 17, 2003)

The idea of emo applies to all music... What MAKES a band emo is evidently they wear trendy mod styled hair and goofy sidepacks, all along begging to be taken seriously. This "genre" (if you can call it that) is all about conformity and bullshit. It's about caking your real emotions in plastic ones so that you don't have to worry about the masses of starving people across the world or a country that is being killed off by AIDS. Musically, it's either metal made made really slow and boring, pop-punk mixed with metal, or baaaaaaaaaaad folk. Why do people listen to this trash?

-BSD