Ten Foot Pole

Rev (1994)
Epitaph Records

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Contributed by: Joe
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on February 4th 2005

Some would say it's a good thing that Epitaph seemed to have branched out in terms of the acts they're signing these days, such as the Special Goodness, From First To Last and Eyedea & Abilties, but I personally miss the good old days when Mr. Gurewitz was all about the punk rock. Bands like Rancid and the Offspring went on to greater glory, but I think the best of the bunch was Ten Foot Pole, no doubt.

While I still maintain that Insider is their best work to date (yeah, slate me all you like, that's just my opinion), their last album with current Pulley frontman Scott Radinsky on vocals is definitely a close second. It's a bit harder than some of their recent stuff, and they also prove that they can be pretty diverse when they want to be - just check out the ska-tinged "Old Man" or the acoustic intro to "Broken Bubble." They also show that their songwriting abilities are top-notch, with songs about parental alienation, death and being fucked over by people you thought were friends. It all seems a bit morbid, but the driving melodies and Scott's passionate singing never really sink it into shoegazing shit that you hear so much of these days.

This is an album you should purchase should hard-edged poppy punk (not in the Blink Found 41 variety) float your boat. They may not be the most original band in the world, but Rev is vintage TFP, and anyone with even a vague interest in the band should buy it just to see what they were like before Dennis' high-pitched vocal stylings were introduced. Definitely one of the best albums Epitaph ever put out...even if Insider is ever so slightly better (runs away).

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Hein (February 10, 2005)

Yep, this is one of my top 20 releases all time. You all probably know Radinsky played some baseball, and it looks like he earned a few bucks with it as well considering the following someone sent me in:

"Scott Radinsky, a former Chicago White Sox and L.A. Dodger pitcher-turned-baseball coach and lead singer with the punk-rock band Pulley, has listed his Westlake Village home at just under $4 million. He is selling his home because he will be out of state to coach the Cleveland Indians. His home has five bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms in 6,800 square feet. The gated Mediterranean estate, on about 2 acres, has mountain views and 20-foot ceilings in the living room and gym/entertaining room. The house was built in 2001. Radinsky, 36, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1994. He missed a pro baseball season but recovered. The Glendale-born Radinsky, a former singer with Ten Foot Pole, was a left-handed relief pitcher for the Dodgers in the late '90s. He retired from the mound in 2001."

Not sure if this is from a reliable source, but if this is true he must really love his punkmusic to keep going on.

Anonymous (February 10, 2005)

He only had 5 at-bats...

Anonymous (February 8, 2005)

awww moneennerd deleted it... is it creepy that i 'm disappointed?

scott radinsky kicks ass! how many people do you know that have had a successful career in 2 completely different and difficult fields? (no pun intended) and to top it off he did beat hodgkins after the drs told him he probably wouldn't make it.

very admirable, in my humble opinion.

Anonymous (February 8, 2005)

moneenerd is a little bitch. Nice livejournal you fucking homo.

TheOneTrueBill (February 8, 2005)

Well, I ordered this last night.

Anonymous (February 7, 2005)

if you thought bad mother trucker was bad
you should hear thier new album
believe it or not ... it's worse
and you know you're bad when you get dropped from victory
one of my favourite bands was opening up for TFP last year so I went to the show
for some strange reason i decided to stick around for TFP
there were about 15 people left in the club by the time they took the stage
how sad is that?

moneenerd (February 6, 2005)

fuck these hacks

Anonymous (February 6, 2005)

these guys definitly dont get the credit they deserve for being such a great band, especially considering how long they've been around.

Anonymous (February 6, 2005)

Oops. Wrong score, this is the right one.

Anonymous (February 6, 2005)

This album fucking rocks.

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

How many NL relief pitchers do you know that bat instead of a pinch hitter?

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

I was going to point out the no-hit thing too, but then I realized he only had five at-bats. I don't think most of us would have gotten a hit either.

8dollarclarinetsolo (February 5, 2005)

man, this guy never had one hit. i mean i know he was a pitcher, and in the american league a lot, but 5 years in the NL and not one hit. i would have liked to get at least one

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

Lol.......that's one of the best Curb episodes!!

I agree with the reviewer for once. Insider is their best hands down. Rev is great but I like the new one (Subliminable Messages) a little bit better.

Swill is actually a really good album I think. If it had a little better recording quality it would be almost as good as Rev I think.

I agree that Walkin' is an amzing song. The Pulley version isn't as good mostly because it doesn't have that cool guitar slide at the beggining.

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

good hodgkins or bad hodgkins?

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

Scott had Hodgkin's disease in 1994. The same year they kicked him out of the band.

Anonymous (February 5, 2005)

but it is cool triva

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

I heard that he died-

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

He survived.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Everyone knows about the baseball, but how many of you know about Radinsky's bout with Cancer? How is that going anyway?

Barkley

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Insider better? I really don't agree with that. Dennis played at least 4 songs from this disc when I saw TFP open for Millencolin (newly released Pennybridge era) in Toronto back in the day. Radinsky played the opening track from Revwith Choke last spring and it killed. But lets be honest people Pulley is never gonna top the %&$( album. Its strangely a pretty lopsided disc, with the first 4 songs being complete and absolute unquestionable classics. While the rest meh, but those first four songs-wow!

Barkley

Ps. The new Pulley disc shocked me with how it was actually pretty good.

stevejonestherealbones (February 4, 2005)

yes man, we all know he used to be in the majors, fanboy.

you dont have to say it like its some cool trivia

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

see:
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats_historical/mlb_pla yer_locator_results.jsp?playerLocator=Radinsky

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

dude the lead singer plays major league baseball. this cd got me in to baseball.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

I'll always be a TFP fan, but seriously, this band lost it when they lost Scott. This is totally apparent in the way that every Pulley album since then has kicked ass. Just like everyone else said, REV is a great mid 90's skate punk album that will always have a setimental spot in my collection. I still listen to it regularly. My pick, track 10, broken bubble, sick and fast punk rock.

since94 (February 4, 2005)

I agree, Gnarly Charlie is a classic but so is Walkin (same split with the SS) which was done again by Pully with the title Wok Inn...how smart....
Swill was o.k...Racer X got them signed to Epitaph but isn't their best song.
Rev will always be on my top 10 skatepunk cd's alongside 88 Fingers Louie Behind Bars

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Definelty one of the top ten Socal skate punk albums of all time.
Amazing from start to finish.
It kills anything Pulley have ever released.
Best Ten Foot Pole song ever though would have to be Gnarly charlie on the split ep they did with Satanic Surfers.
Get that song now...

notfeelingcreative (February 4, 2005)

Great record, not to big into the epi-fat sound right now, but this record will always have a place in my collection with all of the others that I bought when I was fifteen just because they were on fat/epitaph etc.

stevejonestherealbones (February 4, 2005)

good cd, i actually like unleashed better.

i think i like dennis or whoever better than scott

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

pastepunk (February 4, 2005)

And oh yea, this is easily one of the best melodicore discs to ever be released. It oozes of the kind of energy and power that only a band with no commercial intent could create. "My Wall" is essential listening, not just because it rips, but b/c the lyrics are dead-on in describing why punk rock flourished in the suburbs. I really would like to see Epitaph remaster this one...

pastepunk (February 4, 2005)

Racer X is on Swill.

maverick (February 4, 2005)

Is "Racer X" on this album? That song rules.

-Scott

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

"I can't say them say for your review"...

Oh right, you can't say the same for my review. Fair enough, I tried.

Joe

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

my first punk show! Ten foot pole in 1995 at Cal State Northridge (a trek from LA). This was their only good album.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Ugh. One of the biggest of the wanna-be bands of the early 90s that were rehashing what other, much better, bands were doing.

Like cholestral, all of these pretenders eventually clogged the arteries of punk and the SoCal sound overloaded and disappeared.

All of which wouldn't bother me, except that sound remains my favorite, and the few bands who still play it are either no good or shadows of their former selves.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

This is from www.pastepunk.com

Random TEN FOOT POLE posting... (Posted by Jordan A. Baker on February 02, 2005)
On the belief that all has gone quiet with TEN FOOT POLE, I cruised over to their site today, for the first time in months, and noticed that all of the band's music, merch, etc. can be purchased now solely from Interpunk. That's not particularly interesting in and of itself (though I love Interpunk), but apparently that's now the only place you can order the band's debut disc, Swill, which was originally released when they were known as SCARED STRAIGHT, a looooooong time ago. Although Swill is a bit strange, it's worth picking up just for the track "Racer X." Check out all of TFP's goods on Interpunk here.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

last god album by ten foot pole. this was amaizing, too bad i cantsay them say for your review.

thirtyseconds (February 4, 2005)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. If you really really want, I can put a copy of the 7" i have on to CD. And then you will regret it. Lots of fucking slap bass on there. However, you can still see the foundations of TFP's sound.

TheOneTrueBill (February 4, 2005)

So there's a reason why it's difficult to find then, right?

thirtyseconds (February 4, 2005)

Amazing album. Just very very good. I love the production on it, and "Old Man" is one of my favourite songs ever. I have been working on an acoustic version of it... shame I can't fucking sing. Would be cool though eh?

Also, Bill, seriously don't bother with the Scared Straight stuff. Really don't.

elliot (February 4, 2005)

totally amazing album. even if i don't listen to it for a year, i can put it in, and still sing along with every single word.

and come on.....insider??? that's the one that made me stop giving a shit about them. "officer i swear she's 19...heheheelkaejsfsld".......soooo lame.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

ten foot pole... amazing songwriters.... uh... i'm not gonna touch that one with a.... nevermind.

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

I was in 9th grade when this came out and I listened to it nearly every fucking day for months. When I hear it now it takes me right back. Good stuff. I give it a 10 purely for sentimental reasons (although I'd probably give it a 9 or 10 for artistic merit as well).

JeffWithOneEff (February 4, 2005)

this album rules. radinsky rules. post-radinsky... not so much. but seriously, this is one of the best "skate punk" or whatever you want to call it albums of the mid 90's. right up there with "how to clean everything", "punk in drublic", "behind bars", "trashed" and all those other classic (in my opinion) cd's that got me into punk rock.

TheOneTrueBill (February 4, 2005)

I was actually thinking about buying this, so seeing this review is weird. I want this for the sole reason that it has Radinsky.

Anyone know where I can get stuff from Scared Straight with Radinsky?

theundergroundscene (February 4, 2005)

bad mother trucker is one of the worst albums i've ever heard in my entire fucking life

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

d'oh my spelling sucks

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

murhpy's law

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Who's had more bandmemers? Bigwig or TFP?

Anonymous (February 4, 2005)

Good album by a good band. These guys deserve a larger fanabase. They've more than payed their dues by now.

-Chinatown