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A - Teen Dance Ordinance (Cover Artwork)

A

Teen Dance Ordinance (2005)
London

Reviewer Rating:


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


Published on December 11th 2005


I loved A's Hi-Fi Serious. I'd finnaly found a great band that had a synth and still played some great punk rock, with hard driving guitars and good lyrics (not like Motion City Soundtrack). The CD didn't leave my stereo for weeks.

And then, while I was walking through my city's largest commercial CD shop, I was surprised to see their new CD. Surprised? Sure, I had found Hi-Fi Serious in a small indie record shop. Well, as it turns out, London Records have been bought up by Universal. Well, stuff happens.

This CD is their 4th one. It's called Teen Dance Ordinance after draconian laws that governed Seattle and Washington State’s live music industry from 1985-2002 which said that gigs for people under 18 could only be attended by people between 15 and 18 and if you were older, you had to be accompanying someone under 18. This, along with other bullshit, caused the two states' music industry to almost completely shut down. Nice title, isn't it?

The CD itself is awsome. Standout tracks include "Afterburner," "Worst Thing That Can Happen," "Black Hole" (which shows some heavy AC/DC influences), "Die Tonight," "Someone Else" (with a great punk-pop second guitar) and of course, "Rush Song." Not many things are wrong on this CD, but it still lacks something which was on Hi-Fi Serious. First off, the production is too slick in my humble opinion. Then, there isn't enough synth. Yes, I'm serious. This band's sound was original because of the synth. And now, it's almost gone. And finally, the songs sound too much the same. In the CD beforehand, after hearing it a couple of times, you noticed that the songs were very different. But this isn't the case with this CD. Too bad.

This could be A's hit CD, but it probably won't be. Good, straight punk rock / punk-pop, but not as good as the previous one.




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    pasha (December 30, 2005)

    I'm not bashing MCS. I actually like them. I'm just saying that they don't have hard driving guitars (they don't) and they're lyrics arent' any good. A's are pretty good.

    "seattle's not a state". My bad, sorry.

    givemeamuseumandillfillit (December 15, 2005)

    "I saw them a couple of years ago in the UK, and they were awful, despite selling out the venue. When the crowd starts shouting for the support band to come back on during your headlining set, you know it's time to quit.

    Even worse, when that support band is post-Charlie Goldfinger, I'm surprised they didn't quit then and there."

    That tour was great. A, Goldfinger and fucking voodoo glow skulls.

    THis is pretty weird though, A go on a hiatus and charlie join goldfinger?

    ghostmonkey (December 14, 2005)

    i hate this fucking band. hate hate hate hate hate. they have done fuck all of note, but the little kids like them. fuck off fuck off fuck off.

    Anonymous (December 14, 2005)

    Pretty ballsy to corner one 26th of the alphabet with your band's name. Shit thats like 20% of vowels. They should copyright their name and then sue every other band that has an A in their name.

    Anonymous (December 13, 2005)

    Saw em live twice, wasn't that impressed. They have some decent songs though.

    Joe

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    I saw them a couple of years ago in the UK, and they were awful, despite selling out the venue. When the crowd starts shouting for the support band to come back on during your headlining set, you know it's time to quit.

    Even worse, when that support band is post-Charlie Goldfinger, I'm surprised they didn't quit then and there.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    A aren't a punk band - they are an indie band similar to Feeder

    next

    givemeamuseumandillfillit (December 12, 2005)

    And i gotta say something, these guysd has been on WEA/london for a very long time.

    And they got dropped, then picked up again because of this cd. And this cd bombed so fucking hard that they had to play to 500 people per night on the last tour (they used to play for 2000 people per night), so the label dropped them again and picked up their old debts too. So they're on hiatus.

    In other words. This is not A's hit cd, it got them dropped a few months after its release.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    seattle's not a state

    DanFrank (December 12, 2005)

    Hi-Fi Serious was a pretty big album when it came out. Lots of radio play, and I'm fairly sure it made at least top 20 (mostly off the back of Nothing).

    It was in the big record chains.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    Symposium were the Busted of their era. Quite how some of them ended up as the main blokes behind the decent Hell Is For Heroes amazes me.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    I've never heard an A song with decent lyrics. Say what you want about Motion City Soundtrack, A's lyrics are flat-out awful. The singles they released off this album have been particularly bad as well. They're meant to be nice guys, apparently, but their music is pretty crappy.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    A were fun in the late 90s when I was about 15, now they just bore me. But the undisputed kings of the Britrock scene were Symposium. God how I miss them. Incidentally A supporting Symposium was my third ever gig.

    GlassPipeMurder (December 12, 2005)

    score is for the joke below me.

    Anonymous (December 12, 2005)

    This could be A's hit CD

    Damn you kids and your terrible punctuation. Surely you meant

    This could be a shit CD

    skanknsmile (December 11, 2005)

    maybe im missing it, but is there a reason to mention motion city soundtrack in this review, other than to outright bash them?

    givemeamuseumandillfillit (December 11, 2005)

    They're on a huge hiatus now and the members are doing different stuff.

    This cd is absolute muckluck.

    A vs monkey kong was great, how ace are buildings is classic and even hi-fi serious had some really good shit on it.

    This one...muckluck i said! muckluck!

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