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I Farm

So My Kids Don't Have To [reissue]
2005
Blackout! / Creep

I Farm - So My Kids Don't Have To [reissue] (Cover Artwork)

Review by: Anchors
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Published on December 25th 2005

Most of the kids that complain about the Warped Tour have a real misguided sense of what it should be about. It’s not 1996 anymore; No Use for a Name and Face to Face aren’t at the top of the game. Good punk bands still exist, but it’s much fewer and farther between than the EpiFat era that’s held in such high regard. I Farm is the type of band that would have played Warped during its heydey, and So My Kids Won’t Have To is a blistering collection of 18 raucous tracks.

Those 18 tracks are played in 30 minutes, so that already should give you at least a relative idea of what kind of music Ifarm are playing. It’s loud, fast, and right to the point. There’s no whimsical instrumental passages, no extravagant guitar solos, just an all-out musical blitzkrieg that would make any punk band proud. The brash, snotty vocals are full of political and social rhetoric, although it becomes pretty difficult at times to really even comprehend that. “Young Republican” isn’t as fast and angry as they usually come on the album, but the stinging lyrics add the edge that not every song may carry;

Just another young Republican, with a brand new suit and tie that his parents bought for him / He can’t seem to legitimize, he’s a homophonic, sexist piece of shit /… / Try to pacify someone who fights for their name, why not break their very hands and watch them go insane / I saw a sign today that read ‘Pro-life! Pro-family!'

If it’s not the lyrics that draw you in, the raw conviction and venomous vocal delivery of the band's singer on tracks such as “All Punks Go to Hell” and “Knucklehead” will. The instrumentation is pretty standard fare, but the impact really can’t be underestimated, as these guys play with the utmost energy at all times, and the pummeling distortion and solid rhythms are perfectly suited for the type of music being played. Possibly best of all is that only one song breaches the two-minute mark, while all of the others have sufficiently rocked your face off in around a minute and a half. As solid of a flow as the album may have, it does have a definite problem: Nothing really sticks on the first listen, or the second...or the third. It’s not that they aren’t good songs; quite the contrary, you could easily listen to any song randomly and enjoy it, but you won’t be saying, “oh man, 'Milkbomb' is one of the best songs I’ve heard in months!” You won’t be saying this because it’s pretty difficult to distinguish it from the other 17 tracks on the album.

All this said, it’s still a terrific, fast, noisy punk rock record full of attitude and awareness. Definitely worth a shot.

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 8:52 PM (EST)
My Score:

i saw i farm in a basement in 95. they tore it up. i bought so my kids won't have to at the show from the singer/guitarist. for whoever reviewed the album to say that this is the kind of band that would have played warped tour years ago is the stupidest shit i've ever heard. i farm were a genuine marxist revolutionary band (fuck rage against the machine and all its decendents) who would never have gone along with the filthy corporate pop-punk gang-bang of the warped tour. while its true that some good bands did play on the warped tour over the years, i'm pretty sure they did if for money. i farm would never do that. buy this cd (although it still seems pretty weird to see a reissue of a cd i own when i'm only 24). so my kids won't have to is fast, incisive and funny. get it. stop listening to green day because they always sucked.

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, December 29, 2005 at 5:15 AM (EST)

Chinatown is like that woman suing David Letterman for putatively sending her coded messages in his monologues.

By the way, it's obvious that NUFAN is your favorite band, and it's hilarious. It was pretty apparent in that fawning first-person review you posted in the forums awhile ago...you know, the one too awful to be posted in the actual reviews section.

Posted by istapledmyfoot on 2005-12-29 00:29:20
My Score:

this band rules, hard, hard, hard. they ought to tour more often!

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 4:46 PM (EST)

i have the first 7" for sale on clear vinyl. waaaay out of print. $10.00.

Posted by wehavecomeforyourchildren on 2005-12-27 14:17:27

this band is seriously fucking amazing. i don't understand why they're not the most popular band in the world. how could anyone not like them?

Posted by Anchors on 2005-12-26 17:26:48

Hey buddy, don't flatter yourself. Guess what, I take things besides reviews that you wrote into account when I write my own. Imagine that!

I'll let it slide, though, since your comment on my BSF review was the funniest thing I have ever read.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, December 26, 2005 at 5:05 PM (EST)
My Score:

um...this doesn't sound like the epifat sound to me. it sounds more like standard hardcore, not catchy pop and skate punk, which is what i think of for that era.

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, December 26, 2005 at 1:00 PM (EST)
My Score:

I Farm is pretty good though. I have Is Lying To Be Popular, and it's worth the cash.

-Chinatown

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, December 26, 2005 at 12:57 PM (EST)
My Score:

I like how Anchors consistently makes references to NUFAN being mediocre, in hopes that it will set me off! They're not even close to being my favorite band, so keep it up, chump!

-Chinatown

Posted by danielsan on 2005-12-26 11:57:49

I haven't heard this album but 'sincerely robots' and 'is lying to be popular' are both incredible

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, December 26, 2005 at 5:20 AM (EST)

The warped tour has ALWAYS been a complete sea of shit.

---Trav.

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, December 25, 2005 at 5:48 PM (EST)

If you think that I-Farm would have ever played Warped, you must know absolutely nothing about this band. Astonishing.

Posted by Fatty_Arbuckle on 2005-12-25 14:12:19

I fuckin' hate to brush my teeth I fuckin' hate to brush my teeth I fuckin' hate to brush my teeth I fuckin' hate to brush my teeth

Toothpaste, what a waste, I can't fuckin' stand the taste.

:-)

Posted by aahhhh on 2005-12-25 11:01:26

you cant fuck with i farm

Posted by Scruffy on 2005-12-25 08:55:39

I hear ya. 2004 Warped Tour had Bad Religion, Tiger Army, T(I)NC, Rise Against A Wilhelm Scream, Audio Karate, Coheed, blah blah blah.

Posted by TheOneTrueBill on 2005-12-25 04:27:14

2004's Warped Tour was great once you waded through the shitty stuff.

Posted by AlmostPunkEnough on 2005-12-25 02:50:56
My Score:

this album is kick-fucking-ass.

and nice stuff about Warped in there, Anchors, exactly right.