The Casket Lottery Choose Bronze Second Nature 1999

The Casket Lottery Choose Bronze Second Nature 1999 CAT# SN016

You don't want to call Casket Lottery emo, but fuck, this album can be so emo. It's whiny, the dual vocal approach exchange cries throughout, and, I think most the songs are about girls. And while it doesn't sound 1999 Midwestern emo with all the math-y time signature changes, it would have fit in fine next to the likes of emo pioneers Boys Life and Giants Chair. So, in that regard, the Casket Lottery's first LP is an emo LP.

However, it's way beyond that, it's got more depth and way too much aggression. Keeping in mind, two thirds of the band performed in the brutal metal band (one of which still does) Coalesce, these songs will throat punch you. There's no time for crying, Casket Lottery has too much of a punk rock upbringing and too much of a metal ego to get too wimpy.

Another element of the post-hardcore scenes the Casket Lottery gravitated to, math-rock. Far more intricate than their emo counterparts. It's not as harsh as Don Caballero and not as pretentious as American Football or Joan of Arc, but these guys have enough start-stop moves and drum counts to start a class. They were able to find a solid balance of the influences and make something unique, catchy, but still maintain their punk rock DIY values. It's a great LP.

Also key to the Casket Lottery perfection is the special touches they gave every release outside not allowing for a single skipped over track. Choose Bronze features the band name in metallic bronze print on the front cover. They also inscribed the words, "Your Home" and "My Home" on opposites sides near the matrix numbers. Little things like that, always made Casket Lottery so clever and conscious of the people listening to them.

CHOOSE BRONZE

Get Up Kids Red Letter Day Doghouse 1999

Get Up Kids Red Letter Day Doghouse 1999 DOG 063

Pretty sure this was a contractual thing the Get Up Kids had to do to move onto Vagrant Records from Doghouse.  It features the track "Red Letter Day" which was featured on the full length LP, Something to Write Home About.  If you look closely enough at the back cover, the song "Forgive and Forget" was to be featured on the Write Home album, but was scraped by the band at a later date.

Initially it was 10" only release, but, later a CD came out that combined this and the Woodson EP.  Overall, it's a satisfying 5 song set.  At the time, it was a great way to hear all these tunes.  Now, every tune has been repackaged in some way, shape or form.  All tracks are easy to locate.  This EP doesn't hold the "special" appeal it once had.

The thing I love about it most; the cover.  It's simple and poignant, a wheat stalk.  Because, the band is from the Wheat State, Kansas.  For years, everyone always assumed the Get Up Kids were somehow embarrassed of their Kansas/Missouri background.  And for years, the Get Up Kids paid homage to home by doing clever things like this.  They never hated on Kansas in anyway, they were always proud of it (or accepting), just slightly confused by the occasional local backlash they sometimes received.

Mass Pike

The Gadjits Wish We Never Met Hellcat Records 1999

The Gadjits Wish We Never Met Hellcat Records 1999 CAT# 80416-1

For about two weeks I was into new ska until I realized I really only liked the Specials and the original Jamaican stuff.  Despite that two week period, I never enjoyed this band despite their local status.  So why did I buy this?  I don't know, because it's local, and I was pretty sure I'd never see another copy.  I even had a conversation about it with the owner of Zebedee's.  I was begging him to pull something from his stacks within the same price point that would blow my mind.  A hard to find local album he had buried somewhere.  Instead he recommended I pick up the new Blood Birds LP and looking back, he was 100% right.

The band does represent the ultimate in Overland Park, Kansas hip-ness, though.  And, despite their attempts to make Overland Park sound cool on the back sleeve, it's still a pretty boring town.  There was a legitimate Overland Park teen-scene at the time.  There was this band who signed to Hellcat Records which was operated by Tim Armstrong of the band Rancid.  They toured extensively as teenagers and were fairly notable in the neo-Ska scene.  There was the pre-Anniversary band Nuclear Family that toured with the likes of Goldfinger.  Then there was all the Gee Coffee bands (Gee Coffee being an all ages venue that booked teen bands) that were gigging locally and from the Blue Valley area.

Wish We Never Met is what you'd expect from privileged, suburban, white kids that play punk music.  Their anger sounds forced.  The swearing sounds disingenuous.  Their world views are sheltered and childish.  The ska is well, new ska.  There's been reviews that say the band incorporated jazz, maybe for about 30 seconds they do before they call out "Pick It Up!" and go into a ska chord.  It's not any different from the countless other bands that tried to push this genre to the mainstream after the success of the Mighty Mighty BossTones.  Rancid was the only decent one of the bunch and they were far more rooted in punk than they were ska.

The three Phillips brothers that formed the band are admittedly a talented bunch.  Musically, you can tell that ska was something they enjoyed, they had the technical ability to go beyond it, they just chose not to.  Later, they did a 180 with the band and stopped the ska thing.  They became a soul/rock/punk hybrid band similar to the Strokes.  The first stuff they did in this fashion was released as the Gadjits.  Later, they would change their name to the Architects which for a brief time featured Adrianne Verhoven of the Anniversary.  They still gig under that name and have far outgrown their teen ska days.

Oddly, the drummer of Radkey is often photoed in his Architects shirt.  Which, if I wanted to go conspiracy theory on, I'd have to say the Phillips brothers are the ones feeding Radkey the tunes in one last attempt to hit the big time.  Then again, maybe the kid from Radkey actually likes the Architects, I don't know.

Thinkin' About You
Bad Gadjit

Get Up Kids/Anniversary Split 7" 1999

The Get Up Kids/The Anniversary split 7"
Central Standard Time B/W Vasic + Bluey
Vagrant Records Heroes & Villains
CAT# VR341/HV002 1999

For a good chunk of time, the Get Up Kids and the Anniversary were freakin' besties around Lawrence. The bands did everything together, toured, put out records together, married one another.  It was kind of weird.  However, both had similar backgrounds,  both bands were primarily made up of suburban kids, ditching college for the life as a rock n' roll band (thus, they could relate to upset parent syndrome).  Difference though, Get Up Kids did things on their own, it took a lot of work to get to the point they were at at the time of this release.  To an outsider, the Anniversary's success seemed to be that of association.  Hang out with the Get Up Kids enough and they'll find you a spot on a tour and their record label.

You can listen to the Anniversary and know that they're talented and a lot of the admiration from the Get Up Kids came from the band's talent.  Their B-side to this 7" Vasic + Bluey is solid.  At this time they were still young and sounded a lot like the Rentals.  Best, they utilized their secret weapon Adrianne Verhoeven a lot.  Her voice cuts over the chorus, her synth drives the song.  She's the middle of the band and the best part of the song.

The Get Up Kids A-side seems a bit of a throw-a-way in all honesty.  A bit over the top with it's emo-ness. The band was/is at it's best when it's all angry teenager emo and not so f'n adult about stuff.  Keyboards add nice little touch, but the energy just isn't there on this track.  Seems obvious, one member wrote the song, the rest just didn't feel the same way about the song, so it ended up on this 7". No pick slides, mid-tempo, no excitement, blah.

Central Standard Time