Millencolin - Pennybridge Pioneers

As I’ve mentioned from the very beginning, the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games have a special place in my heart. They were my introduction to the genre of punk rock, my original exposure to music that was fast, energetic, and honest. The first installment in the game series ignited my love affair with Goldfinger and ska-punk in general, while the sequel acquainted me with the likes of punk legends Lagwagon and Bad Religion. For an eleven-year-old homeschooled dweeb living in semi-rural Connecticut, these games were more than just entertainment: they were my gateway drug into the world of alternative music.

Among the more acclaimed names like Rage Against the Machine, Anthrax, and Powerman 5000, there was also a lesser-known band on the soundtrack of THPS 2: Millencolin, a European group then just beginning to get recognition in the U.S. “No Cigar” was an instant hit with me, its angsty no-fucks-given attitude arriving just as I was becoming a teenager, and I was absolutely enamored. I would play the game for hours just so I could learn the lyrics, all the while wishing I could get my hands on more. Thus, when on my fourteenth birthday I was given a blank check of sorts for CDs (the same haul that brought me Bender’s monumental debut), at the top of the list was Millencolin’s Pennybridge Pioneers, the parent record of “No Cigar” that came to define my standard of punk rock for years to come.

From my first spin of Pennybridge Pioneers, I knew that I had found something worth cherishing. There is no lack of prowess or personality on this record; every song, whether in major or minor key, offers catchy melodies and precise instrumentation too juicy to ignore. The sound is very reminiscent of So. Cal punk, which is no surprise given that Pioneers was recorded in Hollywood and produced by punk icon Brett Gurewitz. Yet this Swedish quartet layers in a large amount of catchy writing onto their music. Instead of shying away from pop in favor of gritty punk, Millencolin dives right in, smashing along a swing beat in “Fox” and chugging at a slow, danceable pace in “The Mayfly.” Similarly, Nikola Sarcevic’s straining and raspy vocal lines seem to rattle out pages of lyrics in seconds, all stuck to a delightfully fun melody. 

While pop is definitely the driving factor in Millencolin’s music, the vehicle is their impeccable punk rock aesthetic. Fredric Larzon smashes his drums with quick and precise strikes, bullying along “Highway Donkey” and “Duckpond” with blurring cut beats. Guitarists Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Farm alternate their rhythm and lead sections to create perfect complements to each other’s playing. And at the center is Sarcevic’s rumbling bass, thumping down the foundation beneath the band or growling in the spotlight in “Devil Me” and “Right About Now.”

On Pennybridge Pioneers, Millencolin takes their skate-punk roots and injects them with a healthy dose of pop, and no song epitomizes this as well as “A-Ten.” Opening with a dolorous yet driving guitar riff, Ohlsson and Farm weave their rhythm pieces together, enveloping the entire spectrum of the instrument’s sound and spinning it into a masterpiece. Nikola’s vocals are laden with emotion as he attempts to console a friend through a loss, his mournful exclamation of “You wanna see her back again” wringing every ounce of feeling from the song. His melodies and the instrumentation belie the song’s minor key, instead drawing hope and happiness from a situation that would usually imply darkness. “A-Ten” drives its emotional content home with relentless energy, a deft blend of mosh and melody that invariably gets stuck in my head long after the song is done.

Undoubtedly, Millencolin has their composition process down to a science, producing pieces that feel as passionate as they sound. As is often the case with this style of music, however, the lyrics on Pennybridge Pioneers want for that same precision and attention to detail. Many of Sarcevic’s lines feel sloppy, his images ill-defined. Lines like “to prevent something like a theft I got her locked around a tree” in “Fox” are laden with unnecessary words, while the phrase “does never get a pass” in “The Ballad” doesn’t even make grammatical sense, perhaps a result of English being the second language choice for these Swedes. Still, I can’t stress enough how absolutely sincere Nikola’s vocals feel, so that even his laziest writing comes across with as much intensity as if he were shouting it right in my face.

Although most of the lyrical work on Pennybridge Pioneers fails to invite anything more than a cursory read, one particular piece manages to fully encapsulate and communicate its ideal with surprising ease: “No Cigar,” the song that had me hooked from the very first slap of the snare. Across a backdrop of searing skate punk, Sarcevic unravels line after line of distilled teenaged angst and alienation. His verses clamber across the various judgmental attitudes we all encounter in our youth: “Tell us where you’re from / what you want to become / and we’ll say if you’re OK,” or the still resonating “We will shut you out / We’ll put you in doubt / If you think that you’re special.” In the face of this negativity, Nikola’s chorus lines cast aside the darkness with a powerful mission statement as he shouts “I don’t care where I belong no more / What we share or not I will ignore / And I won’t waste my time fitting in / ‘Cause I don’t think contrast is a sin.” It is this message of self-acceptance, defying expectations and norms in favor of individuality, that slammed into my 12-year-old ears like a shotgun blast, resonating fully with the budding angst that I was just getting to know. “No Cigar” introduced me to both the sound and ethos of punk rock, values that still reside at my core fifteen years later.

Pennybridge Pioneers is the record that “took [Millencolin] to the next level,” and while it may sound dramatic, in a lot of little ways, it has changed my life too. It gave me my first real taste of So. Cal punk sound (even if they weren’t from Cali), a sound with which I would soon become obsessed. It provided me with the material (and the guts) to start playing bass like a punk, as well as the inspiration to take that bass work to a band setting. It inspired me not just to value my own individuality, but to assert it, to push it through to the forefront in all that I do. And though I can’t imagine it will have the same life-shattering effect on you that it did on me, I urge you to give this record a spin, because at its very worst, it’s still a damn good listen.

Tunes to Check Out:

1) No Cigar

2) Duckpond

3) A-Ten

Bender - Jehovah's Hitlist

            For my fourteenth birthday, I was asked by a family friend what I wanted as a gift. Being both precocious and obsessed with music, I gave her a small of list of albums that I had been longing to own, but could not find at my local record store. When my birthday arrived, I was ecstatic to unwrap a copy of Jehovah’s Hitlist by Bender, as it gave me access to one of my all-time favorite music finds from a video game, the song “Isolate.” However, I soon discovered that the rest of the record was just as incredible as the song that had hooked me. In the years since, I have been unable to leave this record out of rotation for more than a few months, as the dynamic and powerful music of Bender has indelibly wrapped itself around my heart.

            Despite being written and released in the age of nu-metal, Bender easily manages to keep Jehovah’s Hitlist from blending in with the crowd of similar bands by utilizing a diverse palate of sounds. Their specific blend of heavy instruments and fierce yet soulful vocals explores every corner and crevice between the labels of alternative rock and heavy metal, from super-heavy chugs in “Sharon Stone,” through radio-friendly rock in “Body & Soul” and “Seizures,” and even a ridiculous blend of both in “Superfly.” While such an eclectic throng of sounds might doom most records, the band’s consistently energetic performances mark every tune with a resounding “Property of Bender.” Furthermore, the expert mix of the record assures a full and cohesive sound across the entire album, employing a plethora of overdubs (even on the drums!) to leave no sonic space seeming empty or loose. 

            One element that keeps me returning to Jehovah’s Hitlist is the strange feel of humor that infects over half the record. There is essentially a 65/35 split in the feel of this record between serious and silly; “Fresh Daddy” features lead vocalist Kent Boyce vividly describing a pimp-like character in a preposterous falsetto, while the whole band thrashes in “Lobster” under his account of a carnival date gone horribly wrong. Even the opener and lead single “Superfly” features jarring guitar highs and goofy singing as the band defames a local legend who once tried out for Boyce’s position.[1] This approach to a record, while odd, shows that Bender is a true human band, more concerned with enjoying the ride than taking themselves too seriously. Yet, any accusations that they might be a joke band are easily quashed, as Bender’s comical tunes are just as ferocious and hard-rocking as the rest.

            Bender may have a sense of humor, but they aren’t at all afraid to delve into darkness either, and no song on Jehovah’s Hitlist gets darker than “Dig It Boy.” Played in drop-B♭ (the lowest tuning I’d ever heard at that age), guitarist Matt Scarpella’s angry verse riff features palm muting so heavy, it consistently rattles me to my core. Boyce weaves deathly images of “breed maggots / feast[ing] on the bones of the dove” while wailing out the empty and unanswered question “are my eyes still red?”[2] Bender beats the snot out of this tune instrumentally, loading it with disturbing riffs and a fascinating bridge, featuring the strings in 3/4 against the swirling 4/4 drumming of Steve Adams. Loaded with shadow and loathing, “Dig It Boy” is heavy enough to dig all the way to hell, and never fails to leave me shaking with excitement and energy.

            Instrumentally, Bender lays out a startlingly full portrait of sound that is complex yet pleasing, and for the most part, Kent Boyce’s lyrics are of the same stock. Though rarely poetic, he approaches his craft from off the beaten path, inserting rhymes mid-line rather than at the end and toying with the sounds of words. In “Fall on Your Head,” he even uses his language to imply an idea without explicitly stating it: “I’ll keep one wide open / Keep one locked away.”[3] His vocal performances leave all his singing, no matter how out-there it becomes, feeling natural, so much so that the overt sexual undertones in “Passion Flower” lose all of their crudeness. Boyce’s vocals and lyrics walk the line between brilliance and bizarre, yet the abundance of color and texture to the music on Jehovah’s Hitlist provides him with a secure foothold that lets those decisions blossom.

            Though this record is loaded with awesome, my absolute favorite song must be “Isolate,” the ATV Offroad Fury find that started it all for me.[4] A gentle but insistent guitar riff opens the tune, belying the torrential rock that quickly follows as the rest of the band kicks in. Boyce’s vocal is equal parts magnificent and moving, especially as he swings into the chorus. Over chord progressions laden with color tones, his lyrics seem rather simple, yet Boyce forces them to stand out by again eschewing end rhyme for most of the song while playing with concept and sound in the lines “emotion sickness” and “it carves creation’s fire.”[5] The tune that began my love affair with this record, “Isolate” is a powerhouse in every aspect, and had it been approved as the lead single,[6] perhaps Jehovah’s Hitlist might have catapulted Bender into the ears of thousands more people.

            A medley of sound and style, Jehovah’s Hitlist is a record that perpetually draws me back into its embrace. The fearless and impassioned way Bender approaches their music on this record creates hundreds of footholds for new listeners, which are only strengthened by their blatant honesty and inclusion of humor. These traits leave me baffled as to how this album and this band have remained unknown for so long, and even more confused as to how I managed to get a copy. However, I am equally thankful, as the thirteen tracks carved into this scratched, fingerprinted disc never fail to remind me of the possibilities music holds when it is backed by the pure human spirit.  

Tunes to Check Out:

1) Isolate

2) Dig It Boy

3) Passion Flower

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[1] http://www.alternativenation.net/the-greatest-band-youve-never-heard-of-the-story-of-bender/

[2] http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bender/dig_it_boy.html

[3] http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bender/fall_on_your_head.html

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bender_%28band%29

[5] http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bender/isolate.html

[6] http://www.alternativenation.net/the-greatest-band-youve-never-heard-of-the-story-of-bender/