Still Screaming

August 19, 2006... If you're innerested in reading my latest rant about cronyism, go here. If you've come for the music, stay right where you at.

I remember when I bought This Side Up, the second album by DC band Scream. I hated it. To be fair, I'd bought the first Crucifucks and Naked Raygun albums on the same day, so Scream was up against pretty stiff competition, but I just didn't get it. "Sounds like the Beatles," I thought to myself...

Scream - Things to Do Today

When I listened to the album again, almost a decade later, after years spent listening to indie rock, hip-hop and sixties rock, all of which is slower than hardcore and most of which is mellower, I could see This Side Up for the scorcher it is. What a difference a different perspective can make.

The aspects of the album that made me think it sounded "like the Beatles" as a young man were (ahem) harmonies, jangling open chords and the tiniest bit of acoustic guitar. Oh yeah, plus there was that crazy Monkees reference, "I'm not your stepping stone," in one song. Fact is, though, the band usually delivered these "aspects" at speeds well in excess of those of the rest of the rock and roll canon. Make no mistake about it, This Side Up is a lot closer to a Bad Brains album than a Beatles album. In fact, Bad Brains' guitarist Dr. Know even played on one song.

And most of the songs--hardcore punk, hard rock, somewhere between ... even the jammy, post-punk/reggae concoction--are great. None moreso than this one.

Scream - I Look When You Walk

Written from the point-of-view of a homeless person, "I Look When You walk" isn't angry, sad, preachy or any of the other things it could've been in the hands of a less creative band. It's smart and fun, like the rest of the album.

This Side Up has been re-released on CD by Dischord and is packaged together with Scream's first album.

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