Miss Piggy Lunchbox

As I look through the collection I inherited from J-mez, there is plenty in there I’m looking forward to listening to (Led Zeppelin, The Cure, The Cult), and there’s also plenty I’m positively dreading (Candlebox, Silverchair (What? No Bush?), Collective Soul, Cracker) but hope to be pleasantly surprised by. Most of the collection falls into one of those two categories. Then there are the band I’ve heard a lot about but otherwise have no indication how much I’ll enjoy them (Shudder To Think). After that, then, there are the few discs I have no foundation for opinion on. I expect this category to be a roughly even mix between undiscovered gems and absolutely horrid crap I should be thankful I’ve never heard of. Burning Airlines is the first hidden gem of the collection, and it positively shines.

As this was popping up on shuffle I remember thinking, “This sounds a lot like Jawbox.” That thought wasn’t solely inspired by Burning Airlines’ sound, as I also know that J-mez is a Jawbox fan (and that another of J-mez’ friends is a huge Jawbox fan). Turns out, yep, after Jawbox broke up, J. Robbins started up Burning Airlines. I should probably do more of a blow-by-blow comparison to Jawbox but, truth be told, I don’t know that much about Jawbox except that I like what I’ve heard and that what I’ve heard is a lot like Burning Airlines.

And what they sound like is like their own little subgenre within punk. They’re punk in that they’re loud and aggressive with plenty of ringy dissonance (so they’re not pop punk), but it’s all precision-crafted with a militantly tight percussion that dominates the DC punk scene while at the same time containing catchy melodies (so they’re not Fugazi.) In short, if you can get past the loud and the noise that runs over the top of everything, they are the perfect mix of smart and accessible, always getting at least one hook in each song, funking up their rhythms to at least borderline dance-ability, and constructing their songs with a variety of parts that keep you guessing but still flow with one another. Honestly, this is an album you listen to and think, “That’s it. That’s what it should be. Why can’t more bands do this?”

“Flood Of Foreign Capital” is perhaps the highlight of the album. It’s got a sweet little bass lick that starts off the song, perfectly anticipating the gradual build to explosion that follows, and re-appears throughout the song to help you get your bearings back. At the climax, the band absolutely erupts into a Mike Patton in Fantomas-esque vocal ear-f**k. On the other hand, the album loses a half-lunchbox for putting in a hidden track (geez guys…in 1999? really?), the tendency to boredom in parts of “3 Sisters,” and for the tiresome persistence of the good-but-not-great “Meccano” and, even moreso, “Crowned.”

Rating:

Mixers: “Carnival,” “Wheaton Calling,” “The Escape Engine,” “Flood Of Foreign Capital,” “Sweet Deals On Surgery”
Non-keepers: “I Sold Myself In” (it was borderline even without the hidden track)
Filed Between: Bulletboys (Za Za) and The Buzzcocks (Singles Going Steady)

Tags: 1999, 4.5 lunchboxes, CD reviews, J-mez' collection, music

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