Nuggets - 8 September 2008

Argetti – Flags Of Karma
By Simon T Diplock
As Engineer Records continue to globalise their search for new punk and hardcore, signing bands from Kent, UK to Ontario, Canada, New Jersey, USA and beyond, their picks are getting progressively better. Argetti, for example, are from Italy, and they’re awesome. Oh sure they thrill the same part of our brain that went crazy for Far and Rivals Schools as long as a decade ago so it’s unlikely they’ve got the right songs or style to be qualified as fashionable with their second record but this sort of earnest heart-wrenching rock is always all the rage around here. And it’s proof positive too that you don’t need to be able to acronym your home continent to rock like a bastard.

Finger Eleven – Them Vs You Vs Me
By Simon T Diplock
Oh Canada, you were so close. Sure, reclaiming credibility after unleashing Nickelback and Celine Dion on the world was always going to be a struggle but it was definitely happening. Hell, for a moment there it was damn cool to be a canuck. But along come Finger Eleven to ruin it all. Quite what we were expecting from a band who used to be called The Rainbow Butt Monkeys we don’t know but if the anaemic and tame radio-rock on Finger Eleven’s fourth album blows up big over here then our friends in the great white north are going to be apologising for a few more year. Awful.

Lagwagon – I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon
By Simon T Diplock
As America’s third-wave punk bands grow old, they’ve got to do something fairly special to stop from becoming the rock dinosaurs they always railed against. And while Lagwagon have skilfully acknowledged their now veteran status with its title, their new EP isn’t exactly a top marks affair. It doesn’t help that most of it has been heard before- whether that means the presence of previous B-side ‘Fallen’ or ‘Mission Unaccomplished’ sounding uncannily close to Lagwagon side-project Bad Astronaut- but the real killer is just how damn average it all is. Oh sure, mad props for kicking out jams as solid as ‘Errands’ well in to their forties but the 20-year-old Lagwagon would probably piss themselves - laughing or crying, you choose - at just how fluffy and mediocre they’ve become.

Jon Redfern - What Else But Love?
By Emma Sadowski
Jon Redfern is not the answer to happiness. His debut album ‘What Else But Love?’ is a cry-fest collection of songs, which are slow, heart-wrenching ballads. Equipped with a good set of vocals, Redfern has bled his poetic soul onto nine tracks of acoustic lamenting. His vocals are reminiscent of solo work by Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante, but with more whining. He sings: "I don’t want to be here / You’ll turn me into stone / I am so scared of where this will go". Does someone have a tissue for the man?