| There will always be a need for uber-punk bands, ones that are so hardcore they adopt the look, sound and attitude handed down intact from GBH, Discharge, and Anti-Nowhere League back in the early 80s. Rancid fulfilled this need on their first couple of records but got lost on their way to Rap Punk Land. Along come The Briggs, a band that like Discharge, features a pair of brothers in the lineup, Joey and Jason LaRocca. The Briggs sound like they're coming from working-class England but hail instead fromLos Angeles? Strange but true, these young toughs spitting nails and cranking out Oi! football choruses come from the land of sun, surf, and sedation. Immediately upon opening the CD I decided I liked the band: they ran a huge dedication to Joe Strummer across their booklet, that's class. The Brothers LaRocca share vocal duties, and one of them is eerily like a cross between Ian Stuart (Skrewdriver) and Matt Freeman (Rancid, who used to sing more). The Joe Strummer dedication is enough to assure me that these Oi-boys and skins aren't skrewed up politically. The music is friendly as a jackhammer and timid as a hurricane. The Briggs have scooped up the fallen mantle of leathers-bristles-studs-n'-acne punk rock and are carrying it aloft on their shoulders like a stage-diver. Rancid might be done, but The Briggs are still beginning. "Media Control" is stage-diving anarchic mayhem, with an exuberant chorus that must have escaped over the wall from the Rancid compound. Check this one song out and you will be sold. In a world dominated by pop-punk, mall-punk, metal punk, and (the God-awful) rap-punk, it's essential to have someone playing the real deal. With their influences so proudly on their sleeves, The Briggs aren't claiming to be doing anything original or unique, but by starting with the greats, they are on the right track. Their second full-length, "Numbers" is as spiky as a porcupine with just as many sharp barbs and more hooks than a fishing tackle shop. There's no reason to make a mix CD of Rancid, GBH, and Cockney Rejects - just pick up The Briggs' blistering "Numbers." |
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