thedonproject
"Lumberjack Days"
◉ ◉ ○ ○ ○(2/5: not super good)
Punk 7" vinyl (clear green vinyl)
Lookout! lk36 (1990)
I paid $2.99 for this record.
It actually starts off pretty well. Some lightning speed hillbilly punk that is straight up Rock 'n' Roll. The vocals are always doubled for some reason, but it's impressively fast. The hint at this speed might be the 7 tracks on the 45 RPM EP. But it's East Bay Punk, so that's what you'd expect.

The real let down is track 2 (Elite Manila) and it's crazy terrible horn noise blasting between the short lines of the verse. Tack on the pretty terrible drum sound and the nasal, pinched off vocals and this interesting sound degenerates into a grating experience. Luckily, the evolution of this sound by later Lookout! artists really improved on this early offering. The Hi-Fives, are a stellar example of how this cool rockabilly punk sound can be made interesting.

The record continues through some kind of doo wop attempt and that's when I realize the reason why the drums sound weird is because of the lack of cymbals! As I marvel over this minimalist choice, the B-side starts up with a Beatles-esque song happening about 30 years after the British Invasion. They throw in the classic one-note high harmony vocals and it sounds pretty decent until some distorted, feedback-heavy guitar solo interrupts your appreciation.

Track 2 on the B-side is a fun and fast repeat of the phrase "What do you get?" and gives a little bit of promise before they launch into a song about a train. You can tell because it's called Train and it employs that train song staple of the shuffling snare drum echoing the chatter of a steam train along the tracks. Also they say "train" about fifty times.

The impossibly fast is outdone on the last track with a maniacally fast song that almost makes you want to sing along, but it is simply too fast. I tried tapping along on one of those metronome apps that gauges the speed of the song and maxed out the app at 225 beats per minute. Not kidding.

I wanted to like this record as it's part of my nostalgic Lookout! 1-100 collection, but really it's tough to do. The best thing I can say is that they had a good idea, but it ended up more annoying than amazing. Ah well.

If you like this review, you can buy me a coffee.

Tracks:
A1: Parisian
A2: Elite Manila
A3: Bright Lights
B1: Everybody's Baby
B2: What Do You Get
B3: Train
B4: Hairdo
Last updated: 05/17/2020
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