thedonproject
"Astrid Oto"
◉ ◉ ◉ ○ ○(3/5: decent)
Punk 7" vinyl (clear purple vinyl, 304 pressed)
No Idea NIR 089 (1999)
I paid $3 for this record.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the world's only punk rock zine supergroup! With Cindy Crabb (of Doris fame) and Aaron Cometbus (of some zine called Cometbus).

Despite the literary backgrounds of the arguable stars of this band, the music is pretty good. Ms. Crabb is kind of a terrible singer but excellent at punk rock yelling. The drumming of Mr. Cometbus is basically the same drumming he's been doing since Crimpshrine but with better production value. The song structures are the standard East Bay Punk set up: lots of yelling, simple ABAB for the most part, and short and fun. The lyrics are pretty typical Cometbus lyrics in the vein of Pinhead Gunpowder. This is particularly apparent given that the third song later became a Pinhead Gunpowder album title.

What adds some level of interest to these songs is the dueling vocals of Ms. Crabb and the guitarist, Ed. Ed sounds quite a lot like Jesse from Blatz, whose growly tone I definitely admire. When paired with the slightly higher pitched rasp of Ms. Crabb, it forms an excellent counterpoint. The only thing that is lacking on these songs is some of the catchy sing-alongs that Pinhead Gunpowder are fond of. These are definitely dance-along songs, not sing-along songs. I usually prefer the latter, I'm afraid, but these are good nonetheless.

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

Tracks:
A1: D.I.Y.
A2: Miami
B1: Goodbye Elston Avenue
B2: Canary in a Coal Mine
Last updated: 05/06/2023
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