New Music: Dustin Kensrue, Frank Turner, Gallows

Man do I look bad. Some Audiversitarian I've turned out to be, right? One post compared to Michael's 85 or something? I guess that's kind of close. It's so exhausting being creative sometimes, though. Sometimes you just want to sit in your room and strum away on an unplugged six-string while the whisky sits at your side and you dream of The Good Life (not the band), all the while lamenting your day job. Kid, you are not alone.













Dustin Kensrue - I Knew You Before - Equal Vision (2007)

Dustin Kensrue - I Knew You Before / Equal Vision

...Because while you're sitting in your room idling as life passes you by, Dustin Kensrue is out there growing that requisite scruff and singing all the songs you wish you'd thought of first. Kensrue, Kensrue... Norwegian, right? Where have you heard that name before? And then it dawns on you: This guy sang lead vocals for Thrice. Now Thrice doesn't have much cred with a certain breed of "matured" elitist, but for the younger post-hardcore pups out there Thrice is kind of a big deal. As good as they occasionally were, that band sounded nothing like this. That's part of the joy and the surprise in Dustin's solo debut, "Please Come Home." Blues riffs, harmonica solos, southern-rock strumming, Letterman on February 2nd and a day-job to fall back on. It's tough living the dream. More SoCo for you?













Frank Turner - Once We Were Anarchists - Sleep is for the Week (2007)

Frank Turner - Sleep is for the Week / Xtra Mile

Actually, come to think of it, Kensrue's path is not a new one: Post-hardcore types tend to go soft with age if they don't break up first (excepting Fugazi, who have found a glitch in The Matrix and will be loud long after we're all dead and gone). Million Dead's Frank Turner is the transatlantic version of Kensrue, being the other prominent example of loud-gone-downhome-soft from the last year. Like Kensrue, Frank has revealed himself gradually as a bit of a folkie now that he doesn't have to namedrop Fukuyama or meddle with the legacy of the failed Budapest revolt of '56. The difference is that the straight-faced Americana Kensrue has shown himself to be competent at doesn't translate in the same way with Turner: With an extensive background in Black Flag and Refused (from which Million Dead took their name), Turner's still all about talking to the kids who have that youthful idealism in them. The difference is, he's talking to them with experience in fighting the good fight and flipping off The Man. Johnny Cash in ethos but Billy Bragg in process, Turner will be bringing his brand of Brit-folk to the US in the spring with Jonah Matranga aka the guy from a million bands including Onelinedrawing and Gratitude. Look for him on the Left Coast.

But wait. If all the kids are growing up and growing out, who will guide the young and restless?













Gallows - Come Friendly Bombs - Orchestra of Wolves (2006)

Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves / In at the Deep End

Meet Gallows. They spit fire, crush skulls and mutilate eardrums. Remember when Watford meant art school and Wire? No? Good, because even if it did, post-punk patron saint of the pen Simon Reynolds himself couldn't write enough to reclaim the restrained and refined aura that surrounded this London suburb before these cracking young lads came to town. Gallows have pretty much torn the lid off punk and ravaged through it like a rabid raccoon (or, more appropriately, ripped it up and started again like a wolf?), emerging with the rewards of a combustible concoction latter-day heroes like The Bronx, Orchid or JR Ewing would be proud of. Except... Fuck, two of those three are broken up, aren't they? C'est la vie.

Panthers' "The Trick" comes out in March and is already "in the can" as the old timey record producers would say, but that doesn't sound anything like a casual drive down the lonesome roads of the American midwest, does it... JR Ewing, where is your post-hardcore folk hero? I smell a Sondre Lerche in the making. Make it happen.