Since the genre really began to take shape in 1974, the boundaries, forms and shapes of punk rock have been torn down, torn apart and reassembled and rebuilt so often that it was become difficult to gauge what “is” and “isn't” punk rock anymore. The problem isn't exactly that the genre has become scattered or overly diffuse really, just that different ideas and forms regarded as integral to the music have cycled to the forefront or become more prominent while others have fallen back for a while, only to have the whole thing be realigned again a few years later as values and dominant trends shift. This sort of stylistic cycling isn't always perfectly self-evident (listen to enough punk rock, and it's very easy to become absorbed by a trend) but it certainly is on Banner Pilot's Fat Wreck Chords debut. On Resignation Day, artistic cliches begin to intermingle under the watch of singer/guitarist Nick Johnson, lead guitarist/bassist/lead songwriter Nate Gangelhoff and drummer Dan Elston-Jones to arrive at a conglomeration that incorporates a host of sounds that can be found elsewhere in punk rock but combine here to arrive at a sound that is uniquely the band's own.
That likely sounds bizarre to readers, or comes off like the politest possible way of calling a band derivative on public record, but neither is the case. Resignation Day really does sound original and, while certain elements of each song could easily be pinned to other sources, they're simply never found together anywhere other than on this album. For example, Gangelhoff's rollicking but fluid bass performances bear more than a passing resemblance to that of Mike Dirnt, while the guitar parts that Johnson knocks out feature working class and heavy-handed touches akin to the pop-infused punk typified by the licks that were the province of Bob Stinson when he was in The Replacements and Alex Rosamilia digs into with The Gaslight Anthem. Further, Elston-Jones' driving beats call to mind Erik Sandin's style and Brett Reed's work with Rancid. Needless to say, if one were to break them right down, the fourteen songs on Resignation Day could be called a pastiche or “greatest fits” assemblage of every great punk band of the last quarter century but, assembled together as they are here, the album just comes off as a great “next generation” punk record. That might be just the shot in the arm that the music needs to make it fresh all over again.
Artist:
www.myspace.com/bannerpilot
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Album:
Resignation Day is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
