Remember when punk rock music didn't need a bunch of frills, bells, or whistles strapped to it in order to be considered good? It seems to have been a while since that was the case, and you can start flipping through your record collection to try and figure out when exactly punk started crutching on novelties, gimmicks, cross-genre blending and every other new trick in the book to achieve a short-lived “wow” factor, or you can just throw on The Measure [SA]'s new album, Notes, and rest assured that there are still new punk bands making great music the right way.
There's nothing complicated at all about Notes – singer/guitarists Lauren Measure and Fid, bassist Tim Burke and drummer Mikey Yannich hit the ground running with “Be Yours” and don't slow down for a second through the record's fourteen-song, thirty-two-minute run-time – and there doesn't need to be. Here, The Measure [SA] forgoes “the great new things” and focuses on the classic punk themes of being young, fucking up, growing up (and fucking up while growing up), love, frustration, having nothing better to do and being a “have-not” in a room full of “haves” and does so both potently and presciently, and that is enough to make a significant mark now, stacked against so many other cutesy bands. Songs like “Hell, I'm No Daniel Craig,” “Fear Of Commitment,” “”Cynical At Best,” “*Sigh*,” “The Politics Of Sound” and “Privilege” all streak through at a whirlwind's pace which somehow feels refreshing, but the fact that every song sounds so good and refreshing is shocking because none of these themes are new – but they also haven't sounded so potent in years. There are no surprises – some would even go so far as to say that The Measure [SA] have simply re-invented the wheel on this album –but the fact that each song has a fresh-out-of-the-box shine to it is a unexpected surprise. In effect, while The Measure [SA] may indeed have only reinvented the wheel, it was clearly a wheel that needed reinventing because fans who have felt alienated over the stream of “next big things” flowing through punk will find themselves naturally gravitating to and loving this.
After the triumph that Notes represents, it'll be interesting to see what The Measure [SA] does next. With most punk bands of any standard seeming to go out of their way to ignore the roots of punk (Bad Religion is playing the elder statesmen card, Green Day's busy making concept records and, if they're not careful, Rise Against will be in danger of becoming punk's answer to U2), it's reassuring to know that this band has the sand, is ready, is clearly willing and obviously able to hold down the fort and make its' name making unaffected punk rock for punk rock's sake. Notes stands as the proof that there's hope for punk rock yet.
Artist:
www.themeasuresanj.wordpress.com/
www.myspace.com/themeasuresa
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Measure-sa/
Album:
Notes is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
