Punked up out of our minds!
Another year and another Warped Tour, which of course means another great rocking compilation album is let loose onto us. What I like about the Vans sponsored Warped Tour is that the bands playing aren't packed of obvious choices, and not bands that are being pushed by record labels and deaf PR reps. It maybe an un-British thing to say but it's a disappointment to me that the Warped Tour doesn't make it over here in it's full entirety, so we are left with Download packed full of the 'popular' bands, and the lukewarm talents at Reading/Leeds, V2, etc.
So just what are the musical talents on show here? Well we have a handful of the heavy weights that usually appear each year, like NOFX with a slower number in 'Wolves in Wolves Clothing', Flogging Molly with the even slower acoustic song of 'Laura', and the hard rocking Saves The Day. We also have a welcomed return to the first lady of rock Joan Jett And The Balckhearts with the quite fabulous 'Five' – all of these on Disc 1.
The true great thing about these albums is the showcase of young talent in punk rock with a sprinkling of Emo, just to keep those kids that hang outside of my local MacDonalds happy! Riverboat Gamblers give us some catchy pop-punk, whilst there is the rising stars of gypsy-punk Gogol Bordello with another song that sounds like the guys from the local kebab van, are doubling up as an acoustic-punk band whilst our donar's are grilling. We have American Eyes, a band that have had good reviews for a couple of years now and sound a little like Zebrahead. Valiant Thor have some Zepplin-esque guitar riffs that speed up into some classic rock/punk punch up that will having you nodding your head in approval but wondering whether or not it is the coolest thing or not...?!
Some of the best Emo here is Moneen and their song 'If Tragedy's Appealing, Then Disaster's An Addiction'. There is some nice metal guitars to Protest The Hero and their song 'Heretics & Killers', before we have the quite excellent Time Again with 'Black Night', who will have obvious comparisons to Rancid what with them being on Hellcat Records, being good friends of the aforementioned band and of course sounding like them!
Disc 2 has a nice sprinkling of some faster punk like Anti-Flag with 'No Future', the marvellous band The Casualties with 'Under Attack', and Scotch Greens with 'Professional' whilst The Banner speed things up with a song leaning more towards hardcore in 'Venom And Hope'.
Rise Against give us a slow number whilst there is pogo-pop-punk from Hellogoodbye, Crash Romeo with 'Actions Not Words' which could easily be Goldfinger, and the punkers Good Riddance with another song in the mould of NOFX with 'Shame'. We also have the talented youngsters Paramore, who with their female vocalist sound a little like a heavier Avril Lavigne, whilst Los Kung-Fu Monkeys give us some bouncy Ska and The Sunstreak finish off with a nice mid tempo and thoughtful rock song that may border on Emo, but I'm not holding that against them. It's simple and effective and finishes of this double delight well.
Like any compilation album that boasts just over fifty bands on it, including at least a quarter that you should've heard of, Warped Tour 2006 is always worth a listen. Perhaps just a little behind the last couple of years compilations, it is worth noting that with so many bands and tracks it is always an album that gets better with more plays.
If you've ever worn a sweatband, three-quarter-length trousers, converse/vans trainers and dyed your hair then you will find at least three songs that you will like – you can bet my fish Scaly Dave on it!