You may remember the California punk rock band, Face to Face
\nfrom their one hit, “Disconnected” back in the mid-90’s. The hits
\nmay be gone, but they are still making good music. Their latest CD
\nis called
\nStandards & Practices<\/i> because the entire CD is nothing
\nbut covers of some of the bands favorite artists.<\/p>\n
Before I even heard a note from this CD, looking at the songs
\nthey covered, I realize this band has one cool music collection.
\nThe usual suspects are there for a punk rock band with songs by the
\nRamones and Sugar, as well as unsung punk bands like Jawbreaker,
\nFugazi, and unsung at least in the United States, the Jam.<\/p>\n
However, it is the non-punk artists that are covered here that
\nmake
\nStandards & Practices<\/i> such a fascinating CD. The opening
\nsong is “What Difference Does It Make?” by the Smiths. This version
\nis quite a revelation not only because the Smiths, who are famous
\nfor mellow, somewhat precious Brit-pop, would seem like the
\nunlikeliest band to be covered by punkers, but because Face to Face
\nrock it up without losing sight of Morrissey’s clever lyric
\nwriting. They wisely do not play it too hard and fast, saving that
\nkind of fury for the real punk songs.<\/p>\n
Among the other surprises are their treatments of “Sunny Side Of
\nThe Street” by the Irish folk-rock band the Pogues, and “Heaven” by
\nthe Psychedelic Furs. Again, both covers are winners because the
\nemphasis is on the songs themselves, and singer Trever Keith
\ncaptures the nuances, even in these more rock-oriented
\nversions.<\/p>\n
All that said, Face to Face do crank it up for much of
\nStandards & Practices<\/i>. Not only do they wisely match the
\nbluster of Fugazi’s “Merchandise”, the loopiness of the Pixies
\n“Planet Of Sound”, and the campiness of the Ramones “The KKK Took
\nMy Baby Away”, but they add a great deal of raw energy to the INXS
\nsong, “Don’t Change”.<\/p>\n
Of course, there is bound to be a cover that isn’t quite so
\nsuccessful. In this case, it is their version of Sugar’s “Helpless”
\nwhich is a a little too straightforward, neither kicking it up a
\nnotch sonically or vocally. Keith cannot match Bob Mould’s vocal
\nintensity, and sequencing this song after the blistering
\n“Merchandise”, makes it seem even a little tired.<\/p>\n
At ten songs (with quite a few of them clocking in under three
\nminutes),
\nStandards & Practices<\/i> seems way too short. The time
\nflies especially because this band sound like they are having a lot
\nof fun. The song choices are great, and for the most part, the
\nperformances are inspired. Even if you have all the original songs
\nin your collection, this CD is worth picking up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6673],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37267","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-face-to-face","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37267"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}