THE LAWRENCE ARMS
Oh! Calcutta!
Fat Wreck Chords
· I remember as a kid, the encyclopedia we had in our basement was so old that when I looked up "Black Hole" the entry simply read "See: Calcutta."
This band made a name for itself opening for NOFX, and it’s easy to see why. You need only scan the handwritten liner notes to any Lawrence Arms album to gain a sense of what this street-savvy trio from Chicago is all about.
From "The Devil’s Takin’ Names" to "Old Dogs Never Die" Oh! Calcutta!’s lyric sheet reads like the playbook of the punk revival movement. While their accents are decidedly North American, these singalong-worthy gems could as easily appear on the next Dropkick Murphys, Skels or Swinging Utters album.
Vocalist-guitarist Brendan Kelly, drummer Neil Hennessey and guitarist-vocalist Chris McCaughan manage to pay tribute to their Celt-rock influences while remaining firmly rooted in their modern-day urban existence.
Striking a balance between their previous releases – the politically charged Apathy and Exhaustion and the cheekily irreverent Greatest Story Ever Told – this new album spends half its time exposing its emotional shortcomings and the other half drinking to forget them. Even so, a 50 per cent alcohol content still equals 100 proof.
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