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Minor Authority: Punk Side Up
Minor Authority Punk Side Up music review

Minor Authority: Punk Side Up

Punk Rock
Rating: 4.0/5.0

Pop Sweatshop Records
www.minorauthority.com
www.myspace.com/punksideup
Review: Craig Hartranft,  10.04.2009

Point of fact: if you love punk, real punk rock, you're going to love Minor Authority and their debut Punk Side Up. Hailing from that hotbed of modern anarchy (yeah, right), Denver Colorado, founder and lead revolutionary Nate 'B.W.' Harris wants Minor Authority to be a 'no bullshit old school in your face punk rock band dedicated to keeping the roots of true hardcore, old school punk rock alive and in it's prime.' He's succeeded. This is not Green Day pussy commercial post punk. Punk Side Up has the musical chops and street spit in your eye attitude that made the greats great. Harris looks to Rancid as a peer, and measures up.

Punk Side Up has rawness and reality that emulates old school punk in the best tradition. Gritty riffs and rhythms mix with sneering vocals to both mosh and entertain. Just to piss off the punk purists and modern posers, Harris even has the balls to throw in a (slight) guitar solo here and there; now there's some real anarchy. Most impressive are the rugged and throbbing bass lines throughout especially on Graffiti, Libery Bell, and Punk Side Up.

The usual lyrical suspects show up in Punk Side Up of odes to the punk life style (Punk Side Up), teenage rebellion and snottiness (Hey Man), political repulsion (Liberty Bell). Hey Man and Liberty Bell are two of the best tracks on a thoroughly consistent album. However, both also show how trivial and inconsequential the whole 'punk thing' has become as the songs amount to mere parodies of the lifestyle itself. Political anarchy or cultural rebellion, whether teenage or not, has been around since in Marlon Brando's The Wild One, and punk has always had the same theme: 'What're you rebelling against, Johnny? Whaddya got?' Essentially, punk has always been the answer to a question that the stove pipe rebels couldn't articulate in the first place. But I digress with editorial license once more.

Minor Authority's Punk Side Up has the ability to tear down the commercial 'feng shui' appeal of Green Day posers for the more invigorating and lost art form of true punk rock.

In Short

Minor Authority's Punk Side Up has the ability to tear down the commercial 'feng shui' appeal of Green Day posers for the more invigorating and lost art form of true punk rock.

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