This album documents a two-day festival that presented various New York ska and Oi! bands, and the juxtaposition is kind of strange but lots of fun. The best of the six Oi! tracks have a certain bludgeoning charm to them -- "Friday 5pm," by the Press, is an effective working class anthem, while the Bouncing Souls' "Joe Lies" actually features some melodic interest. Best of all is Faction Zero's "Inside," which sounds an awful lot like vintage Bad Brains. Overall, though, the album's finest moments come from the various ska ...
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This album documents a two-day festival that presented various New York ska and Oi! bands, and the juxtaposition is kind of strange but lots of fun. The best of the six Oi! tracks have a certain bludgeoning charm to them -- "Friday 5pm," by the Press, is an effective working class anthem, while the Bouncing Souls' "Joe Lies" actually features some melodic interest. Best of all is Faction Zero's "Inside," which sounds an awful lot like vintage Bad Brains. Overall, though, the album's finest moments come from the various ska bands: horn-heavy instrumentals make up much of the program, and almost all of them are excellent, the best being "Sonic Boom" by Skavoovie and the Epitones. The ubiquitous and iniquitous Mephiskapheles clocks in with two tracks, including their hilarious theme song (which features the immortal lines "My baloney has a first name/It's S-A-T-A-N"), but top honors have to go to the Slackers for "Ray Gun Sally." Also noteworthy are the two most nostalgic acts on the bill, the Checkered Cabs (with their faithful cover of Desmond Dekker's "Honor Your Mother and Your Father") and the Insteps, who contribute the modern rude-boy anthem "Rudy Don't Fear." ~ Rick Anderson, Rovi
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