As Friends Rust

A Young Trophy Band (2002)

Chris Moran

Thats a hell of a title for 6 song EP. Yes, another AFR EP, but eh, who's complaining?

"A Young Trophy Band…" is by far one of the Rust's finest EP's to date. It's difficult to get into the track order at first, mainly due to the great diversity in each song, but after you do it is apparent how special this EP really is.

The first track, with the awesome title "More than just music. Its a hairstyle." is by far one of the best, if not the best track ever recorded by the band. For those harcore Rust fans out there this may be hard to swallow, but everything about this song makes the entire EP worth owning. The changing tempos which compliment the song structure, the breakdown with shout-along lyrics- not to mention the lyrics themselves. Stop reading this review and listen to this track…now.

With such a great introduction, the rest of the EP seems average upon the first initial listens, but quickly grows on you. "The Most Americanest" is the band's stab at the growing patriotism, and for that matter, always existant nationalism, present in the U.S. Although this is a bit outside of what I'm come to expect from AFR, it is nonetheless an impressive track with a thought-provoking message.

Skipping ahead to "Born With a Silver Spoon Up Your Ass" is probably the second strongest track on the album. The faster tempo and shout-along chorus will unquestionably make this one a crowd fav at live Rust shows.

The album closes out with "Where the Wild Things Were", which musically has a great sound to it, but I can't seem to get into Damien's voice on it. He sounds a little too much like J. Mascis. (Whom I do appreciate and respect a great deal.) The message seems to focus around past negative experiences, but it would be shallow of me to attempt to explain what they are.

All in all, this is probably the most diverse AFR production to date. Damien does a lot of experimentation with his voice, some for the better, some for the worse. After experiencing his range and completion to the AFR sound, I question what the future frontman will bring to the group. Hopefully something as impressive as this.