Fucked Up / Dirtbombs

Bruise Cruise Split [7-inch] (2012)

John Gentile

Kudos to Bruise Cruise Records for putting out interesting releases to coincide with their annual punk rock journey of the seas.

Fittingly, Fucked Up contribute a live version of their former-rarity-now-non-rarity "I Hate Summer." In its second live appearance on record, and third total, "I Hate Summer" is featured in its most raw version yet. The band tears through the track in a rapid fashion and background vocalist Ben Cook has shifted his refrain from a soft cooing to a harsher barking. While its great to hear some more energy injected into the tune, to be fair, the live version doesn't vary that much from the studio version.

The Dirtbombs present a greater query. "If Can Can Can't We?" isn't so much a song as it is a sonic experience. The first half of the lengthy track sounds to be rock instruments mimicking the circular clanking of industrial machinery in a loud cacophony. After the droning intro, the band retains the anti-music noise but buries a tune so low in the mix, that the most that can be discerned is that there is a more traditional song underneath, but what it is, is anyone's guess. The demonstration is interesting in that the band is able to show the range of sound they can pull from their instruments, but once the affect is heard one or two times, revisiting the track yields diminishing returns.

A neat item, but for collectors only.