Strike Anywhere

Change Is a Sound (2001)

Aubin Paul

In my last review of a Jade Tree release, I complained (ok, whined) that Jade Tree was only signing indie rock bands with 6 minute songs. Apparently, I was to be proven wrong mere days after that review went up.

Strike Anywhere's Change Is a Sound is one of the best melodic/hardcore records of 2001. Like Jade Tree labelmates, Kid Dynamite and Lifetime, Strike Anywhere manages to meld melody and aggressiveness like nobody's business.

The record is an 11 song, sub-30 minute opus with hooks, screams, and great breakdowns. It's the kind of positive, energetic hardcore that many bands try, but few really succeed at. If anyone is succeeding though, at the subgenre pioneered by Lifetime, and Gorilla Biscuits, then it's Strike Anywhere.

If you haven't heard them yet, the best comparison's I could make are probably to Dischord-era Dag Nasty, and the song structure and dynamics of "Perfect Government" from NOFX's Punk in Drublic.

But comparisons are probably unecessary, because you're probably going to hear them all over the place, because they're really fucking good.