Scouts Honor
I Am the Dust (2006)
Brian Shultz
It's hard to argue that No Idea Records has released an awful lot of records that are at least somewhat similar to their most successful alumni, Hot Water Music. What's funny is that it very well seems like Gainesville, FL's beloved Against Me! could overtake this title in the coming years (if not already), and No Idea has definitively released the first in what could very well be another long line of similarly thought releases.
Scouts Honor did sound like Against Me! before their agreement with No Idea to release I Am the Dust, and things really haven't changed all that much. I think the band may have rushed it a bit, as it's only been a year since their last release, 2005's Roots in Gasoline (364 days to be exact), and their musical styles disappointingly don't seem entirely developed beyond it. Granted, musically the band seem to have taken baby steps towards developing their own identity rather than garnering a more than obvious initial comparison, mixing in bits and pieces of blues and dirty soul, even a subtle nuance of psychedelia ("The Sun Won't Set in the West") to their folk-punk brigades, but their one vocalist sounds even more like Tom Gabel -- his whiskey and gravel-tinged yell is downright eerily dead on.
I do also have to give them credit for writing their first memorable song. "The Songs They Sing" is a down-home, enjoyable raised-nostril twangy alt-country flowing romp, which serves a nice break from what tends to be a bunch of stomp-heavy, snarling tunes (all of the first 3 tracks, "Pillar of Faith," "To and Fro," others).
While I really don't believe this is anywhere near as special an album as Scouts Honor is capable of considering their influences, this review probably still doesn't describe it as well as I'd like, either, so if you were to click on the one review linked above it should give you a good idea of what to expect here as the two albums are pretty similar. It also feels a bit long-winded at 11 tracks and just under 40 minutes. For now, I might consider checking out the other recent release from No Idea that will probably garner a few (albeit, lazy) comparisons to the aforementioned…