North Side Kings "Organizing Our Neighborhood" CD
[Thorp]
No doubt soon to be best known for having their chief band member Danny Marianinho knock out Glenn Danzig with minimal effort (How could I not mention it? That shit was classic.), North Side Kings are still a solid heavy hardcore band that has yet to fully win me over for a couple of reasons. I'm not sure exactly what it is that holds them back in my eyes, but this record is pretty consistent with their prior work in that it's got an effective but not totally accurate recording and a set of songs that are good, but not great. Some of this stuff is definitely heavier and more in your face than their past work (see "My Reflection", which contains one chord progression that sounds almost identical to part of Exodus' "Within the Walls of Chaos"), and some of the straightforward chords and attitude-drenched vocal patterns in "Lowlife" are certainly reminiscent of One Life Crew, but for the most part it's still pissed off heavy hardcore with gruff vocal shouts. No messing around. "Holding On" does have some weird strained pseudo singing in it that sort of stinks, and their cover of Social Distortion's "Down on the World Again" (here just called "Down on the World") is of course more melodic and rocked out, but for the most part it's straight up heavy hardcore that never truly reaches metal, like the potently focused "Point the Finger". The production is fine, but a punchier and slightly more polished sound could make an immense difference for this band. The mix is really solid and cohesive here, and the tones don't really bother me (though the snare could use a more resonant snap), they just lack that extra oomph, you know? I mean, the writing is pretty good, some of the songs are killer, but kicking the recording in the ass just a touch would really push 'em up to another level, I think. The layout's consistent and has a lot of cartoony illustrations, which they do actually pull off for the most part, despite the fact that the lyrics, while sarcastic at times, are certainly not lighthearted (nor for the totally PC, ha). Most of the topics take a pretty bitter stand on personal issues and hardships (definitely more of a toughguy stance, especially in "A Family Affair"), with a few going more into the whole "world in turmoil" stance. "You've been on a losing streak and I'm here to make it worse. Lady Luck came your direction but I got to you first..." There's also a CD-Rom video but it only plays on PC's, and it's a huge file (in Flash)... since it crashes my machine every time I try to get it to play I can't comment there unfortunately. Overall not bad. Still not blowing me away, but this is their best to date in my opinion, so they're slowly but surely getting there. I'm hoping they really drop a scorcher at some point, and I think they could definitely get there. (6/10)
Running time - 29:36, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Lowlife, My Reflection, Point the Finger]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com

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