Review of USS Awesome / Let Me Be Your Jesus by NutHousePunks.com
Kansas City’s Bent Left has the right idea when it comes to releasing an LP. You take two excellent EPs, release them as CD-Rs for decently cheap, and when enough folks know and like those, you take each EP and make it a side to an LP. Perfecto.
I’d not been a huge fan of USS Awesome when it came out last year. I liked it okay, but there was some vagueness to the lyrics that irked me, despite the fact that the band’s sound was spot on. Bent Left works in the Dillinger Four / Off With Their Heads / et al vein of gruff-vocaled pop-punk, and I really enjoy that whole sound.
Let Me Be Your Jesus (or, for those keeping track, side B of the LP) works that sound a little further. The recording is more diverse. There are some nice guitar parts — the 4/4 workout on “A High Speed Pursuit On Zambonis and Segways” leads nicely into a breakdown and gang vocals, and the acoustic folk-punk of “Dear Barack Obama, Please Recite the Following With Conviction & Enthusiasm” shows the band branching out beyond straight-ahead punk rock.
The LP comes on clear vinyl, with each EP taking a side, and is out of a pressing of 300. The cover is a screened foldover, and comes with a photocopied lyric sheet. The screen work is nice, with three color separation that’s very well done. The colors (pale orange, light blue, and black) are fairly awful. The LP cover looks like it sat in the sun and got faded a bit, which is a damned shame, especially considering the great job that was done on the half-tone.
You can pick this up from Bent Left at any of their shows, or from the I Hate Punk Rock webstore for a mere $9.
*****
Bent Left releases an LP of EPs & a new video by Nick Spacek
Kansas City punk rockers Bent Left released the USS Awesome EP last year (and I liked it, despite a few flaws), and followed it up with the Let Me Be Your Jesus EP shortly thereafter.
If you’ve not had a chance to pick either release up, the band has compiled the two EPs into a convenient single disc (both CD and limited edition LP) as part of a team-up between their record label and promotional company Recycled Rockstar Industries and St. Louis record label I Hate Punk Rock Records. They’ve even made a totally boss video for the USS Awesome cut, “Application For Federal Assistance,” featuring what I believe to be the first-ever punk rock potato sack race.
They’ll have a release party for the record at the Riot Room this Friday, November 12, with openers the Disappeared, Pericles, Turdus Musicus, Under the Black Sails, and the New Lost Souls.
*****
The Fest / Harvest of Hope Guidebooks (2009):
“Burly power-punk from some crafty Midwestern gentlemen. Speed is everything to them, as they appear to have two speeds: fast and faster. They’ll wake you right up or keep you raging all night long ’til you keep coming back for more.”
For Fans of: Strike Anywhere, Anchor Arms
*****
Review of Bent Left’s USS Awesome by Nick Spacek
Upon first listening to Bent Left’s new EP, USS Awesome, it’s difficult to shake the perception that the band’s gruffly delivered vocals and rough, power-pop instrumentation owe a lot to Twin Cities-area punks such as Dillinger Four, Off With Their Heads, and Banner Pilot. But Bent Left sticks out from that crowd by politicizing its pop punk.
Even though the song titles are reminiscent of Fall Out Boy’s tendency to work in sentences (for example, “Nothing Says Success Like a Trendy Coke Habit”), the songs themselves are about more than love and girls. The lyrics can be vague; we’re not sure what the antecedent of it is in I’m too concerned to care that it sure won’t be free, and it sure won’t be fair, but it’s trade in “Application for Federal Assistance.”
But at the very least, USS Awesome is an amazingly well-recorded album. The production manages to avoid the issues that beset many local punk bands, falling prey neither to the overly polished, first-time-in-the-studio sound nor the awful recorded-in-a-basement tone to which so many others succumb.
*****
Hendricks County Flyer (2008):
Bent Left keeps with punk rock’s ethos by Wade Coggeshall
INDIANAPOLIS — The Internet has opened a whole new world for many groups and professions, the music industry notwithstanding.
While it’s given artists new avenues by which to peddle their talents, it’s also drastically leveled the playing field. No longer can there be just one Elvis. As soon as someone of that stature emerges, a hundred others of like talent will follow in his wake.
Such diffusion also applies to the potential wealth a traveling recording artist can accrue. But for bands like Bent Left, it’s never been about money.
The Kansas City-based punk trio has steadfastly adhered to the principles the genre was founded on some 30-plus years ago. They self-release their own records, book their own tours, and play wherever they’re accepted. Bass player William Malott says the best show on their current jaunt was at an Ann Arbor house.
“The kids there were just incredible,” he said. “Everyone was there for the show, to support the band. The people who own the house are doing this for the kids. It was a great community effort. You run into that fairly often.”
It may not be sold-out stadiums and ridiculous riders, but it’s the life Bent Left has chosen. More and more, they’re finding kindred spirits in the do-it-yourself philosophy, less a pursuit of fame and fortune and more a tight-knit community in which to proliferate their raucous agitprop.
It’s still not always easy. Many larger venues remain hesitant to book punk shows or bands that don’t appear to have broad appeal.
“It makes it difficult when you’re trying to stay on the road and you need money for gas,” drummer Josh Nelson said. “The D.I.Y. effort is a safety net for the punk scene. Regardless of how venues want to treat bands, we can work around that. That’s what allows our survival.”
Having an education helps too. The members of Bent Left, all friends since high school, secured enough in scholarships to attend college without amassing any debt. Nelson earned a degree in biology and Malott studied political science. Guitarist Jeff Speak is expected to graduate soon with an audio engineering degree. They did this while managing to keep the band going.
“The support you get in school is kind of what made it possible for us to keep doing this when we weren’t making any money,” Malott said. “Having that college degree sort of gives you a safety net.”
But even with the exposure to higher education’s ivory towers, Bent Left isn’t ready to park the van just yet.
“We were best friends before we were in this band,” Malott said. “We’re not a band made of musicians; we’re friends that turned ourselves into musicians and a band. We’re just not ready to throw that away yet.”
*****
