CLEAN LINES – Nuisance EP

Clean Lines isn’t necessarily the best known name in punky circles, but the band have put in some hard yards on the live circuit in the US. They’ve shared stages with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes and The Kids, and have creative links with Geraldine Fibbers and Circle Jerks. They caught the attention of The Briefs’ vocalist Steve E. Nix, who eventually joined their musical ranks.

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THE BRIEFS – High Society / You Can Move Me

Back in 2000, when the rock press seemed to spend a lot of their time getting excited by debut albums from A Perfect Circle and Linkin Park, and most punk was starting to be treated like old news, The Briefs burst onto the US punk scene with their debut album ‘Hit After Hit’. Behind its ironic title, the record shared a bunch of hard edged tunes, bristling with riffs on loan from The Ruts and The Clash, along with the kind of gang vocals that drove the second wave of UK punk. They sat alongside other revival bands like Lower Class Brats and Street Dogs, but were clearly superior musicians and songwriters from the get go. Twenty plus years on, their ‘Sex Objects’ album showed off slightly bigger production values, but the band’s songwriting and musical approach had clearly held firm. With a bunch of speed driven numbers that showed influences from The Clash, Buzzcocks and Lurkers, The Briefs still shared a love for older British punk, but – from a US standpoint – some of the material shared the furious energies of The Germs. In terms of style, it was a great record.

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