“We’ll carry the torch you fucking dropped. I’m getting old but that’s no reason to stop.” – ph. decontrol -
In the three short years they existed as a band, Philly’s Kid Dynamite managed to make a name for themselves that will go on forever. In the realm of punk and hardcore this is no easy feat. When people look at our scene it may seem small from the outside looking in but really it’s quite the contrary. There are hundreds of bands coming and going at any given point. Some last a decade and don’t mean shit. Some last for five minutes and mean a lot to a lot of people. Kid Dynamite represents the latter. Their two albums (three if you count “Cheap Shots Youth Anthems”) are eternally in my rotation and manage to keep me going on days when I’d rather not. They were a band bursting from the seams with positive energy and they were able to marry the melodic with the hardcore in perfect harmony. It’s no surprise to me that a tribute album was put together in their honor. What is surprising is just how good it is compared to the original source material.
“Carry The Torch” is 39 songs long and consists of a cover version of EVERY Kid Dynamite song ever written. I’ve listened to it about 20 times this week and it’s as much of a breath of fresh air as when I first listened to the originals. You’d think there’d be some clunkers in there but it just isn’t so. In fact it’s proof positive that Kid Dynamite’s songs were straight up unfuckwithable. Their words, their melodies, their energy… all unfuckwithable. It’s also proof of how much an impact they had on the scene that they were able to get 39 bands together to be on a tribute in the first place. The double white vinyl is a nice touch as well.
As you’ll see during our tribute to tributes week, many tributes fall short when it comes to actually paying tribute to the band in question. Very few hold up from the first track to the last. There are always some clunkers, always some bands that either play it too safe or do the opposite and ruin a song with a loose interpretation. Most people know this going in when they buy a tribute album. If you have 15 songs, you’re lucky if half of them turn out to be pretty good or on par with the original. The fact that “Carry The Torch” manages to keep up the intensity from track one through to track thirty-nine is unbelievable. Every band on this tribute plays off the energy and momentum of Kid Dynamite’s originals in a way that not only pays tribute to them but also keeps their memory alive. Highlights include: No Harm Done doing into the breakdown from Paint It Black’s Atticus Finch in the middle of Three’s A Party; First To Leave’s acoustic rendition of SOS; hearing The Erg’s do Fuck U Turn; Comadre adding a little Misfits Where Eagles Dare to the beginning of Death and Taxes, and the singer of All Teeth saying “Okay so hit record and play the song and I’m gonna sing on the part that’s tight” at the beginning of Never Met The Gooch and then immediately singing.
The other thing about this tribute that I like is that it does what a good compilation is supposed to do, which is to make me aware of a bunch of bands that I would otherwise not have known about. In one song (and mind you most of these songs hover around the one minute mark) you become endeared to a new band and begin to search out more of their stuff. And considering of the 39 bands I only knew or knew of about 10 that’s a lot of other great bands to be put on to.
So if you’re a fan of Kid Dynamite (or any of the bands that can be tied to them like Lifetime, Paint It Black, None More Black, and The Loved Ones), a fan of hardcore, or a fan of tribute albums, or all of the above, what are you waiting for?
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