FSS One Year Anniversary Contest

Grand Prize Winner Al Gaydos sporting one of his prizes... one of our awesome shirts!

In honor of our One Year Anniversary we asked our readers what their five favorite albums of the moment were and in addition to giving 6 of them prizes we also promised to review the grand prize winner’s picks here on the site. Being men of our word we spent the last couple weeks each listening and re-listening to said five albums over and over again. They were picked by long time FSS supporter and all around nice guy Albert Gaydos of Woodhaven, NY. They are as follows:

The Black Lips – “200 Million Thousand”
Fucked Up – “Couple Tracks”
Paul Weller – “Wake Up The Nation”
Jello Biafra & The Gauntanamo School Of Medicine – “The Audacity of Hype”
The Jim Jones Revue – “s/t”

Now a few of these records have already been reviewed on the site in full (see related links), but it wouldn’t be fair to Al to go without giving at least some new insight into why they’re great albums. Oh did we mention that our readers have great taste? Seriously. Most of all of the submissions we received for the contest were chock full of great albums. Honestly we would have loved to review all of them, or at least spent a day hanging out with our readers listening to them over some beers maybe. Take Al’s picks above for example. What you have here is an extremely well rounded taste for the rock and roll. From Garage, to Political, to Experimental, to Punk, and to straight up old school loud ass womp bam boo, Al’s picks are the start to any great mix tape (or playlist if yer not as old as we are). In fact Al was nice enough to even put the FSS on to Jim Jones who we’d previously not heard and currently are planning to see tear up Maxwells next month. This in many ways is why we started this site. Talking about music with like minded people is a great way to put people on to what you’re into and also in turn to be put onto some new stuff yourself. If the FSS has one mission, it’d be that. Just to spread the joy of rock and roll. So without further adieu…

The Black Lips – “200 Million Thousand”

T: If you’ve read our site before you’ll know we luuurrrrve The Black Lips. Last year’s effort by them was one of their best yet. Songs of drugs, teenage rock and roll hijinks, big black baby jesus’, and more drugs will convert any non-believer into an instant fan. I think I had The Drop I Hold on about every mix I’ve made since this one came out. It’s the punkest rap song to ever come out of a garage that you’ve ever dun heard.

P: I fuckin love this band. I grew up listening to old Rolling Stones L.P.’s before I ever heard of the Punk Rawk and these cats make a joyful noise unto the Lord, equal parts Flag and Pretty Things. I love this band so much I forgive them the following:

Their being from the South.
Their absurd ass mustaches.
The fact that the guitarist has a grill. For the Lulz.

“200 Million Thousand” is simply an awesome album and The Black Lips put it down live. For realz.

Fucked Up – Couple Tracks

T: Another one I reviewed earlier this year and another favorite. For the most part this collection shows Fucked Up at it’s most Hardcore (with the exception of the Daytrotter session tracks). Fucked Up continue to be one of these bands that punks and hipsters see eye to eye on. I’m sure both camps would prefer they didn’t, but when a band is this good it’s hard to let scene politiking ruin undeniably good records. And that’s another thing that should be mentioned about Fucked Up… like the FSS they have a real fondness for the format. But considering it’d cost a small fortune on eBay to get all the vinyl that comprises “Couple Tracks” yer better off just buying the collection and saving your cash.

P: “They Won’t Fuck With Us For Much Longer!” Goddamn it, remember Hardcore? Like 16/16 time, somebody yelling about liberty, cept it don’t make you wanna hit them, but hit somebody else, like somebody wearing a suit preferably? These cats do. And they know how to change it up when it’s called for. I’ma get all the business on this cd on the vinyl, you know, when I get some money.

Paul Weller – Wake Up The Nation

T: I don’t really know how I feel about this one. It’s not bad at all. But I guess maybe there’s something about Paul Weller as a persona that irks me. Maybe it’s his fancy hair cut and expensive neo-mod threads? I try to ignore images but Mods are so focused on their image first usually and music second that they make it hard to do so. So The Jam were a good band I suppose. I’m not a huge fan of theirs either really but I definitely like a few of their bigger hits. Keeping in tune with his Jam roots, the now elder Weller manages to inject enough R&B, swagger, and pilled up old school mod energy into this one to keep it interesting.

P: Yeahh….Not so much. I really appreciate the support for the mighty FSS, Al, but this album… Let’s see.

The drumming is pretty good. The production is faultless as far as I can see. Weller is sounding pretty much the same as he did back in the Jam days and, though you don’t know for sure, as you listen to the album you just know that Paul was dressed immaculately during the recording.

Jello Biafra & The Gauntanamo School of Medicine – The Audacity Of Hype

T: I read the other day that East Bay Ray has a solo album coming out soon. I can pretty much guarantee that anything Jello puts out will trump his former DK bandmates any day of the week. So if you have all the Kennedy’s albums already pick up something by Jello before any of the solo shit the rest of them have pinched out their tired asses in the last 2 decades. Personally I’ve always been a fan of the Jello/DOA album. But his stuff with Mojo Nixon, The Melvins, and Al Jourgenson shouldn’t be overlooked just as this new release of his shouldn’t either. Think things are great now that Obama is in office? Let Jello tell you why you’re wrong.

P: Like 9 years ago back in Iceland I saw Jello do a spoken word something or other. He showed up an hour and a half late, wearing a welders jacket, goggles and smelling like asolute shit. I was fucking psyched. Then he went on to bore the shit out of us with his legal problems and then punk out on his threat to smash the next cellphone that went off. I wrote him off after that. This album is fucking good though, sounds like Hawkwind and The Dead Kennedys joined forces. The politics are neither here nor there for me. I’m a dirtbag, not a poli-sci major.

The Jim Jones Revue – s/t

T: Holy shit. Thank you for this one Al. Really. What a fucking loud fantastic album. It’s one of the most heartfelt loud honest straight up Rock and Roll albums. The picture on the back sleeve of this album is really all you need to know. The Jim Jones Revue are possessed with the RnR. Psychotic, fast, loud… did I mention how loud they are? When we were trying to put together the Grand Prize pack after we picked Al the winner we found out the JJR would be playing our neck of the woods in July so we threw in tickets as our way of saying thanks. You should stop by too and see what in the hell we’re talking about. Plus you can tell your friends you liked the band before they were featured in Spin (even though you weren’t… we’ll back you up).

P: I had a conversation once with somebody about the Kinks and they said their favorite songs by them are when they sound like they are just about to fly apart. Pretty much every song on this album is like that. Like Weller, this Jones is another British Dedicated Follower of Fashion, but fuck, these cats blow it up. I thought Rock and Roll piano more or less died with Jerry Lee’s 5th marriage and 19th Born Again swim. I guess not. Get this album and then check them out live. The FSS gonna be there. Stealin yo drinks, suckas.

Special thanks also goes out to our 5 Runners Up:  Brianna Boocks, Angelina Townsend, Bridgette Lillian, Johnny Bell, and Dennis Reilley.

So thanks again for a great year. We sincerely hope people like the site as much as we like putting it out there and if there’s any albums you think we might dig that we haven’t mentioned drop us a line. We’re just as happy to take recommendations as give them.

Related Links – Full Reviews of The Black Lips, Fucked Up, and Jello Biafra & The Gauntanamo School of Medicine

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