Face The Rail "Learning To Die" 12" LP (Katorga Works)

Face the Rail is one of the Bay Area's longest running and most under-appreciated hardcore punk bands. Playing a unique and high-energy amalgamation of classic west coast skate punk/hardcore, Revolution Summer DC, and even surf rock, the band has proven to be one of the most interesting Bay Area bands, to us, at least. This is their first record in four years and it's more than worth the wait. (KW) So I think I'm on my fourth consecutive listen to this 12" and I still can't quite wrap my mind around what it is or what it's trying to do... that might sound like a bad thing to some people, but it's a great thing in my book... it's so rare to find a record like this that sounds so utterly singular. The label's description mentions classic west coast punk, Revolution Summer, and surf, and I can kind of see all of those (except maybe the latter... some of their earlier stuff was a little surfy, but I'm not really hearing much of that here). One thing Adam at Katorga doesn't mention that I do hear a lot of here is the sound of neo-post-punk like Synthetic ID or Total Control... like those bands, the bass and guitars always seem to be veering off in different directions, creating a really interesting tension in the music. However, this is much, much faster than any of those bands... the music almost sounds like Synthetic ID on 45, or maybe a cleaner and less dense version of Flesh World. It also reminds me quite a bit of the Doughboys for some reason... that reference will probably be lost on most, and maybe it's just the chorus on the guitar, but fans of that band's slightly askew take on poppy punk will love this for sure. This isn't hard, it's not that fast and it is melodic, so I doubt it will appeal to the internet cognoscenti, but if you want to hear a well-done record that doesn't sound like any other in your collection I recommend checking this out. (Daniel Sorry State)