Naked Raygun- Over the Overlords

All bands eventually reform right? And this year is another banner year.

I honestly don’t have a great feel for the true popularity of Naked Raygun. They eluded my radar which was activated in high school, and at that time I picked up the obvious bands- Husker Du, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys, but extended to band like Flipper, Suicidal Tendencies and The Minutemen. But once I was a bit older and around Chicago-centric circles, clearly I was taken by the band.

NR was at the end of their career when I discovered them. Pegboy spun off (via guitarist John Haggarty) and similarly produced great music limited to an indie label audience.

Time seemed to be cruel- Chicago was a ‘scene’ town now and the Alt press fawned over Liz Phair, the Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt and Urge Overkill among others. One can only imagine that the wave just missed NR.

But the post punk sound of NR - working class, informed by Heavy Metal doesn’t lend itself to hero worship. They would have to settle for influencing David Grohl and thus changing music forever. It is certainly difficult to picture the existence of Emo without a band like Naked Raygun.

The new album could be thrown into a band mix and fit right in. Different songs recall the various moments from more melodic Buzzcocks pop to the pretty standard Dag Nasty/Government Issue/Youth Brigade 80s hardcore bands you would line them up with.

While that’s unlikely to excite all but the most devoted fans, in the wake of a lot of other recent albums of a similar nature, it’s a pretty solid compliment.

I’m not sure if Paul Barker produced the whole thing or just the single remix that is featured here, but the album does capture the crunch which is the best sound for the band.

There’s probably nothing here that tops “Treason” or “Home of the Brave” but a couple of songs are in the area, and (perhaps naively) one could believe that someone who had never heard the band, only it’s successors would be blown away. That this could even make inroads to unheard ears, well, let’s say Pitchfork reviewed the new Peppa Pig album, but didn’t pick up this one.

But this one is pretty good, check it out.