About five or six years ago, I got a Knucklehead 7” to review for Flipside. I loved that 7”. I taped it and some other new seven-inchers that I’d gotten at the time (Dillinger Four’s More Songs about Girlfriends and Bubblegum, the Chubbies, and Boris the Sprinkler). I listened to that tape all the time, and never heard about Knucklehead again after it. I knew they were from Canada and on Far Out Records, which went belly-up shortly after that. I just figured that Knucklehead had vanished. Then, I saw this in the recent review pile and snatched it up. On my first listen, I was surprised to hear two of the four songs from that long ago 7”. I looked closer and saw that this was a re-release of their first album (which had originally been released by Far Out). Man, I wish I’d found this album five years ago. A lot of the territory Knucklehead cover here has been covered and overdone since this album was originally released. I’m kinda tired of anthemic street punk and anything that shows a Rancid influence, and that’s pretty much what this Knucklehead album is, but damn it, these guys still do it well. It’s fun to sing along with. There’s a lot of hooks. And, really, they’ve gone beyond being about their influences and forged their own sound. It’s good stuff. If I’d reviewed it when it originally came out, though, I’d’ve been going nuts.
–sean (Longshot)