Search - The Distillers :: Sing Sing Death House

A great modern punk album!

K. Messere | Oswego, NY | 01/24/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not usually the biggest fan of modern punk -- most of the punk cds in my collection are from the late 70's and early 80's -- but I absolutely love this album. The Distillers are loud and angry, but are very capable of writing catchy songs. Brody's a fantastic frontwoman for this band, with her gritty voice and really solid lyricism. I saw the Distillers play a few years ago at Lollapalooza, and they play hard, too! Every song is good on the CD, but my favorites are "That Crazed Young Peeling" and "City of Angels"."

The same formula with a twist

Nick Colosi | Chesterland, OH, USA | 01/06/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The music that the Distillers create is essentially the same sound that all punk bands (and by punk bands I mean stuff like Rancid and the bands that stemmed off or were inspired by bands like Rancid, the ones that pride themselves on being punk) are setting out to make. This is a good sound, I like this sound, and I could listen to 100 CDs that sounded like Rancid-inspired punk rock and never get bored of it, but that doesn't mean that it impresses me. Musically, no, this CD doesn't impress me, but why should it? It's the post-punk "we almost made it into the twenty-first century" movement, and this was pretty typical of it, and there's no shame in that. The guitars aren't all that impressive and are very similar to Rancid, except that of course, instead of Matt Freeman driving the CD along with his stunning basslines, we have a pretty generic bassist who shines for maybe five seconds on the entire CD.



What makes this different is obviously the singer. Brody has a shrill, edgy, and undeniably harsh style of singing, and it actually put me off to this band for who knows how many years. I mean, it's 2008 and I just now bought this CD and only because I had Christmas gift cards to kill. Once you learn to love the voice, and you will, it's a pretty straightforward good time for the 28 minute span of this disc. The lyrics would not be out of place on a CD by Brody's now ex husband's band, hm... am I mentioning Rancid enough, and they tell the story of the frustrating stuggle of growing up and making it in the city, which is a common theme among such bands. As far as speed goes, because speed is important to me, I like my music fast, there are a few songs that just hit the ground running with frantic blastbeat drumming and nearly incomprehensible lyrics and run at about a minute or two long. Those songs are the best but surprisingly forgettable compared to tunes like "Senica Falls" and "City of Angels" which, let's be honest, sound like they could have been written by uh... a different band *cough*rancid*cough*



I would say this CD is a good listen every once in a while, but make sure that you own all the classics before you go looking for it, and by that I mean all the Rancid CDs, Lars' side projects, maybe some transplants, time again, and other east bay/west coast punk bands, even the poppier ones like bad religion and pennywise. If all of that stuff is in your collection as it is mine, then yeah, spend your money on this. But maybe look for a discounted price 'cause it's a short disc."

Sing sing, death house

Joshua R. Atzet | Tacoma, WA | 03/18/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i gave this cd to a chick as a gift and she loved it. this is one of the distillers better cds."