History

The Weekend Warriors "One Goal in Mind: Demo 2002"

I hate classifying music into categories such as "punk, oi!, streetpunk, rock"; whatever you want to call it, so, I'm not even going to try. That, in my opinion, just weakens the so-called "scene" with it's cliches of what music "should" sound like. And forget about references to other bands, I only mention things like that if a band seems like a blatant rip-off of another band. This CD exemplifies the true nature of what underground music should be, a combination of various styles of music meshed together offering a refreshingly original alternative to your average band.

When I heard these guys were recording again, I couldn't wait to hear it. As anyone knows that has seen this band live, the last recording did not do them justice. The last demo, even though the songs were good ... the quality of the recording did not capture the energy that these guys put into a live show. That is not the case with this one. "Just Cause for a Revolution" starts out kickin' and screaming setting the tone for the entire album. A great song to start out with, showing off the music talent that these guys possess on many levels. Each song has great intros, bridges, leads, bass lines, and a great rhythm section that never slacks off holding everything together. Strong, emotional singing and backups are another great element of this band, especially in "This is the Law", where DJ and Zac switch off singing during the verses, that sounds really good.
The work that this band puts into one song could be stripped apart and made into an entire album for your average "punk" band. Although, I think that may work against them sometime; there's so much going on at certain points of a song, things start to get a little jumbled up and you have to really listen to what is going on with the bass and drums. If anything, that is the only somewhat negative thing that I could possibly say about these guys; and that could be fixed up with a little more mixing.
My favorite songs on this demo ... I'd have to say "My Own Change of Pace" and "Date Rape Richie". If I really had to pick the weakest song on the CD, I'd have to say "13 Hours a Day". I'd love this song if it wasn't one of theirs, it just seems to be lacking some of those Weekend Warriors' trademarks that I mentioned before. For what I feel this song may be lacking musically, definitely makes up for with great lyrics that we working class guys can relate to. Almost forgot something, the re-recording of "Let's Drink", the great drunken anthem (the Animal House sample was a nice touch). I love this song and am up there singing along everytime, but I can only see them having one song like this, they have progressed beyond this and I think should focus their energy on more complex songs.

All in all, this is a great album. If you're into noisy, bitch about the government shit, don't bother picking this up; you'll never relate to it. Mature, talented music that we older guys can appreciate.

John Tanish - titanish@aol.com

Pittpunk - http://www.pittpunk.com