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Best of 2011 – Bill’s Music Picks

The Best

Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride (Bridge 9 Records)

Polar Bear Club’s Clash Battle Guilt Pride makes my list for one key reason – it has spent more time in my CD player this year (I’m estimating) than all other albums I’ve listened to combined. The band’s best to date walks a fine line between gruff aggression and catchy melody, with the band’s usual blend of post-hardcore and indie rock sensibilities, and it gets its all right from start to finish. That’s not to mention lyrics that engage throughout. It’s a culmination of everything the band has been working toward. It’s every reason I’ve loved listening to them for the past few years, only better, and it’s nothing short of my favorite album this year. (more…)

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Band: Counterpunch

Album: Dying to Exonerate the World

Label: Go Kart Records

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

I have been a Counterpunch fan for awhile by default now, so I have to personalize this review just a bit. But the page selling Counterpunch’s latest, Dying to Exonerate the World, on ShopRadioCast.com proclaims that over the last six years, the band has shared the stage with Rise Against, Strung Out, Death by Stereo, The Vandals, A Wilhelm Scream, The Swellers, Only Crime, The Loved Ones, Much the Same and Alkaline Trio. And I know in the cases of at least four of those bands (including Rise Against and A Wilhelm Scream) that stage was, at least at one point, a basement in Palatine, Ill., known as The Haven.

Counterpunch was essentially the house band at The Haven, opening many a show there. They were always fast. Always punk rock. Always a great way to start the evening. But as much as I liked seeing them live, I would be lying if I said I regularly popped in their self-titled release. As much as I loved to get moving to them in a basement, the songwriting was never quite as good as it is on Dying to Exonerate the World, and I mean that as a total complement to what the band has just accomplished, because this is the kind of record I’ve already spent most of the summer listening to. (more…)

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