V/A - Punk Rock Vol. 2

I like split CDs better than full compilations because you get to hear 3 or 4 songs from each band rather than just one. This is the second installment in 206 Records' Punk Rock split CD series. The first one was great with tracks from Carter Peace Mission, Veteran Flashbax, Throw Downs and Belvedere. This one features Darling Daizy who are from Norway, Shift-D from Canada, Monkey Pirates from Japan, Bigwheel from New York and Throw Downs (Chris from 206's band - from Seattle of course!) Darling Daizy kick things off with some Fat Wreck style melodic punk. The singer sounds snotty, sort of like Fat Mike. The band isn't awesome, isn't terrible - like NOFX would say they are "medio-core." I prefer bands sounding more like NOFX than like New Found Glory and all the new crap, so that's a thumbs up I guess. Monkey Pirates are next. What is up with bands from other countries having such crappy band names? Geez that is a horrible name, but these guys actually rock. Don't judge a book by it's cover. They sound like a Japanese version of a slightly heavier Strung Out. They're awesome! Shift-D sound like Blink-182. Like almost exactly - so if you're into that sort of thing... Bigwheel is next and they aren't really anything special. Perhaps with a better recording job, they would sound a little better (I think the mix is pretty bad here), but they just don't do much for me. They're not horrible - I like their tenacity, but they have those gritty but whiney vocals (similar to Bickley) that gets pretty annoying. Throw Downs are next and I don't think they've done anything for a long time - I think these are just songs they had left over from a recording session. But then again...I could be wrong. Either way, this is some punk rock to drink beer to. Very fast, slightly sloppy, no "oohs and aahs", just 4 tracks of blistering fast, old-school punk rock. They remind me of the band Glue Gun. It's good every now and then, but not something I would listen to all the time.