Take Jawbreaker’s guitar lines, intermingle them with the uplifting yelling and brawling of Hot Water Music and add lyrics about “getting drunk for no reason,” breaking “bones and vocal cords,” “generations of mis-informed Americans” and “dying to try to find something to believe in” and you’ve got North Lincoln.
Are you sold on them yet? You should be, you heathen.
Truth Is A Menace is haphazard stuff. In places it’s rudimentary; a little sloppy. And, truthfully, it’s not vastly different from a whole lot of other gruff punk rock bands you’ll have probably heard before (particularly if you’re already a fan of Gainesville’s consistently fantastic No Idea Records). But it is sincere, uncontrived, direct and unflinching. It’s an outburst. And you get the feeling that this Michigan trio are so compelled to make this noise it wouldn’t have occurred to them to look back, post-recording and try and tidy it up. And you’re kind of glad about that because the whole package is so honest.
Put simply, this is a great album. It grows on you. And live, you can bet it’s more fun than a barrel full of intoxicated monkeys.
