The Dukes of Hillsborough and Altaira - Sometimes You Eat The Bar, Sometimes the Bar Eats You / 2004 A.D.D. Records / http://www.altairamusic.com / http://www.dukeboys.net / http://www.addwreckedkids.com / Reviewed 07 October 2004
The Dukes of Hillsborough play a Pulley/Rise Against style of sped-up emo/punk that recalls the best days of The Replacements and Husker Du. “Beerito” starts off their section of the split, and Jeff’s vocals are just as responsible for pushing the tracks to a whole new tempo, matching well with the equally scratchy guitars. Continuing their break-neck style for “Danica McKeller”, the Dukes of Hillsborough are the golden children, incapable of making anything in the way of errors on the disc. The track lengths found are optimum – long enough to get a feel for the band but not long enough to bore listeners with repetitive riffs. Changing up their style enough to allow some introspection in “Whoa! To You Oh Earth and Sea”, The Dukes of Hillsborough have a Corrosion of Conformity-esque break down, a true crash through the speeding vehicle that was the rest of their section of the disc. The Dukes of Hillsborough put together a very solid side of this split, slapping together a very innovative type of punk that is radically different from anything that is currently being overhyped by Fearless, Epitaph, or Drive-Thru. Finishing off their side of the split with the chaos of “Naugahyde”, the band creates something beautiful out of something beautiful, a statement that can be used to cover the band in toto.
Continuing the killer tempo of The Dukes of Hillsborough, Altaira infuses a larger amount of pop-punk into their style. Now, they aren’t the next Blink 182, but the infusion of that style of music with the same take-no-prisoners style of The Dukes of Hillsborough makes an entirely different entity. True melody is found during “Warhurst” where the smooth yet scratchy vocals of the band run alongside the omnipresent bass. “Opportuna” is hands down the best track on the CD, as it mixes the everyone-on-the-mic nature of Operation: Cliff Clavin and Against Me! with an oi-sputtered out style of lyrics. The double-barreled lyrics during “Billy’s Song” has two distinct currents, and make it immediately a classic, continuing the same style that Altaira has culled together through the CD and infuses a little Ten Foot Pole to the mix. To further drive the point hope, the band chooses to end “Billy’s Song” with the same repeating guitar line. ADD has two killer bands that I’m sure they will be sad to see go after they are picked up by a larger label – it really is only a matter of time before these bands get the recognition they deserve.
Top Tracks – Naugahyde (Dukes of Hillsborough), Billy’s Song – Altaira
Rating: 8.6/10