| The Gaslight Anthem Sink or Swim | 4.5 |
| The Loved Ones (USA-PA) Keep Your Heart | 3.5 |
| The Loved Ones (USA-PA) Build & Burn | 4.5 |
| The Ergs! Upstairs/Downstairs | 4.5 |
| Black Flag Slip It In | 4.0 |
| Husker Du Metal Circus | 4.0 |
| Bad Religion Bad Religion | 4.0 |
| Bad Religion Along the Way (DVD) | 2.5 |
| Bad Religion Recipe for Hate | 2.5 |
| Bad Religion The New America | 2.0 |
| Bad Religion Against the Grain | 3.5 |
| The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers | 3.0 |
| Darkest Hour Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation | 2.5 |
| Barenaked Ladies Stunt | 3.5 |
| Barenaked Ladies disc one: All Their Greatest Hits | 3.0 |
| Weird Al Yankovic Running With Scissors | 3.0 |
| Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water | 1.0 |
| Limp Bizkit Significant Other | 1.5 |
| AFI Very Proud of Ya | 3.0 |
| AFI Sing the Sorrow | 3.0 |
| Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy | 4.5 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Album Minus Band | 4.5 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Goodbye Cool World! | 4.5 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Get Warmer | 4.5 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! To Leave or Die in Long Island | 5.0 |
| Baxter .baxter. | 4.0 |
| Minor Threat First Demo Tape | 4.5 |
| Propagandhi Potemkin City Limits | 4.5 |
| Bruce Springsteen Nebraska | 4.5 |
| Less Than Jake Borders and Boundaries | 3.0 |
| MU330 "Oh Yeah!" Live | 2.0 |
| The Blue Meanies Kiss Your A$$ Goodbye | 2.0 |
| blink-182 Enema Of The State | 2.0 |
| New Found Glory Nothing Gold Can Stay | 2.0 |
| New Found Glory From the Screen to Your Stereo | 2.0 |
| Sick of It All Call to Arms | 2.5 |
| Against Me! The Disco Before the Breakdown | 3.0 |
| Bad Brains The Youth are Getting Restless:Live in Amsterdam | 2.5 |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Revolver | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 4.5 |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour | 2.5 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 4.0 |
| The Beatles Yellow Submarine | 3.0 |
| The Beatles Abbey Road | 3.5 |
| The Beatles Let It Be | 3.5 |
| Wu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 3.5 |
| Black Flag The First Four Years | 3.5 |
| Black Flag Everything Went Black | 4.5 |
| The Strokes Is This It | 1.5 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico | 4.0 |
| The Velvet Underground Loaded | 2.0 |
| Wolf Eyes Dead Hills | 2.5 |
| Tom Waits Nighthawks At The Diner | 1.5 |
| Saves the Day Stay What You Are | 2.5 |
| Operation Ivy Energy | 4.0 |
| Misfits Walk Among Us | 4.5 |
| Misfits Static Age | 4.5 |
| Dillinger Four Midwestern Songs Of The Americas | 3.5 |
| Dillinger Four Situationist Comedy | 3.0 |
| Big D and the Kids Table Good Luck | 3.5 |
| Bear vs. Shark Right Now You're in the Best of Hands | 4.0 |
| Bear vs. Shark Terrorhawk | 4.0 |
| The Aquabats Myths, Legends and Other. . . Adventures | 3.0 |
| Whole Wheat Bread Minority Rules | 3.0 |
| Crime In Stereo Explosions and the Will to Use Them | 1.0 |
| Bane Give Blood | 2.0 |
| Comeback Kid Turn It Around | 2.5 |
| Richard Hell and The Voidoids Blank Generation | 2.5 |
| Sonic Youth Sonic Youth | 2.5 |
| Dirty Projectors Rise Above | 1.0 |
| Rites of Spring Rites of Spring | 5.0 |
| Slapstick Slapstick | 3.5 |
| The Broadways Broken Star | 5.0 |
| Sundowner Four One Five Two | 4.5 |
| Crass The Feeding of the 5000 | 4.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death | 2.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist | 4.5 |
| Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | 4.5 |
| Bad Brains Bad Brains | 3.5 |
| The Draft In A Million Pieces | 3.5 |
| Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician | 3.5 |
| The Stooges Fun House | 5.0 |
| The Stooges Raw Power | 4.5 |
| The Stooges The Stooges | 4.0 |
| Public Image Ltd. Metal Box | 4.0 |
| Ramones Loud, Fast Ramones - Their Toughest Hits | 2.5 |
| Ramones Ramones | 5.0 |
| The Falcon Unicornography | 4.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless | 5.0 |
| Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur | 4.5 |
| Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me | 5.0 |
| Dinosaur Jr. Green Mind | 3.0 |
| Dinosaur Jr. Beyond | 3.5 |
| Mission of Burma Signals, Calls, and Marches | 4.5 |
| Mission of Burma Vs. | 4.5 |
| Mission of Burma The Obliterati | 4.0 |
| Wire Pink Flag | 4.5 |
| Wire Chairs Missing | 3.0 |
| Minutemen Paranoid Time | 4.0 |
| Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime | 5.0 |
| Beat Happening Beat Happening | 2.0 |
| The Replacements Let It Be | 5.0 |
| The Replacements Tim | 4.0 |
| Fugazi 13 Songs | 4.5 |
| Fugazi 3 Songs | 4.5 |
| Fugazi Repeater | 4.5 |
| Descendents Cool to Be You | 3.5 |
| Descendents 'Merican | 3.5 |
| Descendents Milo Goes to College | 5.0 |
| Less Than Jake Goodbye Blue & White | 3.0 |
| The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Ska-Core, The Devil, and More | 3.5 |
| The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Question the Answers | 4.5 |
| The Mighty Mighty Bosstones A Jackknife To A Swan | 2.5 |
| Catch 22 Alone in a Crowd | 2.5 |
| Catch 22 Keasbey Nights | 4.0 |
| Reel Big Fish Cheer Up! | 2.0 |
| Reel Big Fish Why Do They Rock So Hard? | 2.5 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Everything Goes Numb | 3.5 |
| Less Than Jake Pezcore | 5.0 |
| Less Than Jake Losing Streak | 4.0 |
| Less Than Jake Losers, Kings and Other Things We Don't Understand | 4.5 |
| Less Than Jake Hello Rockview | 3.5 |
| Thursday Full Collapse | 3.0 |
| Rise Against The Unraveling | 4.5 |
| Rise Against Revolutions per Minute | 4.5 |
| Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture | 2.5 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 3.5 |
| Defiance, Ohio Share What Ya Got | 4.5 |
| Choking Victim No Gods, No Managers | 2.0 |
| The Clash London Calling | 3.0 |
| The Clash Sandinista! | 4.5 |
| American Steel Jagged Thoughts | 3.5 |
| American Steel Destroy Their Future | 3.5 |
| Shellac Excellent Italian Greyhound | 3.5 |
| Rapeman Two Nuns and a Pack Mule | 4.5 |
| Big Black Atomizer | 4.0 |
| Big Black Songs About Fucking | 4.5 |
| Hot Water Music Fuel for the Hate Game | 5.0 |
| Hot Water Music A Flight and a Crash | 4.5 |
| Hot Water Music Caution | 4.5 |
| Husker Du Land Speed Record | 3.0 |
| Husker Du Zen Arcade | 5.0 |
| Husker Du New Day Rising | 3.5 |
| Lifetime Hello Bastards | 4.0 |
| Lifetime Jersey's Best Dancers | 4.5 |
| Lifetime Lifetime | 3.5 |
| Propagandhi Less Talk, More Rock | 5.0 |
| Propagandhi How to Clean Everything | 4.5 |
| Propagandhi Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes | 4.0 |
| Bad Religion How Could Hell Be Any Worse? | 3.5 |
| Bad Religion Suffer | 4.5 |
| Bad Religion No Control | 5.0 |
| Bad Religion Stranger Than Fiction | 3.0 |
| Bad Religion The Gray Race | 1.5 |
| Bad Religion The Empire Strikes First | 1.5 |
| Bad Religion New Maps of Hell | 1.5 |
| Rancid Rancid | 3.0 |
| Rancid Let's Go | 2.0 |
| Rancid ...And Out Come the Wolves | 2.5 |
| Rancid Rancid (2000) | 1.0 |
| NOFX White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean | 4.5 |
| NOFX So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes | 4.5 |
| NOFX The Decline | 4.0 |
| NOFX Pump Up the Valuum | 3.5 |
| NOFX 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough | 3.5 |
| NOFX Wolves in Wolves' Clothing | 2.5 |
| Mudhoney Superfuzz Bigmuff | 5.0 |
| Mudhoney Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge | 4.5 |
| Mudhoney My Brother The Cow | 3.0 |
| This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb Front Seat Solidarity | 4.0 |
| Nirvana Bleach | 4.5 |
| Nirvana Nevermind | 2.5 |
| Nirvana In Utero | 3.0 |
| Minor Threat Complete Discography | 4.0 |
| Black Flag Damaged | 4.5 |
| Black Flag My War | 5.0 |
| Black Flag The Process of Weeding Out | 4.0 |
| Black Flag Loose Nut | 3.5 |
| Black Flag In My Head | 3.5 |
| Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home | 4.5 |
| Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde | 3.5 |
| Bob Dylan Modern Times | 2.5 |
| Every Time I Die Last Night in Town | 3.5 |
| Every Time I Die Hot Damn! | 3.5 |
| AJJ People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People | 5.0 |
To call Andrew Jackson Jihad a folk-punk band does them a great disservice. Really, it does any band a disservice, but that is far from the point right now. The point is that listeners need some point of comparison, so to make everyone’s life easier, I will simply call Andre Jackson Jihad a folk-punk band.
Now that that’s out of the way, Andrew Jackson Jihad’s second full-length album is a fantastic blend of folk instrumentation, punk attitude, independent spirit, and straight up good song-writing. Lead singer and guitarist, Sean Bonnette, intones with what some might call a whine while strumming his acoustic guitar at sometimes blinding speeds. Ben Gallaty work on the standing bass adds another element rarely seen in today’s independent music.
On to what, from what most people say, is the best part: the songwriting. The songs on this album range from deadly serious to laugh-out-loud funny. Most songs have some combination of the two. I cite as an example the ninth track “People two: the reckoning.” “There’s a bad man in everyone, no matter who we are. There’s a rapist and a Nazi living in our tiny hearts. Child pornographers and Cannibals, and politicians too. There is someone in your head waiting to ***ing strangle you.” The words here themselves are incredibly funny. I laugh just reading them. But if you think about it, there is a truth behind them, a serious, dark truth. But, lest you feel this is a band of misanthropic songsmiths, take a gander at the closing lyrics of the album from “People.” “I have faith in my fellow man, and I only hope that he has faith in me.” And that is the theme of the whole album. People are bad, but god damn it they’re good too. |
| Lou Reed Metal Machine Music | 3.0 |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation | 4.5 |
| The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat | 4.5 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground | 4.5 |
| Against Me! Against Me! | 4.5 |
| Against Me! Crime as Forgiven By | 4.5 |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 4.0 |
| Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity | 1.5 |
| Against Me! New Wave | 2.0 |
| Green Day Dookie | 4.5 |
| Green Day Insomniac | 4.0 |
| Green Day Nimrod | 2.0 |
| Green Day Warning | 4.0 |
| Green Day International Superhits | 1.0 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 2.0 |
| Dethklok The Dethalbum | 3.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Goddamnit | 5.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Hell Yes | 3.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Alkaline Trio | 5.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Maybe I'll Catch Fire | 3.5 |
| Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary | 4.5 |
| Alkaline Trio Good Mourning | 4.0 |
| Alkaline Trio Crimson | 3.5 |
| Alkaline Trio Remains | 4.0 |
| The Lawrence Arms A Guided Tour of Chicago | 4.5 |
| The Lawrence Arms Ghost Stories | 5.0 |
| The Lawrence Arms Apathy and Exhaustion | 5.0 |
| The Lawrence Arms The Greatest Story Ever Told | 4.5 |
| The Lawrence Arms Cocktails and Dreams | 4.5 |
| The Lawrence Arms Oh! Calcutta! | 5.0 |
| Jawbreaker Unfun | 4.5 |
| Jawbreaker Bivouac | 5.0 |
| Jawbreaker 24 Hour Revenge Therapy | 4.5 |
| Jawbreaker Dear You | 4.5 |
