 Repenta
Santapunk (released 2005)
Smashed Records - www.smashedrecords.com
Well, I'm probably not in the right state of mind to review this disc now, but I'll try... You see it's August here in Ohio right now, I'm enjoying the extremely warm weather and I really have no interest in thinking about the winter, especially Christmas. But seeing as though I recieved this disc about eight months ago, around Christmas... I guess it's really my fault I'm in this situation! So the disc "Santapunk" comes to us from "the land down unda"...Australia. The band Repenta has graced us with six tracks of Christmas music all punked out for everyone's enjoyment. There are four traditional songs, "Jingle Bells," "Away In Manger," "Deck Halls," and my personal favorite "Silent Night". Now I'm not much of a carol-singing nancy, but this version of "Silent Night " is fucking great! I'd drag a band around with me all through the snow if I could belt them out like this. Sounding much like a Lars Frederickson and Rancid's version of the tune, Repenta deliver a groin kicking sound and style that is much needed in the Christmas song genre. Further on the disc are two songs that respectively should be called covers: Joey Ramone's "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". The former is a great cover and well worth the listen, I've listened to it dozens of times prior to the review being written. The latter, the Santa kissing event, is well... Uneventful. I could have sworn there were more words in that song, but apparently not! It's just "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" over and over and over again. All in all, it's a great disc for Christmas time punks as it keeps in the spirit of the original songs, just gives them a much needed boost to kepp them from sounding like dirges of mourning and despair. -MG |
