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www.churchonthursday.com
The Dickies
All This and Puppet Stew
Fat Wreck Chords
2001
T.S.O.L.
Disappear
Nitro
2001
I am a skeptical bastard about old punk band reunions. With a few exceptions
(and none that I 
can
think of off the top of my head), they're meager attempts to exchange old
glory for a chance to profit from punk's present day popularity. Youth
Brigade? They should at least change their name back to The Brigade.
G.B.H.? I flushed that suck-ass band down the toilet after City Baby's
Revenge. I'm just waiting for D.I. to release Ancient Artifacts II.
I guess that these bands fill a niche for twenty and thirty-somethings
who like to brag about how punk they were "back in the day" to the
kids they work at the video store with. Maybe there are like three punk kids
out there who actually give a fuck about where what they're emulating originated,
but
for everybody else it's an embarrassing spectacle to witness.
My fond memories of bands like D.R.I., Agnostic Front and Gang Green are erased when they get back together and I'm reminded of how much they sucked when they were still good. Anyway...I don't get all nostalgic listening to a bunch of crusty old geezers sing (as Jello Biafra once put it) "All those hits from the good old days about how bad the good old days were." Still, sometimes, morbid curiosity doth prevail and I give in and listen to the latest release from what I thought was a late, great band.
In the case of Disappear by T.S.O.L., I did it out of pure spite. I've always hated this fucking band (my esteemed constituent The Lord of Death says the initials stand for "They Suck O Lot"). First, for their blatant use of keyboards. Second, for their "New Romantic/Goth" image. Third, as you can possibly deduce from the first two reasons, for their weak-ass music. I won't even get into their teased-hair/Sunset Strip period of the mid-to-late 80's.
Despite my utter abhorrence of this band, they are still credited (and, I guess, rightly so) for founding the short-lived Goth Punk movement along with bands I actually liked such as Christian Death, 45 Grave and The Jet Black Berries. More noteworthy, perhaps, they are a direct influence of the popular AFI (and, probably, of our own Tsunami Bomb) as well.
Anyway, I didn't know what to expect from Disappear--except that it would suck (O Lot). Instead, I was shocked to find it the first T.S.O.L. album I've ever liked. With the exception of two or three songs, the album is a return to the form they exhibited almost two decades earlier on hardcore classics like "Code Blue" and..."Code Blue", but more updated, more melodic, more aggressive (and, not to mention, with a better production). In fact, I'll even say that Disappear is one of the best punk releases I've heard all year.
According to their Fat Wreck Chords press release, The Dickies are the oldest surviving punk band. Maybe that's true. In the same press release it claims that when Fat Mike called to try to sign them, they asked "Who's Fat Mike?" I hope that's true.
The Dickies are definitely one of the originators of pop punk and--along with the Descendents--are the genre's best of all time. If there was one band that Green Day ripped off (or was "influenced" by), my guess is that it was The Dickies. All This and Puppets Too continues in the great tradition of classic releases like Incredible Shrinking Dickies and Stukas Over Disneyland, with the same vintage Dickies blend of fast tempos, tight vocal harmonies and weird/goofy lyrics.
I don't think The Dickies ever really broke up either, so this doesn't count as a "reunion" record (which makes me like it all the more). Hopefully this will introduce them to a whole new (fourh) generation of fans, and make them become for prolific at touring and recording. This is the best thing I've heard from Fat in many a moon. Go out and procure this immediately!
--Felix "Da Hip Hop Witch" Thursday