Subwaste / Tommy Gustafsson & The Idiots
"Split" | Warbird #002 | CD | 2008

Warbird Entertainment is a pretty interesting label. They operate out of Atlanta (oh, the punk hotbed that is), but they’ve mostly put out English language albums by European bands since their recent inception. Their spring releases include several acts out of Sweden (a non-sarcastic punk hotbed), Germany and Holland. Not only do they specialize in north European punk, but they also specialize in rugged, melodic, street punk which, unlike most street punk I hear, is actually trying to move forward within the genre instead of repeating the stale mid-90s sound.

So I can see why Warbird put these two bands together—the split is a good intro to both bands, the label and Swedish punk in general. Divided into two sections at six tracks each, it features two Swedish punk acts, Subwaste and Tommy Gustafsson & the Idiots. They both play straight-forward punk rock that leans on the classic British version and the sharper SoCal street version.

The first six songs by Subwaste are a little more vitriolic, edgier and more street punk than the second song set. Subwaste’s tracks sound a lot like Rancid guitarist Lars Frederiksen’s side project, which was highly influenced by non-reggae Rancid and Motörhead. Subwaste is quite similar, but I wouldn’t say they’re treading on heels.

They particularly stand out on bass-heavy, shout-a-long track “Twentyfour Seven Timebomb” which contrasts with the more upbeat follow-up track, “Final Blackout.” The band shifts between the surf-and-sun melodic tendencies of the SoCal sound and the cold and gritty snarls of classic British punk. Even though Subwaste only had six tracks to shift between these two extremes, they managed to pull off both without sounding uneven.

Tommy Gustafsson & The Idiots take over the split at track seven with “Dead End Street,” a heavily rockabilly and nearly ragtime influenced track, which even includes a piano breakdown two-thirds of the way through. “Black Cat City Blues” continues the blues-infused punk sound with its infectious chorus “Black Cat City Blues!/Lost eight outta nine, eight outta nine/Back Cat City Blues!/Shed my blood and paid my dues…”

While Gustafsson and The Idiots surpass Subwaste in originality, combining several great sounds and integrating them well on the individual songs, their half of the split can’t boast the same consistency. Starting out with that ragtime/rockabilly sound, they shift over to a Motörhead-esque metal sound on “The Bombs” before calming down to a quieter “Sunday Bloody Sunday” style sound on “Bring the Rope.” They then switch over to straight SoCal melody on their ode to punk track “Love of My Life” and finally land on the while-the-credits-are-rolling track “Sometimes Hell is What We Need.” Although I definitely appreciate a band that plays a consistent, cohesive sound, I have to admit that the sheer exuberance with which Gustafsson and The Idiots adopt each song’s individual style made up for the absence of these qualities. Plus the variety in the second half probably helped each band remain distinctive on a split where similarity is the key. (4/5) -Michelle Stoffel
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