Bluetip - Polymer

Label: Dischord

Year: 2000

Here's a case of a great band that gets overshadowed by their past accomplishments and is relegated to the, "Oh that dude from so-and-so's new band? Naw, never heard em. I love so-and-so though" file. And I'm just as guilty. For reasons not quite known, people went ape-shit for Swiz (after the fact of course) and held them aloft as some holy grail of harDCore. Yeah, they were a great band, and they had a certain mystique, but why they were elevated to such status is a little strange. What's even stranger though might be that when Swiz dissolved and the members went their separate ways (if you consider Sweetbelly Freakdown "separate") they pulled together some pretty sweet new bands. Bluetip being the best of them.

I had never given them a listen until I happened upon them opening a show for somebody at the Che Cafe in San Diego, and it was one of those all-to-rare moments when a band truly surprises you, blows you away even. Kind of a "holy shit, where have I been" moment. Certainly they weren't a hardcore band like Swiz, but Jason Farrell's vocals were perfectly fit over this straight rock approach. The songs were all earnest intensity and roaring guitars. I dug it. Still do.

Maybe Dischord was in a slump around the time Bluetip was most active, or maybe it's hard to come out of the shadows of a critically acclaimed band, but for myriad reasons, Bluetip never got their just desserts, and that's a shame. 

Members on this record were in or went on to be in: Damnation AD, Canyon, Son Volt. Swiz, Fury, Sweetbelly Freakdown, and Retisonic. This record was also produced by J. Robbins.

DL