Pipe - International Cement

Label: Jesus Christ
Year: 1995

All hail the Tarheel State, and her proclivities to produce such a tuneful racket! And all hail Pipe for commandeering the broken pop noise of the Chapel Hill zip codes and marrying it with the rebellious skuzz punk of the greater Charlotte metropolitan area, and then having the good sense to bring in O.G. N.C. songsmith Mitch Easter to reign in the whole mess into tight, cohesive blasts of catchy goodness.
There are tons of punk rock bands, and most of them aren't worth your time. I mean, let's get real for a moment, punk is kinda stupid when you get right down to it. The look and the phony attitudes and the ridiculous costume party mentality is all a bad joke (and I'm only being partly facetious). And we can be certain that while speeding up classic rocknroll is fun, and the Ramones are fun, and hell, even the Sex Pistols had a couple catchy numbers, that "punk rock" was only mildly different than "rock rock" until hardcore came along and kicked the whole thing in the teeth. So, finding a band that can brandish the punk bravado with aplomb and make you believe it, well, that's a fucking good find. Pipe is a REALLY good find.
Members of Superchunk and Small.

DL