Sonic Boom Six

 

Rude Awakening (CD) – Rebel Alliance, 2010

 

10^th October 2010

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

This, hopefully, will be the first Sonic Boom Six CD I’ve managed to review in its entirety.  Having struggled for superlatives big enough to describe 2009’s City of Thieves for what must have been months, and still not come close to putting words to depth and breadth of the song writing, the quality and the level of detail in the performances, I’ve now been challenged with what’s effectively a 17-track greatest hits compilation covering seven years in the career of one of the most intelligent, innovative and musically adept bands that the UK has ever produced.  Deep breaths, then.

 

It’s not the point of writing about and reviewing music to continually come up with new or different ways of praising bands.  Despite that, it’s an enormous challenge to keep up with a bunch of guys (I’ve always used that as a unisex word) who manage not just to constantly surpass themselves but to raise the bar for the scene as a whole with every release and to stretch and redefine the boundaries of punk rock, already one of the broadest churches in music.

 

Rude Awakening was originally released back in April in response to public clamouring for an SB6 recording on vinyl and the need to introduce the band’s newer and international following to some of the older crowd favourites that still form the backbone of the band’s notoriously explosive [no pun intended*] live set.  Recent years, you see, have seen our intrepid friends blaze a trail across mainland Europe, Japan and the USA, playing headline tours and festivals as well as dates with the likes of Less Than Jake, Big D and Reel Big Fish. 

 

The underground has long been well and truly conquered, but, for this bigger, newer fanbase, Rude Awakening could be the ideal introduction to Sonic Boom Six: spreading itself over so much of their vast back catalogue, it’s a handy beginner’s guide, and comes with a special edition sticker/badge/postcard set.  In a sense, it’s like a revision guide, or their own Favourite Noise.  There are things that you won’t get from learning the words to this in a day, but, if this is your first experience of the Sonic Boom Six, it’ll be one you treasure: it’s definitely enough to get you bitten by the Boom bug, and we’ll be seeing you at shows from now on.  If you’re not a newcomer, then you’ll already know what you’re getting here.

 

Anyone in the UK who reads Bananatown, for example, would surely know nearly all of these songs.  In fact, this is probably half of the best party-shuffle you’ve made, most of your My Top Rated, and the soundtrack to the last few years of your life.  Despite my unstinting devotion, it’s something of a shock to see just how good this disc actually is.  Not because I’ve underestimated this lot for a second, but instead because the combination of all of these tracks together is actually that incredibly, powerfully, mindblowingly brilliant.  They were great songs on separate albums, but getting them all together on one disc is so good that it’s frankly dangerous.  Think of every time you’ve seen the SB6 take the stage, and remember that moment when Laila enters, after the boys, at the end of whichever intro they’ve used.  As she stands there, both arms aloft, soaking up all the adulation, which track to they storm in to first, instantly sending the room in to a frenzy?  Bigger Than Punk Rock?  The Concrete We’re Trapped Within (It’s Yours)? Meanwhile, Back in the Real World..?

 

Usually is, ain’t it?  Right, now imagine a compilation that starts with those three in a row.  Incendiary?  Rude Awakening does just that.  After that, it’s got the lot, from the giant choruses, and the delightful guitar solo, in September to May to the gentler reggae stylings of Northern Skies, cleverly juxtaposed after the gnarly, much punkier cover of Chumbawamba’s Marching Round in Circles. If there’s one moment that sums up Rude Awakening for me, it’s that one, where one track soars to a giant, brutal crescendo, and then the next opens with a gentle reggae beat, a melodica and some samples.  This doesn’t just cover all of Sonic Boom Six’s albums, but also manages to get most of the different sounds they’ve managed to squash in to them.  When a band can cover the Clash and then Puretone and pull off both songs, then that’s saying something.  The Sonic Boom Six’s sound, as has been discussed (not here) ad infinitum, is incredibly broad and diverse.  It’s a tribute to the band that their own diversity and range of abilities and influences has almost become a cliché in itself.

 

 

Since, The Rape of Punk to Come returned to their live set after Ben left, that really leaves Blood for Oil, from 2003’s Turbo EP, and An Ode to DIY Promoters, from Punktastic’s Un-Scene 4 compilation, as the relatively obscure tracks to have made the selection, and both deserve to be there on merit.  Like every track on there, they’re gems.  Different in their own way, but both play their part, as ever, in making this a great record overall and a great and varied sample of where the band are at at this point in their career.

 

This will surely be great to have in a few years: it’s not a collector’s item at the moment, but, as they continue to evolve and to develop, and to raise the bar, in a few years we could again be looking at the SB6 as another different band.  With the new line-up and the creative freedom that’s come with the move to their own label, we’re surely about to see yet more new, different things from them.  Whether this you’ve been here throughout the journey so far or this is that beginner’s guide to Sonic Boom Six to help you on your way will determine exactly how you should feel about Rude Awakening.  It might be that it celebrates everything that’s happened already and documents how we got to where we are today, saying goodbye to the old line-up and introducing us to the new band.  Or, maybe, it’s something that’ll get you in to a brand new band, one of the most exciting bands in the UK, and probably the world, right now.  If that’s the case, it’ll get you up to speed quite quickly.  There’s more to know, and at least as many tracks again that could have made it on to this, but that’s for the future.  You can come to a show and sing along now, at least.

 

Either way, it’s a must.

 

This isn’t a tour of rare and previously unreleased material.  If that’s what you’re looking for, you want the second disc of Play On or maybe Sounds to Consume: Champion Edition.  Actually, you should really join up for the vault.  Instead, this is the accessible end, the hits you want on at a party, every song on here’s been played live recently, and most of these are the staples of the band’s live set: Sound of a Revolution, Monkey See, Monkey Do, and Piggy in the Middle are real crowd pleasers, and all are on here.  Then, as well as The Concrete We’re Trapped Within (It’s Yours), there’s also Back 2 Skool, the Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions and the deliciously bonkers Strange Transformations from City of Thieves, so, as well as going all the way back, it’s definitely a snapshot of the band as they are in 2010, or, as they’re calling it, “a celebration of the story so far”.  That sums it up really nicely, actually. 

 

I sincerely hope that this is the moment that takes the Sonic Boom Six on to yet another level: both they and their music thoroughly deserve it. Turn it up loud.  It’s great fun.

 

*Honest.  That was actually an accident.