Skateboarding and music are always a nicer mix when coming from California. Punk is huge out in that state of golden music. Shop 11 Phoenix, Bettie Rocket Records tuffs, are from West Sacramento, CA and their sound on Now and Forever is a bit more cured than their previous outings. Starting out with the melodic skate punk drive of the first three tracks: "Efildooga," "Given so Freely," and the title track, "Now and Forever," sets up an intro that talks about love that was never there. Then the CD leads into the slightly old/new school mix of "Playing for Keeps," which then goes into an all out hardcore song, "Prelude," that's surprisingly blistering. Then it's onto "Divided States of Confusion," which some may call anarchist, but really isn't. The song states after a few "truths" in an intro sound clip that the truth is told in lies. Then the CD goes into "Waving Goodbye," the supposed closing track, that's partially pop punk, partially hardcore punk. Yet the CD doesn't end there. It skips over three blank tracks and then comes to an acoustic in-studio live performance of Shop 11 Phoenix at a local rock station in Sacramento, CA.
Shop 11 Phoenix is working on a split with Yesterday's Hero, another one of those Californian punk bands. The CD's drop date should be in early 2004. The future looks bright for Shop 11 Phoenix; a few bigger labels are looking over the band, and their sound is solidifying. Expect more from them in the near future.
4.5 tocks
