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EXIT ENGLISH
(Jade Tree)
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On their 2001 debut, Change Is a Sound, Richmond’s Strike Anywhere hooked up with ace producer Brian McTernan (Thrice) and made a case for themselves as worthy successors to their home town’s melodic-hardcore kings, Avail. McTernan is back on the follow-up, as is the band’s penchant for multi-faceted mosh and working-class activism. "Losing sight of our roots in the cathode rays/Amnesia for the end of our days," dreadlocked frontman Thomas Barnett laments on the album’s first single, "Infrared." The track is full of sweet harmonies, but the band’s hardcore riffs are too street-smart to fall under the trendy screamo banner. For a punk group with a strident anti-corporate agenda, Strike Anywhere are intent on keeping their lyrics positive and their music upbeat. "Aluminum Union" tempers its outrage with a good-time sing-along; the anti-war screed "In the Fingernails" starts off with tambourine and handclaps. And with "Extinguish" — "From ashes we’re learning, Richmond’s burning/Disrupt and disorder at the empire’s borders" — the band deliver the catchiest ode to their oft-troubled home town since Avail’s classic "Over the James." (Strike Anywhere appear this Monday, April 26, at Matrix, 275 Tremont Street in the Theater District; call 617-542-4077.)
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