Artist: Bomb the Music Industry
Album: Get Warmer
Comments: DIY’s finest are back with the late summer release of Get Warmer. BTMI’s latest release is everything you could hope for from the band and more. Get Warmer is full of all the sing alongs that made BTMI shows so fun, but with better production than on past albums. For this album, Bomb The Music Industry tried a few things out for the first time. The most noticeable change is the fact that this is the first BTMI cd to feature a full band. The first three releases were all done by the brainchild of BTMI, Jeff Rosenstock. Rosenstock would record the bass, guitar, keys, and vocals in his apartment and use a drum machine (or at times household objects) to provide the beat. This is also the first Bomb The Music Industry cd to be released to the public for purchase (through Asian Man Records) and released (like the first 3 records) for free on the band’s website.
Get Warmer is a hopeful CD. Rosenstock’s lyrics reflect all the small problems that came with moving to Georgia, and how he’s working to overcome them. The CD deals with anything from finding a job to getting back in shape. Although the songs are about simple problems, Rosenstock seems to make them into metaphors for solving all of life’s bigger problems. The first track “Jobs Schmobs” starts quiet, but by the end of the song lets you know how the rest of the CD is going to go. The second track, “493 Ruth”, is a medium paced sing along that introduces “Bike Test 1 2 3”, a fast catchy anthem about perseverance. Rosenstock uses a story about riding his bike in Georgia telling everyone about how he broke his bike the first time he tried riding his bike to quickly up a steep hill, and then not being able to control himself as he goes down, and then his success after trying to ride his bike on the hill multiple times.
“Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup, and Salad Days” is a catchy song with a chanting chorus about how the problems he has are just small inconveniences that everyone shares at one point or another. The next track “No Rest For the Whiney” is filled with frustration of getting over-run with debt because of school or your first credit card because you can’t get a job, but still has the “get back on the horse” mentality. The sixth track, “25 Hour Goddamn Telethon” is Jeff Rosenstock acknowledging that he creates his own problems and his gratefulness for his friends, for sticking by him through all his troubles.
The second half of Get Warmer starts with the ska song “Depression is No Fun”, where Rosenstock boasts about no longer letting his problems getting the best of him and is followed up by one of the biggest highlights of the cd. “I Don’t Love You Anymore” is just a fun upbeat song, with a blaring, everyone sing, kind of chorus. The best part about the song is that it doesn’t really sound like anything else BTMI has done. The next two songs “Pizza Clause is Comin’ to Town” and “Never Trust a Man Without a Horribly Embarrassing Secret” are punk-ska songs about more of the same, everyday problems, and missing old friends with a hint of a new self dependant resolution.
The cd ends with the title track and “The Last Party (Foul)” and are the only two slower/acoustics songs on the cd. “Get Warmer” is a nostalgic song about missing all of his friends, and the parts of everyday life that Rosenstock misses from New York and is the only song on the cd that isn’t upbeat. Then “The Last Party (Foul)” is an acoustic song about the appreciation of friends through the hard times. All in all Get Warmer is more of the same from Bomb The Music Industry that is a good listen for old and new fans.
by John Adams
Rating: 8 out of 10
Key Tracks: Bike Test 1 2 3; Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup, and Salad; I Don’t Love You Anymore; Get Warmer
Worth the money: No question (it’s free!)
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