Defiance, Ohio

Defiance, Ohio is a sextet from Coumbus, OH, that will own your world with their spitfire folk-punk. They put out a record this year called The Great Depression that might just very well be the best album I've heard this year. They're certainly the only folk-punk band better than This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. I know the dumbass DIY kids will lose their shit because I dared say there was a better band than TBIAPB, but whatever. No one cares about DIY kids and their ugly dogs or hockey puck earrings or vegan recipes. Yeah, sometimes I go to shows that aren't in basements and go to Wal-Mart for lawn furniture - guess that makes me a cultural terrorist or some dumb shit.

Anyway, folk-punk. It's a label most people are willing to give to any vaguely punkish music that has a double-tracked acoustic guitar or is straight punk music played with acoustic intruments, a la the first few Against Me! seven-inches. This is fine, I guess, but it's a misleading genre name. What I like so much about Defiance, Ohio is that they incorporate as much traditional folk music into their sound as they do three chord state smashing. I have a feeling they would get booed off the stage at a mountain music festival and CBGB's, and God bless 'em for it. They enjoy a musical telepathy that anyone this side of Fugazi or a Sonny Rollins session would envy.

The lyrics are political without being agitprop, so don't expect love songs or chants of "USA out of Iraq now!" Like Boots Riley, they're just mad as hell and they ain't gonna take it anymore, and they never lets politics force them to abaondon thoughtfulness or intelligence.

The Great Depression is available for free download on their site, but it only costs $6 ppd for the CD or LP, so buy it, you cheap bastard. People making music this good deserve to be rewarded.

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/7715996/Defiance,_Ohio_Oh,_Susquehanna_.mp3.html

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/wdsvrtep/Defiance,_Ohio_Petty_Problems.mp3.html