Roger Miret has been a well know figure in punk rock for over thirty years. He started out as the bass player of The Psychos before taking over lead vocals in Agnostic Front, one of the most well known hardcore bands in the world and in 1999 he started Roger Miret and The Disasters.
Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of the music that falls into the “hardcore” genre, (except for Gorilla Biscuits, Black Flag and Bad Brains) but I was exposed to a lot of it when I was younger. I had friends who listened to “hardcore” exclusively and they would always be playing it whenever we hung out and got drunk. Most of what they liked came from the New York scene so I’ve heard a lot of songs by Warzone, Madball, 25 ta Life and of course Agnostic Front but none of it really thrilled me. Sure there were songs here and there that I enjoyed but overall the hardcore scene wasn’t for me.
So, years later when a friend of mine told me that Roger Miret was singing for another band, I didn’t really care. But when I picked up the Hellcat Records compilation “Give ’em The Boot Volume 3” and saw that one of the group’s songs were on it, I gave it a listen. That first song that I heard was actually called “Give ’em The Boot”. It was good, the music was more street punk than hardcore but the song was not good enough to make me want to run out and buy the whole cd. Over the next few years, more Disasters songs showed up on the “Give ’em The boot” comps and each one was a little better than the previous one. I ended up going out and buying “My Riot” in ’06 and liked it quite a lot. So when this album, “Gotta Get Up Now” was announced I looked forward to hearing it. Now that I have the disc, I’ve gotta say, I was hoping for more.
I’m not saying that this album is bad, but I think it could have been better. There are several stand out tracks on “Gotta Get Up Now”.
The title track is a great song, it has some reggae influence and sounds a little bit like it could be a long lost Clash song.
“Faded” takes a different approach to the vocals, putting them more up front in the mix and Roger sings, more than snarls on this one.
“Road To Nowhere” has a great sing along chorus and musically sounds a bit different than the rest of the album. It sounds to me like you’re hearing the band play in a small club, or maybe practicing in a garage.
And the last song “JR” is a low-fi recorded country song. Roger has stated in an interview that he wrote it for his, then unborn son.
These songs, and a few others are very good but the rest of the album is just ok. Several of the songs start to blend together after you’ve heard them a few times and beyond that, they just aren’t all that original sounding. Like I said, “Gotta Get Up Now” is not a bad release, it’s alright and if you are a Roger Miret fan, I’m sure you will find some stuff on here that will please you. Personally I think “My Riot” is a much better album.
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Screamo outfit, Dance Gavin Dance, have unveiled the cover art to their upcoming album, Downtown Battle Mountain II. You can check it out right over there on the left or click here for a detailed view. Additionally, the band has unveiled a brand new song for your eager ears. You can listen to “Heat Seeking Ghost Of Sex” by clicking here and going through the instructions.