Rogue Taxidermy by Daze N' Daze
Release Date: 2013
Style: Folk Punk
Length: 46 Min.
Status: It's got 62 ratings on RYM, so I imagine they're only fairly underground.
One of the many tags the Bandcamp page had was “thrashgrass.” Upon the first track, I understood exactly what they meant. A couple of goofy, squeaky voices were cussing their way through a hard and heavy acoustic riff backed up by a couple of horns. Thrashgrass.
I was amazed at how great Rogue Taxidermy turned out since the first track was a little lame. The album does a fairly good job at combining the goofy and raspy vocals with the soft feel of folk (no matter how fast or slow the acoustic guitar is played), but the real talent lies in the influences of anarcho punk, ska, crust, and even a little country folk. We have band members who are all vocalists: Jesse Sendejas , Geoff Bell, and Whitney Flynn. All of them blend with each other very well, even though Flynn has a more high-pitched and pretty voice than the raspy voices of the other two. The lyrics they write have a great sense of imagery. “So let's pretend all of the ones we love won't die. Sweep their skeletons off to the side.” “My breakfast was straight out the medicine cabinet. A remedy for the aftermath of my habits.” Those are some pretty cool lyrics for a change between calming folk punk to the “thrashgrass” label. Sometimes they just go for a straight country folk feel, like in “Blue Jays,” where Whitney does all the soft little work. But the album follows with a fast and furious track, as expected. It's called, “Remnants of What People Used to Be," by the way.
After the lame first track, I was quite impressed with the rest. I liked it enough to give Violent Femmes another try. These guys are a real punk band. There is a lot of punk out there, but not all of it is good. These guys are good lyricists, decent composers, and a good combination of different kinds of vocals.
Overall, where Violent Femmes failed when I first listened to it, Rogue Taxidermy may be the album to get me into folk punk. I've been needing to listen to both a little more, anyway. Now let's just get the f-words out of the way.
90/100
Best Tracks: Fate of a Coward, Muddy Knees, Tarnished Ol' Photograph, Blue Jays