(Photo by Keith Johnson)
“I don’t need your forgiveness for my goddamned sins.”
American Dischord shoves its collective middle finger up your pretentious ass with a new LP entitled Songs for Sinners. Self-described as “hard-hitting rock ‘n roll straight for the bowels of Hell currently claiming Kansas City as our promised land,” this “punk and soul” trio blazes through seven tracks of cataclysmic punk rock in just under fifteen minutes.
AMDX runs the punk rock playbook to a high level, reminiscent of The Misfits, NOFX, and Rancid, amongst others. The lyrics are fuming, often political, and so far up your grill they’re ripping out molars. Urging you to “sing, sing, sing all you sinners!” in a song of the same name, the scream-sung vocals tow a perfect line of grating attitude and sing-along sensibility, not unlike the harder moments of The Offspring’s catalogue.
Musically, it is delightfully more than just your typical three-chord punk slop. AMDX plays with structure and whips out just enough song tricks to keep the two-minute punk anthems from sounding all the same. The trio of musicians makes the style of music they play work for them, with individual playing that gets spastic and free in all the right spots, but never seems superfluous.
The anchor of these two-minute pressure cookers is the epic-by-comparison three-and-a-half minute “Op Rev.” One of the more furious and politically themed songs on the record, AMDX parallels off the old tried-and-true Gunpowder Treason story, commanding anarchy and a rise against the bullshit that lives in our news feeds every day.
All put together, you listen over and over again as you pound your steering wheel or keyboard along with fervor. Of late, the band has been regionally playing all over the place. If bashing your pompous neighbor’s face open with a can of whatever beer was cheapest that day is your thing, check out American Dischord.
—Zach Hodson
Zach Hodson is a monster. He once stole a grilled cheese sandwich from a 4-year-old girl at her birthday party. He will only juggle if you pay him. I hear he punched Slimer right in his fat, green face. He knows the secrets to free energy, but refuses to release them until Saved by the Bell: Fortysomethings begins production. He is also in Dolls on Fire, Drew Black & Dirty Electric, and Riot Riot Riot, as well as contributing to various other Kansas City-based music, comedy, and art projects.