The Acro-Brats Album Recommendations: "...Go Down Swinging!"

Album Recommendations: ...Go Down Swinging!

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

The Acro-Brats

[#] ...Go Down Swinging! (2006)

Temper tantrums done quick.

Reviewed August 9, 2018

And go down swinging they did. Purveyors of plastic guitars will generally know the aptly-titled Acro–Brats from their appearances in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series. Indeed, the first half of this album consists of their appearances there, but imagine my surprise when an excellent cover of The Primitives' "Crash" fell into my lap with them! It's got all of their trademarks—bitterness, punk thrash, an appearance on a Harmonix game (you remember Lego Rock Band, right?), and being incredibly short. At 21 minutes and eight tracks, ...Go Down Swinging! doesn't leave much room for anything more than punk served Boston.

Much of your taste in this album will depend on how much you like your singers to rage out of their nose. Whether Chris Wissmuller (read: Wussmuller) is affecting it or if that's his genuine singing voice is anyone's guess, but it's a pretty good fit for the tunes. Beyond "Crash", "Callout" is an obvious highlight (and uncensored—I didn't even know there was an uncensored version), "Day Late, Dollar Short" recalls prime blink-182 and even sounds a bit like "Aliens Exist", and "Damaged Goods" is a nice kick in the ass on the way out. This album was so short and so consistent, it was hard picking a worst track from it. Ingenious? Nope. Refined? Absolutely not. And God bless the Acro–Brats for it.