F.M. Knives - Useless and Modern (Self-released)

There are some purists who argue, and make a strong argument at times, that once punk rock became anything more than a reactionary movement of outsiders against the mainstream – soon after it became an identifiable style – it lost much of its bite. For all its power-to-the-people mentality, punk was elitist, a fact that any fan of the ideological underpinnings of its early years can demonstrate.

Despite the way the genre has seized imaginations for 25 years, there’s still a few bands out there that can uphold the dream of pure punk rock. Forget the sonic blueprints, forget the scene, forget the future: Punk is about the here and now, a fact FM Knives gleefully point out on Useless and Modern. With a buzzing, pop-driven style that sounds like Buzzcocks probably would have sounded had they surfaced not in Manchester, but in Los Angeles alongside the Germs and X, FM Knives color outside all the lines and still end up with a pretty picture.

Useless and Modern takes the rusty, tetanus-laced hooks of Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch and augments them with the runaway-train urgency and nihilism of the budding Los Angeles scene. The album’s affinity for self-produced Manchester classics is partially due to production, as like its predecessor, it was recorded in a mere matter of hours. Of course, there’s also the matter of the hornet buzz of single-coil pickups and a sense for melodies that are catchy without being poofy: from a vocal melody that carries traces of ’60s pop melodies to counteract its hammer-on-tin guitar crash (“Summer Holiday”) or with a warm bass line that desperately struggles to add a bit of unity to the act’s rough-around-the-edges sound (“Hi-Fi”).

The Knives wash down their tinny melodies with a kick of classic punk pessimism. From the desperate, suicidal “16 DOA” to “The Man from OSI,” which rattles the day-job cages of the modern world, FM Knives don’t let their traces of melody get in the way of a punk punch-up. They’re mad as hell, a fact that many of their melodic compatriots would be well-served to study.

Due to time and space constraints, FM Knives are about 25 years and a few thousand miles away from being able to stake a claim as a classic ’77-era punk act. Useless and Modern may make you overlook that: Few bands are as deserving of a place next to Buzzcocks, The Adverts and Undertones as the Knives.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

RAR