Agnostic Front was a band that rose to the forefront of the '80s hardcore scene with a classic sound and never got stale. Over the years of their existence, they stayed fresh, incorporating thrash, metal and street to the mix. Under the direction of hardcore legends like Rogert Miret and Vinnie Stigma, the band has held tight to the mantle of being one of New York's premier hardcore leaders, leading up to today.
Recent years have found both men branching out with solo work and side projects, two of the most notable being Stigma's solo work (both with his presidential candidacy and his 2009 solo album New York Blood) and Miret's run fronting the street punk band Roger Miret and the Disasters.
Now, early 2011 finds the Disasters releasing Gotta Get Up Now, an album that is easily their best, and one that hopefully bodes well for punk rock in 2011, starting the year out with a strong contender for best punk album of the year, setting a bar that many punk bands will be hard-pressed to climb over.
At it's essence, the secret to Miret's success is a combination of passion, credibility and an unceasing energy. This is a guy who cut his chops on the early days of American hardcore, and believes in it so intensely that he hammers his message home, not wasting a breath on anything that could be tired or cliche.
Gotta Get Up Now is more than the album title, and it's more than a title track; it's a rallying cry. With the Clash-influenced title track's opener "There's a time for action and a time to speak out," Miret is issuing a challenge to everyone - old fans, new fans, people who couldn't care less - to get it together and stand up for what they believe in.
This feeling, this call to action, is the tone that the album sets up early on, and never lets go of. It's an album loaded with inspirational streetcore anthems, one after another, filled with a positive energy and an honest punk rock sound that could only be honed through year's of credible experience.
On tracks like the self-explanatory "Stand Up and Fight" and "The Enemy", with lines like "fight, fight the enemy, we're gonna stand together you and me," Miret resurrects the classic imagery of street punk anthems, themes that requires inspirational passion and energy, and above all the belief in what one is saying - all of which Miret has by the score.
One reason the album never gets tired is that the sound is never relentless. The Disasters blend hardcore with street punk, reggae, straight up punk, fistpumping anthems and even a bit of honky tonk in their quest to inspire the listener, and their sound is just as refreshing as their message.
It's funny that this sound can be referred to as refreshing, when the themes and sounds are pretty timeless. We've had these rally songs in punk rock for years, and Miret is no young kid who's trying his hand at this for the first time. Songs like "Faded" and "Outcast Youth" are the sort of music that can become a dime a dozen from old school punk frontmen reminiscing on those who've come before and their long years in the scene, but Miret pulls it off admirably, with his ever-present sincerity.
This is a guy who believes enough in the power of honest punk to have made a longstanding career out of it, and his belief punches through it with an infectious energy that defies corporate gloss and gives you the simple, blue collar ethics of a teenage garage band combined with the barely polished grittiness that years of making punk music allows. Gotta Get Up Now has a message of uplifting inspiration, and here's hoping the latest punk rock fans, and the latest punk rock bands, can pick up the message and run with it.
Release Date: January 25, 2011
