At first look and listen Autonomadic comes off as slightly offensive and a little “to” political. With monikers like “Shit Smearing Punk Rock from Seattle” and “Sterilize the poor in spirit” I thought I was in store for some left wing, extremist bullshit. I was half right, I guess. The tunes themselves are moderate punk rock set to a RANCID backbeat. My wife once said that Tim Armstrong sounded like “he barely cared enough” when he was singing, well, the singer for Autonomadic sounds like he’s trying very hard to sound like he’s barely trying. If that makes sense. Now I’ll l admit it, there were a few moments while writing this and listening to the record that I was caught bouncing along to the beat. But it wasn’t that special. This band has a lot to say. From browsing their website and reading all I could I saw that they stood for many things and were not afraid to stand up and tell the world. While most of the time I fully embrace this sort of bravado and martyrdom a lot of what I was reading was very ambiguous to the layman, me. So, I took some time and emailed the band and asked them to explain what they meant with the phrase “Sterilize the Poor in Spirit” and this is what they said.—“What "sterilize the poor in spirit" _is_ is a riff off of the old fascist ideology of forced sterilization for undesirables, like the poor, and the line from the beatitudes, "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I guess what it means literally is that no one's going to inherit the kingdom of heaven.” Now it makes a little more sense. The music is decent but could use a little more enthusiasm. The vocals are overexposed. I don’t think people are going to “get” the lyrics or the “shock” advertising. They bitch about everything from Jesus Freaks and Bums to Lesbians and Coca Cola. I’m sorry but boo hoo hoo; I fucking love Coca Cola and don’t know how my life would be without the sweet caramel sweetness. In fact I’m drinking some now. So there. All in all I know there are people out there that will buy this record and like this record. Hell, the band has released 5 to date since ’03 and played an assload of live shows. Not to mention that ALL OF THEIR MUSIC IS DOWNLOADABLE FREE ON THE WEBSITE. With the free music and the overwhelming aroma of unity amongst the scene these guys are doing positive things. I just don’t agree 100% with the delivery but wish them Godspeed in their journey. Go listen for yourself because you really don’t care what I have to say anyway.

Ahoy!

Ryan Rude www.rudereview.org