The Mighty Fine

Brothers & Smugglers

Written by: PP on 05/04/2014 18:16:11

With all the talk about how bands are influenced by previous eras and the heavyweights in their chosen genres, here's a great example. The Mighty Fine, who originate from central California, basically sound like a bastard child between a weird threesome featuring Hot Water Music, The Lawrence Arms, and The Flatliners. Their brand of punk rock features slightly coarse and smoky vocals in the vein of all those bands, flavored by instrumentals that range from bright and upbeat to anthemic and raw. All along the way it feels like they're taking cues from the best punk Midwestern / Gainesville style punk records from the 2000s.

"Bad Form", for instance, sounds a hell of a lot like "Eulogy" by The Flatliners in terms of its verse melody structure. It's not identical but it's very similar. "Snake Skin", the album highlight, features a slightly more experimental chorus that explodes out of the box much like Dillinger Four do on "C I V I L W A R". There - I name dropped D4 as well, can I name any more seminal bands from the modern punk rock scene in conjunction with The Mighty Fine. Needless to say, if you were listening to your Fat Wreck and Epitaph records during the late 90s and early 2000s (or in retrospect today), there's likely a lot of material on "Brothers & Smugglers" for you to like.

Still, The Mighty Fine are clearly a tier or two below the best bands in the genre. Their songs are solid, feature several anthemic sing alongs, but aren't consistently great throughout the album. The highlights - expect to sing along to these at FEST basically - are great, but there are a few tracks that feel more anonymous and bland in comparison. Still, the loose connection to HWM, Lawrence Arms, and Flatliners is enough to convince me, and should be enough for you too.

7

Download: Bad Form, Snake Skin
For the fans of: Hot Water Music, The Lawrence Arms, The Flatliners, Dillinger Four
Listen: Facebook

Release date 04.03.2014
Creator-Destructor Records

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