Punk rock pedigree, you’ve either got it or you haven’t. 1208 most certainly have. Lead singer Alex is the nephew of Greg Ginn, guitarist with the legendary Black Flag. The band also hail from the hallowed streets of South California’s South Bay, the breeding place of many a classic punk band. All this counts for nothing though if the band themselves don’t have the talent to match their background. With their debut album ‘Feedback Is Payback’, 1208 have set out to prove they are a talented band in their own right. It’s time to let the music do the talking.
1208 formed in 1995 and it has taken seven years for them to produce this debut album. The time in between has been spent trying to get that lucky break, in order to secure a record contract. That time has not been wasted though because the band are musically mature, despite their lack of recording experience.
‘Feedback Is Payback’ is a very musically diverse album. The band are best described as melodic hardcore, but they easily swing to lighter songs without ever sounding generic. The four-piece play fast, heavy and hard in varying quantities, and their can be little argument over their technical ability. The album is a very promising debut and features fourteen songs, all of which are good, some of which are very good.
From the very first track, ‘1988′, the band do let their music do the talking. The song showcases the bands love of sharp guitar riffs, thumping bass lines, and fast-paced drumming. Coupled with Alex’s set of lungs, the song is a great appetizer for what is to follow. The album is full of fast paced, hardcore tinged songs that always manage to have a melody that sticks in your head, and refuses to leave for days. This is very evident in tracks such as ‘Pick Your Poison’ and the superb ‘Jimmy’.
There has been a big rush to compare 1208 to early Offspring albums, but this is only really apparent on ‘Retire’, where Alex does indeed sound like a young Mr. Holland. It is on another track where a different likeness appears. The poppiest song on the album ‘What I Saw’ strangly resembles Blink 182 circa ‘Dude Ranch’. It’s a sound that the band pull of easily and is a great song. In fact, the most refreshing thing about the album is how 1208 use varying musical styles and turn them into songs that sit comfortably alongside each other.
1208 may have a healthy punk pedigree, but they have proven that they deserve to be considered in their own right. They have emerged from nowhere to produce a very promising debut album, one that will appeal to a broad range of tastes. If the band can keep producing albums as good as ‘Feedback Is Payback’ then in time they may become something very special indeed.
Mark