(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))): OSKER

Monday, 16 June 2014

OSKER

Band: OSKER

Genres: Punk / Rock
Related artists: Fingers-Cut, Megamachine!, Lung Fa Tang, Lavender Diamond and The Champagne Socialists.
Country: Los Angeles, California USA
Years Active: 1998-2002
Song: "The Body"
Album: "Idle Will Kill"
Year: 2001
Label(s): Epitaph / Bankshot Records
This post's artist is from the May 2014 Mix. This is track #7.
You can download the May 2014 Mix#6 right here or get the new July Mix#7 here.
For fans of: Propagandhi, Lagwagon, The Get Up Kids... aka Punk.

I heard OSKER opened for Nofx back in the day and opened the set saying something along the lines of, "Does no one else notice that Nofx hasn't put out a good record in over a decade? 'The Decline' was pretty good I guess, but...it was an EP". I believe the band was forced to apologize or some shit. Then I witnessed them open for Guttermouth a year or so later to huge containers of orange juice being tossed on the stage (still full of oj!) to which the band yelled, "You put stop that moronic shit or you won't get to see your precious Guttermouth." Stories aside, OSKER was an important band in my past that helped prove gritty and snotty bands can change their style in as little as a year, and develop into a completely separate entity.

Also, the band used to post website updates that had me in stitches and if my memory serves me correctly, they had a 3rd album in the works titled 'Thriller', but I'm not sure if that was a joke or not.

"I Cannot" is a great song because of the chorus, which has a catch factor of...good. This is followed by the extremely fast-paced "Useless" which boats some pissed off lyrics "If I'm the asshole why do you still call me?This stupid fucking chase serves only to consume energy," with a great bass riff. "Dying" shows the driving energy behind Dave's basslines (which are amazing) and are the focal point in this song until the vocals in the chorus kick in and easily make this one of the standout tracks on the album. That being said, "13" is without a doubt the best song on 'Treatment 5' and gives the listener a taste of what's to come on their sophomore effort. There are still some pretty basic guitar riffs, but the attention paid to making those riffs work within a more mature song structure are more than apparent. "Radio" is another song that is much better on the cohesiveness and lyrical side of things. On the opposite end of the spectrum are songs like "Fuck Me" and "Shitface" which have some pretty basic/teenage angsty lyrics.

If he was writing stuff like this at 17-18, it was no wonder the 'Idle Will Kill' album only 3 years later was so introspective and raw at the same time. "Patience" sets the stage. From what I remember teenagers smashed their new OSKER cds upon hearing such sweet melodies coming from Devon, who was such a goddamn rapscallion on the band's debut. The acoustic opener is followed by one of best and catchiest songs on the album, "Strangled". This is like Green Day without the cheese factor of some of their material, and with with more youth, anger as well as talent. Remember, this was written when the band was 19 or so.

Although "Animal" starts out really light, the tail-end of the song has the band's hardest section where Devon ends up downright screaming. Definitely another highlight. Speaking of highlights, "Motionless" (their 'single'), "The Body" (with its dreamy, distant and distorted vocals that lead into a great rock riff that then meets back up with a chorus you'll be singing for days), "Kinetic" (the band's building grunge/punk rock ballad that should be heralded as one of the most accessible, and I must say best songs, that Epitaph has ever released) as well as "Disconnect, Disconnect" (another lengthy opus for a band that only an album ago wrote 2-minute punk blasts about shitheads, assholes and traitors.

If you thought OSKER was all pissed-off and rambunctious teenage punk rock, you'd be half right. I would recommend that everyone checks out 'Idle Will Kill', which was a defining album for me, as well as for the band. Unfortunately the amazing songwriting was drowned out by close-minded punks with a monogenre brain who were willing to settle for no less than a 'Treatment 5' replica.

The band was even in that movie with Kirsten Dunst, playing in a backyard party. Another note was that their original drummer died when he was 18 so 'Idle Will Kill' ended up having numerous drummers and a lack of a proper replacement led the bassist Dave to leave the band, although he later joined Devon in the acoustic rock band Fingers Cut Megamachine.

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DISCOGRAPHY

Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

1998 - Blindsided split 7"

2000 - Treatment 5 cd/12"LP

2001 - Idle Will Kill cd/12"LP

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(2001) OSKER - "The Body" (from 'Idle Will Kill')