After a six year wait, Rehasher is finally back with a new album. For those unfamiliar with this band, Rehasher is the side project of Less Than Jake’s Roger Lima and originally featured members of Bullets to Broadway and Coffee Project. Unlike, its two predecessors, Make The Noise is a complete solo effort, with only the drummers brought in from elsewhere. (Alex Klausner (The Savants of Soul, Waxed Curbs, Assassinate the Scientist), John Mamo (Nothing In The Dark) and Kyle MacDougall (Protagonist, Teen Agers). It was recorded by Roger himself in his own studio, The Moathouse (situated in Gainesville Rock City of course!) and mixed by Descendents/ALL punk legend Stephen Egerton.
As a massive (understatement) Rehasher fan, I have been following this album’s progress and have been looking forward to hearing it for a very long time, and it definitely lived up to (and exceeded) my expectations. Make The Noise could actually be my favourite of the three but it’s hard to compare because there’s something new and different about it. It manages to throw in a number of different styles yet still retains Rehasher’s signature fast pop punk sound. Each song stands out and takes on a life of it’s own and you can really hear just how much Roger has put into all of them individually and into the album as a whole.
The album came out on July 10th and although there had been one or two teasers leading up to its release, I avoided them as I didn’t want anything to ruin my first listen (nerd alert!). Right from the first few notes of Don’t Make Me, I was hooked! This song kicks off the album perfectly, with fast pop punk verses giving way to catchy sing-along choruses. What’s not to love? The second track of the album, On The Way To Get To You sounds more like the Rehasher I’m used to, but just as fresh and new sounding as the rest of the album. What You’re Seeking is another sing-along (well, they all are really!). When you’ve been a Less Than Jake addict for as long as I have, it starts to become clear which songs are “a Roger song” and which songs are ”a Chris song” and this song wouldn’t feel out of place as a Roger song on a Less Than Jake album.
Anyone who knows anything about Roger will know that he is a massive ALL fan and you can really hear the influence in How To Lose Yourself. This is one of my favourite songs on the album. The lyrics are just perfect to me and the melody just makes your ears happy, for want of a better description! The fifth track is where things really start to get different. In terms of Rehasher songs, My Silver Platter is about as slow as it gets. With lyrics like “I need my friends to live forever”, it’s hard not to fall in love with this song. Add the bass solo/speech sound-bite (which seems to be a Roger thing to do) and you’ve got yourself another stand-out unskippable song.
I Might Explode is another catchy sing-along. It has an upbeat and bouncy rhythm, complemented by an equally bouncy upbeat guitar riff. Vast Minority is another more Rehasher sounding track, with the fast tempo to match. S’s Birthday is another relatively slow song, written for Roger‘s son. A beautiful song with heartbreakingly honest lyrics and definitely another album favourite. The next track, Waste My Words can only be described as my definition of a perfect pop punk song. The kind of song you could listen to on repeat for hours and not get bored of. In fact, I need to take a break to listen to it again now! If any song on this album was to be released as a single, this track should probably be it.
Three songs left and the next two have still got me stumped! Power metal vibes on a Rehasher album?! What’s with that?! But they sound so utterly amazing that I can’t stop listening to them and I just can’t work out if Symptom Checker is my favourite song on the album or if Right Here, Right Now is. Both of these songs are absolutely flawless and if there’s two songs you need to listen to right here, right now (excuse the pun), it’s these two!
A Rehasher album is not a Rehasher album without one cover song and this one, Petrograd was originally by a band called Cringer. I’ve never heard the original before so I can’t really compare the two versions but I can say that it’s a brilliant punk-rock song to end the album on.
Being the obviously obsessed Rehasher fan that I am, this review may be slightly bias but why not check out the album on Spotify and hear it for yourself? and if you like it, go buy it! It’s currently available on iTunes, will be available on CD in the next few days (follow @lessthanraj on Twitter for news of this) and for vinyl collector nerds, there will be record release soon aswell.
Also, check out Clock Smash!; the recent 7” Rehasher put out this year and Greenhorn; Roger’s collaboration with NoMore’s Jen Vito (both on Saint November records).