The Blood Brothers in conjunction with Epitaph Records have gone back and reissued their last four full-length albums which excluding “March On Electric Children”, include extra content. For those who don’t know who The Blood Brothers are or what they sounded like, imagine a punk band being fronted by two singers that range from off-tone singing, to straight out screeching when necessary. To cover these re-issues I’ll start with the oldest and work my way forward.

March on Electric Children (Reissue) is sadly just a reissue for all of you who missed it the first time around. The record still contains some of my favorite songs by them, Siamese Gun and American Vultures. This album is as solid as a re-release as it was when it first hit shelves.

Burn Piano Island, Burn, however, originally released on the now defunct record label Artist Direct and produced by Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot and so many other metal bands). First of all, bringing in a producer like Ross Robinson forced the quality forward, he didn’t change their sound, he only made it stronger. Although this is great album in it’s own right, it’s made better with the content from the Ambulance vs. Ambulance single from the UK including the music video. If that’s not enough it comes with the DVD release Jungle Rules Live, also released originally on Artist Direct and very out of print until now. A good deal to say the least if you’re missing either part from your collection. Notable tracks include, Ambulance vs. Ambulance, The Salesman, Denver Max.

Then the band topped their previous work with “Crimes“, which is my favorite release from the Blood Brothers to date. It just showed them growing, expanding and refining their sound, while remaining true to themselves and the music. The reissue gives you a second disc of material to mull over. The first five tracks are from their E.P. “Love Rhymes with a Hideous Car Wreck”,if you already have that E.P. don’t throw it away quite yet as one of the tracks doesn’t appear. namely their remix of the song “Anthrax”. From track five on they placed live material from the Reading Festival 2005. All of them are soundboard recordings, and are mixed very well (but where’s Beautiful Horses and Crimes to fully recreate the show?). Also on the bonus disc is the video for Love Rhymes with a Hideous Car Wreck. Notable tracks from this release are: Crimes (my favorite), Teen Heat – Live (Reading Festival 2005) [Bonus Track], My First Kiss At The Public Execution, and Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck.

Rounding out the releases is their final album, “Young Machetes (Deluxe Reissue)“, continuing to change course they moved back a bit to their louder punk sound and yet still managed to keep the album as catchy as Crimes was. The Bonus disc gives you the three remixes that were featured on the two singles, in order, Set Fire To the Face On Fire and Laser Life, and then gives you six live radio show recordings from KXLU in 2006. Needless to say it’s interesting to hear any of their songs live, especially with decent recording. You also get the videos for the tracks Laser Life and Set Fire To the Face On Fire. Notable tracks: Spit Shine Your Black Clouds, We Ride Skeletal Lightning, and Laser Life.

I just want to say thank you to Epitaph for re-issuing all of these albums, and giving some people a chance to catch up on what they missed or better yet a second chance for others to get into them. If you don’t have these yet, now is a great time to pick them up and get a lot more for the original cost. If you’ve already got everything by them check out some of their new projects the members have gone into like: Jaguar Love, Past Lives, Weekend, Neon Blondes, Head Wound City, Gajamagic (and anything their drummer was involved in).

Score:

4.5/5
The Blood Brothers were and are genre defining.

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