The Lawrence Arms
Oh! Calcutta
Fat Wreck Chords
www.thelawrencearms.net
www.fatwreckchords.com

A smart punk band can be hard to find nowadays, but Lawrence Arms is a smart punk trio,
that mixes intelligent lyrics and storytelling with decently catchy tunes.
"Oh! Calcutta" is the best album I have heard yet from the Lawrence Arms and reminds me a
lot of another old Fat Wreck Chords band - Face to Face.

The 12 tracks on "Oh! Calcutta" are inspired, sweat dripping anthems to the rock lifestyle
- girls, drugs and friends. The Lawrence Arms got together in Chicago in 1999 and have toured all
over, with NOFX and the Warped Tour and everybody else in the punk/pop punk scene. "Oh Calcutta"
is their 9th album and it's got the grit from those long van rides and 24 hour studio sessions
and drunken debaucherous nights all over it. On "Oh! Calcutta" there are blasts of rock,
twangs of alt country, breathes of ballads and it sounds like the three guys - Brendan,
Chris and Neil - in The Lawrence Arms just took the past 7 years of living and listening to
music all over the world, and put it into a modern day, intelligent, punk rock album.

"Oh! Calcutta" blasts off with "The devils takin' names" and the rocking is slipped into your
drink early, then the words "I never tried that, but I know I don't like it" are stuck in your
head. Your head starts spinning a bit as the second track "Cut it up" brings some old scars
to the surface, but you keep pumping your fist through your tears as the next seng "Great
Lakes/Great Escape" comes on. About the time track 4 starts you're pissed off at your
blubbering self and the Arms guys deliver a raw, mean song called "Recovering the opposable
thumb" about all the stuff that life throws at us they yell out "I'm sorry there was nowhere
left to run. We fought and fought until our bullets ran out and they took us one by one." So
you're pysched again, and ready to kick some ass - they mention Toby Keith in "… opposable
thumb" and maybe it's just me but I was wantin to kick his ass - and the anger keeps up as the
Arms boys remind you of your "…Embarrassing Style" spinning you around and round and you
"dying a fraction at a time."

Know you're reeling and you need some help, so the Arms trio provides some help from God,
in the next song "Are you there Margaret? It's me God." But God is leaving people behind in
that song, and the Devil is calling them over, and you can't help but lose - which is what
track 7 "Jumping the Shark" is about. And the Arms boys complete their pop culture
song title trio with track 8 called "Lose your Illusion I" a slow ballad, that gives you a
break, lets you break down and cry for a minute before picking a fight again.

It's a big album for a punk rock band, thoughtful and well designed for listening
and thinking. And that's a good thing people.

Reviewed by : Mike Hammer