"What can you want now you've got it all? The whole scene is obscene
Time will strip it away a year and a day"

The Libertines- Up The Bracket
The Libertines first album Up the Bracket (2002) was my first step into the world of indie rock and modern music. Up to the point I heard it the ‘newest’ band I liked was Nirvana. I remember watching a documentary on British indie and seeing the Libertines perform ‘Boys In The Band‘ on Later….With Jools Holland. They had such an energetic aggressive who gives a fuck sound that reminded me a lot of punk and they looked great too with their leather jackets and tight black jeans. They looked as cool as they sound. Then I saw them play The Boy Looked At Johnny at a live show. On stage the singers/guitar players Pete Doherty and Carl Barat thrashed around on their guitars jumping up and down smashing into each other while drenched in sweat. Drummer Gary Powell pounded away on his away at his drums while bassist John Hassall stood their like a statue providing an anchor to the all the energy. So I went on itunes and gave it a download. They quickly became my favorite band and unlike Joy Division, The Smiths, or Nirvana even they left me feeling good and not depressed which was nice for a change. I defiantly see the Libertines as the start of the post-punk revival for the UK scene and you can defiantly draw a line between them and the Arctic Monkeys. Founding members Pete Doherty and Carl Barat met each other thought Pete’s sister who Carl was friends with. The two quickly became close friends as they shared a common love for writing music and the Smiths. The two formed a band called the Strand “I used to go to Blur’s record company everyday with a demo, and they’d tell me ‘oh we’ll get back to you’ I sorta became the laughing stock of the office. But that band fell apart and me and Pete started a new band and decided it was all or nothing”- Carl Barat. After adding Drummer Gary Powell and bassist John Hassall to the mix the Libertines were created. After constantly playing gigs and sending out demo’s the band and a praise review by the NME the band were singed to indie label Rough Trade records. The band recorded Up the Bracket with legendary Clash guitarist/singer Mick Jones who was able to encapsulate the raw energy of their live shows in the studio recordings. Throughout the record Carl and Pete share vocal duties. Pete’s voice is much more thick accented and he slur’s his words abit but so does Carl who has a much more accessible voice softer voice. Time For Heroes is one of the standout tracks. Like the Clash’s White Riot on their debut album the song was inspired by Pete’s experience in a riot on May Day in London, ‘Did you see the stylish kids in the riot? We were shovelled up like muck, set the night on fire. Wombles bleed truncheons and shields’. And there is also some emphasis on England loss of national identity ’here are fewer more distressing sights, than that, of an Englishman in a baseball cap.’ Pete maybe an overrated lyricist but he does have his moments, and Time For Heroes is pretty much all those moments. The Boy Looked at Johnny is a pub anthem with slurred words and inconsistent babbling it’s not so hard to picture the band singing it along with a small crowd in a smoked and sweat filled pub. The title track is quite possibly my favorite Libertines track. It starts out with what sounds like a death howl from Doherty screaming “Get out of it”. Pretty much a great pop song. Boys in the Band is Carl’s best moment on the album sounding like it was made for an indie dance club with its drums and funky riffs and with Carl singing “I’ve never heard you dance and I’ve never heard you sing so how could it mean a single thing?”. I get along would be his second best which has him saying “I get along singing my song people tell I’m wrong….fuck em’ which could either be scene as a very juvenile statement or very brilliant one. What A Waster another favorite of mine by them in general it’s also probably one of their most profane. With the opening lines “What a waster, what a fucking waster you pissed it all up the wall round the corner where they chased her there’s tears coming out from everywhere. The city's hard, the city's fair, get back inside you've got nothing on No you mind yer bleedin own you two bob cunt” The song is revolves around a girl with an obvious drug problem. Overall the album is a blast form the past made new, it has all the energy form the first wave of punk but made modern which is a good thing. The album always puts me in a good mood because of memories of younger days tied to it.

Originally Posted by swim America does folk, hardcore and mathrock better and that's 90% of what I give 2 shits on.

Originally Posted by chartsengrafs sweet nothing openly flaunts the fact that he is merely the empty shell of an even more unadmirable member. his loneliness and need for attention bleeds through every letter he types. edit: i would just like to add that i'm ashamed that he's from texas. surely you didn't grow up in texas, did you sweet nothing?