Fistful Of Revolution, A

Whatever It Takes is a sideline project for Chris #2 of the notorious Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag, for whom he plays bass; as frontman for Whatever It Takes, he plays guitar and acts as lead yeller. This CD brings together two previous releases: the full-length Fistful of Revolution album and the eight-track Stars & Skulls EP, both of which were originally issued in extremely limited numbers (the latter came out only in a minimally packaged CD-R format, and the band only sold a few hundred copies before pronouncing it out of print). Both find the quartet carrying on in the same general vein as Anti-Flag, that of noisy but fairly melodic punk rock. Whatever It Takes is maybe just a bit less overtly political than Anti-Flag; while songs like "Stars and Skulls" and "Flesh Eating 9 to 5 Virus" both convey a fairly clear social message, others are a bit more artfully ambiguous, and that works in their favor. The acoustic guitar-based "I Swear This Is the Last Time" actually comes close to being downright introspective, and ends up sounding just a bit like the early Cure. Nice stuff. ~ Rick Anderson