A-F Records, Shield Recordings – 23 Sep 2022
Gruff NOVA punks release memorable debut LP (FFO: Hot Water Music, Leatherface, Samiam, Against Me!)
Originally founded to release records by Anti-Flag and other DIY bands, A-F Records branched out to different genres. In the last five years, the label has released a number of stellar records, including (but not limited to) Nightmarathons‘ Missing Parts, Devon Kay and the Solutions‘ Limited Joy, and Spanish Love Songs‘ Schmaltz.
Enter Celebration Summer. This northern Virginia four piece got together in late 2019, playing gruff punk in the vein of Hot Water Music and Samiam. They released a five song EP entitled Against the Gun in February 2021 before being tapped up to release their first LP.
The opening single, “Disconnected”, sees the band careen forward on a white knuckle ride, tethered down by the stellar rhythm section of Greg Raelson and Glenn Boysko. “Against the Gun”, the title track from their EP, is re-recorded for the full length. Given that it stays on point, I didn’t realize its six minute run time until I sat down to write the review. Its interludes are oddly reminiscent of late 60s “rave ups” by bands like The Yardbirds.
For me, the album highlight is “Resin”. Clocking in a hair over three minutes, it sports a singalong chorus that I can imagine hollering at the top of my lungs while hoisting a tall boy of Natty Boh or ‘Gansett at a mid-Atlantic dive bar.
The band finishes up their original material with “A Good Year to Forget”, which could honestly be about — well, pick a year between 2015 and 2022. Lead singer Nate laments that he’s “at a loss for words” in the chorus before going into a spoken word breakdown. Tragedy abounds, between unexpected widows and orphans and whatever tragedy his parents have called to inform him of.
On this LP, Celebration Summer definitely scratches my A Flight and a Crash-era Hot Water Music itch. It does well to stop short of full-on Chuck Ragan cosplay with a healthy infusion of late eighties DC post-hardcore and Midwestern punk gusto. You would do well to check this LP out.
Once hailing from the salty tundra of Syracuse, NY, Ben now calls the DC suburbs his home. He fell in love with punk after listening to Punk-O-Rama 3, Less Than Jake and MXPX in middle school. He loves to slam dance but is too large to stage dive.
When he’s not pretending to have exquisite musical taste, he’s raising two children, designing RPG products and practicing law. (Who knows if he’ll ever get the hang of it.)
