TracksCaptain Future, Backs of Vans, Radio Suicide, The Train Home, Burning Inside, One of Us, Dub Suicide (Tzar Jackson Meet the Emporer Salassie Downtown), Bullet's Pace, Semiotic Automatic, My Purgatory, Summertime, People Get Ready, All the Friends You Can Use, Sick Plastics, Last Frontier, Last Frontier [Tiny Crisis Remix], Ascencion and Decline
Notes'Punk rock' has narrowed considerably since the days when the Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Clash, Television, Blondie, and Magazine were all considered to be part of the same phenomenon. The Secret Sound of the NSA have, for the four years they have been together as a band, been producing music which singer William Companyman always considered punk rock in that most open-minded sense of the term. The seventies sound, as well as new wave acts like the Cars and the Police are a huge influence on the NSA's self-consciously ambitious pop songs and their alternately introspective, confrontational, and obscurist lyrics. No one else in the NSA actually gives a damn about punk rock, which is what gives them their musical depth. Grant West's musical background is catholic in the extreme - he is as happy listening to Neil Young as he is Dave Navarro or Slash. West goes from bluesy soul to palm muted punk to shreiky leads in one set - and sometimes in one song. Tsar Jackson trained in percussion, but when he took over synth duties a few years back he helped the band fill out their sound, and intensify their discipline. His own musical tastes tend to Zappa, jazz, hip hop, and funk. Stimey learned to play bass at a young age so he could rock along to the metal bands he still loves - Def Leppard, Van Halen, the usual suspects. He took from these bands his steady foundational, but melodic bass lines. Animal took both his raw power and showman's style on the drums from the same place - no NSA show is without stick tossing, twirling, double bass playing, and general rock excess on the kit. The NSA have developed a signature sound which puts the priority on melody; they self- consciously restrict themselves to writing singles - big choruses, three part harmonies, three minutes and a cloud of dust. Their live show reflects this manic energy, slowing only for the occasional ballad or pulsing dub track. The Captain Future EP is a reflection of the pop discipline and alienated lyricism of a gang of genuine middle western rock.