The best summer CDs continue to pulsate in fall

By John Gardemeyer

Summer has come and gone, and last summer had some great music to remember it by. With the return of punk, a neo-swing revival, and the return of the Beastie Boys, the summer of 1998 will not soon be forgotten.

Punk music has once again returned and led to the main stage with new releases from bands like Bad Religion, Rancid. and Social Distortion. Bad Religion's newest album, No Substance, marks the return of old schoolpunk. While less catchier than the 1996 album The Gray Race, Bad Religion displays their left-wing political views using words so large that you have to look them up in a dictionary. With inspirational songs like "Raise Your Voice" and the propagandistic "The State of the End of the Millennium Address," Bad Religion is once again in top form.

Rancid's Life Won't Wait CD is like nothing the band has released before. Seamlessly mixing two-tone ska and punk, Rancid has brought their music to new heights. While sounding very similar to The Clash, Rancid has certainly redefined their music with the inclusion of the piano and horns to their esteem driven machine of music. While introducing no new music, Social Distortion's Live at the Roxy is by far their best album. Mixing songs from their first album, Mommy's Little Monster, all the way to last year's White Light, White Heat, White Trash, Social Distortion displays just how good their music is live.

The neo-swing revival this year brought into being two great swing releases, Brian Setzer Orchestra's The Dirty Boogie and Swing This Baby! compilation on Slimstyle records. The Dirty Boogie is Brian Setzer Orchestra's third album, and is one of their best. With great songs like"Switchblade 327," "Rock This Town," along with the trendy "Jump Jive, and Wail," this album really shines. Swing This Baby! displays the best and brightest bands of the neo-swing movement. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue, and the New Morty Show, along with the Brian Setzer Orchestra play on this fantastic compilation.

The best new ska album this summer came from the kings ofska-core, the Voodoo Glow Skulls. Their latest, Bad Geek Mafia, has some of the fastest Latin horns that can be heard in music today. "Walkin' Frustration" and "Delinquent Song" are two of the best tracks on the CD.

By far, the best album of the summer is the Beastie Boy's Hello Nasty. It is their best album since the underrated Paul's Boutique. While keeping the classic Beastie's beat, Hello Nasty experiments with many forms of hip-hop and old school rap. Some of the CDs best songs are"Three MC's and One DJ," "Song for Junior," and the radio friendly''Intergalactic." Other memorable songs include the fast "Putting Shamein Your Game" and the mellow "Song for the Man."

While not the best period of music in history, the summer of 1998was memorable. With great albums like Hello Nasty and Social Distortion's Live at the Roxy, the legacy of 1998 will reign on for a long time to come.