Modern Rifles

Reviews

Modern Rifles could be seen as a bastardized byproduct of a legendary San Diego punk scene that had national influence on bands like Against Me! and Rise Against. But to jump to that conclusion only means that you’re familiar with the subject matter: distorted, scattered riffage and pounding drums mixed with a steady stream of shout / sing vocals.

Sure, that formula’s been done to death, but if Modern Rifles’ self-released debut proves anything, it’s that the quartet deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as any band making a similar racket, legendary or otherwise. They play around with varying punk sub-genres, from the Fugazi-esque posturing on the double-punch of “Lie to Me, Ian, Lie to Me” and “Feck Me if I’m Wrong” to the mature, Jimmy Eat World-type pop savvy of “Kip Winger” and “Say a Prayer to St. Happenin’.”

The songs might not grab you right away, but given some time, they’re as profound and memorable as anything else in the scene. Modern Rifles may wear their influences on their frayed sleeves, but they’re as aggressive and as catchy as any local band to come around in a long while. Their forefathers would be proud.
—Seth Combs       

San Diego City Beat

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The best bands are often the ones that can’t be easily categorized,

dual-guitar rock outfit, their unique sound stems from not only a

highly democratic band mentality, but a mutual embracing of their

geographic and musical individualities. While this could easily have

been the recipe for indirection or a disjointed final product, they’ve

clearly had no problems blending their influences and focusing their

efforts. The result is a reckless brand of rock that is intricate in

composition and a testament to their full-bore intensity. The

seemingly nonsensical song titles add even more character to the

attack-filled tracks (I think “Chuck Woolery Is Leviathan” might be my

fave), but also remind the listener that this ain’t some

thrown-together quick fix. This is smart, interlocking rock that puts

all the pieces together until they fit snugly up against one another.

-Brad @ CD BABY

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Imagine that a ton of your favorite post-hardcore bands from the late 90’s got together and formed one band with a decidedly San Diego feel (think Jehu and the like) and you’d have the dense and intense debut from the left coast’sModern Rifles, I Was Young, It Was Dark. Without sounding too much like any one of their influences, the band combines sometimes intricate sometimes jagged and driving guitars with rolling lilting basslines, atmospheric guitar textures, sung/shouted vocals and plenty of melody into something that sounds like a band recklessly giving everything they’ve got. It sounds like Modern Rifles is rocking your world as if their lives depended on it. I love love love it.

I mean, as I’ve been listening to I Was Young, It Was Dark (a lot) I hear nods to just about everything post-hardcore under the sun (Mineral, SDRE, At The Drive-In, Drive Like Jehu, Get Up Kids, Faraquet, Isis, Braid, No Knife, The Pixies, etc…) but there are also moments that keep sounding like what old-school Static Prevails-era Jimmy Eat World might sound like if those guys were digging ditches as part of a chain-gang. So basically what you’ve got with I Was Young, It Was Dark is a record that totally rocks and just happens to be one of the best albums I’ve heard thus far in 2009. These guys in Modern Rifles can do everything from driving and abrasive to twinkling and atmospheric but always do it with conviction. Honestly, do yourself a favor, and spend ten bucks to get this record. If you are reading this blog, you’ll probably like the album, plus the band self-released it, and that’s pretty awesome.

Can You See The Sunset From The Southside

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Beneath the wet-blanket production and shout-along choruses of I Was Young, It Was Dark lies a listenable disc. You have to weed through the modern-rawk, Jimmy Eat Cheez to get to the post-core center, but you’ll find a band in Modern Rifles that stands with old guns such as Jehu (“Feck Me If I’m Wrong”), Jane’s (“Kip Winger”), and Helmet (“Chuck Woolery”).

Despite employing only one hometowner in Fong, the Rifles sound as if they ran headfirst into San Diego’s wall-of-sound ’90s, with their preening leads and buzzsaw riffage, but that wailing wall is propped up by steady, bone-deep backbeats and roller-coaster bass lines. If not for the upside-down engineering on tracks such as “Man the Ramparts,” “Illegal Dracula,” and “St. Happenin’,” this quartet could trip critics’ Nirvana-meter.

The song titles suggest alt-rock ironists à la Frank Black and the Ween boys, but the vocals are damp, which is probably okay, because what you can glean smacks of emo. I know…they’re young, it’s dark.

Barnaby Monk @ SD Reader

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Modern Rifles play the type of post-hardcore that I would have absolutely loved about ten years ago. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy I Was Young, It Was Dark now though. But I do think I would have appreciated this a lot more before the genre got so saturated after At The Drive-In blew up. Modern Rifles are certainly capable of squeezing every thing they have into a song much like ATDI and you have to admire that in a band. Modern Rifles are arty and eclectic while still maintaining a striking melodic core. That is not an easy feat…just ask the many bands that have failed before them. I do think the band forces themselves to be a jack of all trades instead of pinpointing their focus. Unfortunately that leaves them open to being vulnerable in the songwriting department at times. But overall, Modern Rifles do San Diego proud and I would add them to some other great young SD-area bands (Fever Sleeves, Swim Party, Lanterns.) who continue to carry on the city’s proud tradition of indie/punk rock.

Will @ www.soundaslanguage.com