New Music

DISCOUNT
SINGLES COLLECTION VOLUME 1
NEW AMERICAN DREAM RECORDS
Florida doesn't often get credited with good things—you know, with the whole flushing-democracy-down-the-toilet incident and all. But nestled in the heart of a throbbing little punk community in Gainesville was Discount, a band so great that you'd drive across the state through the worst weather in a decade to see one of their last shows (which we actually did back in 2000, just so you know). And this compilation of import singles and non-album tracks—the best record Discount never quite made—ably explains why. They used to get the J-Church-with-a-girl-singer (and what a singer!) tag when they were still around, but that doesn't quite do them justice: their punky pop had a bite so determined you'd have to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart to make it let go. With indispensable and super-hard-to-find tracks like “Rooftop Empathy,” “Uptown Subway” and “Disappointed,” this is probably their most important release, even if it has been two years since they broke up. By turns driving and wistful, these songs are the musical equivalent of lying in the street with your high school friends on a summer night, the sort of album you'd put on really loud after a bedroom-door-slamming fight with your parents. Pardon our gushing, but this would be a perfect collection if it hadn't left off a few of their very best songs—”Antiseptic,” for one, and a cover of the Golden Girls theme song. But something on here will make you sniffle, we promise: at their best, Discount is what heartfelt teenage hope sounds like.

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