Los Angeles, California: It’s been a rough, tough, few years for nineties ska veterans Buck-O-Nine - rough and tough, but richly rewarding as they emerge with a new album which, to put it bluntly, is one of the greatest they’ve made.
It’s called Cut Out The Noise. But, of course, they don’t. Because this one’s as noisy as ever! Take a listen to the new single, “I’m Alive,” all buzzsaw punk guitars and classic Buck-O horns, and when frontman Jon Pebsworth says “I feel like we really found our stride and our sound on this one,” one look at your dancing feet lets you know the band are back with a vengeance.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/buckonine_imalive
“This one really got deep,” Jon explains. “We had some internal struggles, we had some technical problems, we were in a pandemic, we watched and felt social and political problems unfold and we struggled with our own identity as a band. And, in my case, my own internal struggles. I was in and out of depression, I had a massive heart attack that almost took my life and I moved back to San Diego after working in LA for close to 20 years. These songs are about all those experiences.
“I really dragged the lake of my soul to find the feelings I was having and putting them into words.”
Even with such a dramatic narrative nailed to the music, however, it wasn’t an easy process. Written during the pandemic, the self-produced album had already been completed when the band suddenly decided to scrap it.
“We thought it sucked compared to what we imagined it could be,” Jon continues. “We experimented with new and different ideas and had the time to flesh them out…. to evaluate the songs and make improvements. We made a lot of mistakes and changes… some of them up to the last minute.”
Horn king Dan Albert adds, ”Our years of playing music together made this album happen. The album captures the raw sounds and emotions of the struggles and turmoils we were going through at that time of our lives.”
But the band’s seventh album, following up 2019’s Fundaymental, is not only their most self-aware. It is also their most political; and, while Dan agrees “the making of this album had its lows,” the result was what guitarist Jonas Kleiner describes as “our most beautiful and ferocious album to date."
In other words, Cut Out The Noise is still fresh out of the pressing plant. But already Dan is adamant. “Keep those ears open for the next one!"
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=buck-o-nine+cut+out+the+noise
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/buckonine_cutoutthenoise
