Band : Second Base
Album title : Manifesto
Label : Thanks But No Thanks Records (own release)
Distributor : Funtime Distribution - Suburban
Release date : February 2010
Release : CD

Hey, about time this Aarschot (Belgium) based Melodic (and emotional) Punk Rock trio let itself be heard from again (regular Concrete Web readers may remember our last contact with the band dating back to the posting of the review of their Recover EP on 22/06/2008, at which time it was reported that the band planned to release its sophomore full-length in early 2009)! Quite frankly, what with bassist/ backing singer Sam Bergen reviving his former band Old Fashion Heroes and singer/ guitarist Stijn Debontridder joining The Rocket, it almost looked like THIS band had gone belly-up! Let’s give you a short overview of the things that happened since our last acqaintance with the band.

You see, 2008 was spent playing gigs at the same pace (about one a week, or some 50 on the year) as before, but come late December the band had decided to take some time off from live activities, as they wanted to continue working on the ideas they had already been putting together for a sophomore full-length album (at that time, they had already written music for some 15 songs, rejected 5, and Stijn had even already put plenty of ideas together for lyrics on quite a few of the songs – something he usually delayed until the studio time, adding unnecessary stress). The band intended to enter the studio (10 days booked at Asse’s Dé Studio with producer Dirk Miers, towards the end of March 2009, to record drums, bass, and most of the guitars) only after a decent period of rehearsals, and even some pre-recordings at Heist-Op-Den-Berg’s The Penthouse (studio owned by Stijn’s latest partner-in-crime Filip De Bot), where the band would return to add whatever they felt necessary for the record (and with no time stress, this procedure of the band would allow ‘em to record vocals perfectly), before returning to Asse for the mixing of the album. Even back in December ’08, the band knew they were gonna have too look for a new label, since Burned Star had gone belly-up. With no contacts at all from that label’s partner Kickass, the band felt like, if not you, there’s other labels around!

So, even before the final mixing was done in June of last year (mastering was done afterwards at The Blasting Room by Jason Livermore), the band had started taking contact with labels from all over Europe…only to get negative or no replies (mainly due to the fact that they didn’t send music along, they gather). Once the album done, SB renewed its assault on the European labels, this time sending out cd-R copies of the album, which evidently cost the band a dear bit of money (on top of what they had already spent on the studio time for recording, mixing, and mastering). Result of which were a lot of “very nice album…will definitely buy a copy when it’s released”, but nothing  but no-go’s on the release-it front! Oh well, they did get óne positive response of a Belgian label which was willing to help the guys out, if they could wait long enough…too long…so the label could work off its currently planned releases!

Well, meanwhile the band members were occupied otherwize (Jeff had started a driving course class), kinda stopped rehearsing for a while with SB, and it’s almost certain that all of them had been thinking of putting the band to rest at some time. Then Stijn gathered some info on starting the band’s own little label, and all of the sudden there was a new spark. Working towards the preparations of the release (with a release gig in February at Aarschot’s De Klinker) the guys also came to the consensus that the material of Manifesto needed the recruitment of a second guitarist…as it was basically written for two guitars, you see? As luck would have it a friend of Stijn’s, Frederik Meuris, had just seen his band Facefirst break up. He is now officially the 4th member iin SB. But how about the music on this CD?

Well, as mentioned in Stijn’s blogs on the band’s MySpace page (quite a read, those blogs), the band had already grown a lot before starting the writing process for this album, and the two-guitar thing is just one of the ways the band evolved! You see, the band also included two very nice “ballads” (although lyrically far from love songs). Well, actually album opening track “It’s Been The Worst Months” is a semi-ballad(in the last 25 seconds the acoustic guitar – with Stijn bellowing his discontent – gets turned into an electric one with Sam screaming his guts out as backing singer), but the piano/ acoustic & bass guitar played “Confused Eyes” (apparently co-written by Stijn and Filip) is definitely a clear-cut ballad! There’s more occasional calmer passages on the album, but for the most part this is Second Base as we used to know ‘em from the past, with the positive evolution of experience, and the added nicety of being written for two guitars in many instances. By popular demand, the band made a new version of their older song “My Reply”, and among the 13 tracks on the album you’ll also find a cover of The Lawrence Arms’ “Brick Wall News” (which is among the 7 tracks you can find posted at myspace.com/secondbaseband for your introduction to the band’s new material). One thing noted right from the start, is the rather good vocal performance. I mean, to scream your guts out for a while can be somewhat devastating on the voice (as SB concert goers will doubtlessly have noticed towards the end of some SB shows), but the stress-less attitude the band took (allowing the singers to take a rest in between recording sessions) really made for a constant steadiness in that area!

In the past months since the release of their album, the band did but very few public appearances (let’s hope that was partly due to the breaking in of the new guy), but even then they don’t have too many things to come on their callendar. Maybe this positive response will give ‘em some more courage…I hope so, because here’s a truly good melodic band, with a lot to say lyrically! Just to give you an idea of my personal appreciation of this album, I thought I’d mention the fact that I’ve been listening to it non-stop for the last 4 hours yesterday, had another 3-hour session like that today while gathering my thoughts (and info) for the review…and never got bored for a single moment! The below rating means the albums is nominated into my personal “Best Albums Of 2010”-list. Now let’s see you do the same, and let SB know about it!?

98/100

Tony.