Fire In the Youth

Album Review

The San Diego-based B-Side Players had been giving the revolution a groove for almost 15 years when 2007 arrived, playing music like Rage Against the Machine meets War with a heavy injection of son and some other Latin flavors (the "B" stands for "Brown"). With Fire in the Youth, vocalist and leader Karlos Paez has grown up without clamping down by smoothing down some of the punky rough spots found on the band's earlier albums while upping the funk and melody. While this tactic may not be as instantly gripping, it lets much more of the Latin flavor through, creating a richer experience that sticks to the ribs long after the initial "wow" is gone. With funky horn blasts, conga beat, and lyrics that focus on mankind's demise, "Unplug This Armageddon" is an NPR feature waiting to happen but it deserves much more. Paez's observation is that furiously scrounging for friends on MySpace as others furiously scrounge for food in their war-torn countries adds up to a sick global society. That it comes with a memorable melody and good beat you can dance to makes it all the more fascinating, and in many ways much more subversive than when the band played more fast and dangerous. Contrast the lazy stroll of "Nuestras Demandas" with lyrics that damn the "financial rats of Babylon" along with "those who kill to control the oil" and it becomes apparent that the Bob Marley method of wrapping rebellion in smooth tunes is in effect. With Fire in the Youth, the B-Side Players are making bitter pills easy to take. Anyone who loves revolutionary music will be seduced.