Dan Yemin's impact on punk certainly approaches Mt. Rushmore status. After establishing a melodic edge with Lifetime and Kid Dynamite, Yemin finally "stepped to the mic'" with Paint it Black. Conveying the intensely personal (try a brush with death) as well as the overtly political (war, chemical dependency and "womb envy"), Yemin and company continued to leave room for the threatening urgency of a beautifully writ "fuck you" song. Drawing on traditionally aggro forebears like Minor Threat, musical innovators like Swiz and the cold-stare lyricism of hip hop, Paint it Black was a mixed-bag success story worthy of its pedigree. 2005's Paradise is Paint It Black's proverbial sophomore, matured, focused effort. If the history books speak fondly of our time on this earth, they will no doubt recount that this, PunkNews' No. 1 Album of 2005, was the band's most universally acclaimed. Fourteen songs composed in the midst of a hurricane of divorce, work, death, gentrification, war, sex and W. recorded by J. Robbins at Phase at the end of 2004.
Tracklist:
- Election Day
- Pink Slip
- Exit Wounds
- Ghosts
- The New Brutality
- Athiests In Foxholes
- Nicaragua
- Labor Day
- Burn The Hive
- Panic
- Angel
- The Pharmacist
- 365
- Memorial Day