The Have Nots – Serf City USA

The Have Nots are a new band from Boston, MA formed out of members of Stray Bullets & Chicago Typewriter, two bands who had a good deal of popularity within the Boston music scene [And two bands this listener was never a huge fan of].

On Serf City USA, the debut full length from the Have Nots, the listener is immediately assaulted with their infectious ska rhythms that they expertly combine with punk sounds on the opener, "There’s Gonna Be A Riot", complete with vocalists Matt Pruit and Jon Cauztik yelling, "There’s gonna be a riot/starts with this sound/Everybody on the dance floor/Have Nots are comin’ ’round"

From "There’s Gonna Be A Riot" on, the listener is granted the pleasure of a couple slower, more ska-oriented songs like "Frozen Heart" and "SBC", one of this listener’s personal favorites. This song shows that the Have Nots, while fun, also have a very serious side to their music, with socially charged lyrics like, "There’s things you want and there’s things you need/A brand new SUV, a new disease/Hi-def don’t show you no realities," showing that the Have Nots aren’t all fun and games.

After "SBC" comes the album’s gem, "One in Four", the record’s fastest song. Cauztik sings at a speed that makes it really hard for the listener to keep pace with his lyrics, but it is very easy for the listener to tell that the song is about military veterans being treated unfairly by the government, and as Pruitt and Cauztik declare, "No salvation, no sanity, he’s just a silhouette forgotten in headlines".

After "One in Four", the record mellows out for "Anchor For A Drowning Man", one of the album’s slowest, and "Poisoned Antidote", another of this listener’s favorite songs on the record. The record continues on with it’s slower, more ska oriented songs until "An Army Of One", which is one of the more punked up cuts on the record, which declares that war is something that basically comes down to the people in power, not the common people, where Pruitt and Cauztik declare it, "Their war/What’s it fuckin’ good for?/It makes ‘em lots of money/So we do it again and again," basically trying to get across that this country has become involved in a trend of war that we need to get out of. The last 3 tracks on the record are all great efforts by the group, including the title track, "Serf City USA", and "My Way", the album’s last song, and one of it’s fastest.

All in all the Have Nots wrote and recorded what this listener considers one of the top, if not the top, record of 2009 thus far. These guys are definitely worth checking out if you have any passion for ska or Punk music. They have already shared the stage with acts like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and the Aggrolites in their short career, and are gaining a huge amount of respect in the East Coast scene.
Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/havenotsboston
 

-Scott R.-
East Coast Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter

 

 
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