Banner Pilot – Resignation Day – Review

Release Date: September 14th, 2010
Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Genre: Punk

Coming from Minneapolis and having association with Dillinger Four sadly, these guys get pegged as a mere clone but that is so far from the truth here. This record came after a 8 track EP called Pass The Poison from 4 years ago and since then they’ve been coming quite a long way with their poetic words and power chords. Not to mention these bass lines that’ll not be going unnoticed by you either.

This isn’t the first effort from them together with punk rock being a way of life for these guys. Extensive track records from projects like Off With Their Heads, Rivethead, and The Manix. Most notably Nate Gangelhoff who plays the strings is known for showing up here and there with Off With Their Heads to help them out on their shows. The time has been flying by, these guys having spent a prevalent amount of time on the road keeping busy and creating a solid fan base through America. This leaves us with where we are today, a re-master of what caught the interests of Fat Mike landing them a deal with his label Fat Wreck Chords. Helping to get their material out to the masses and giving them some well deserved recognition within the punk rock community.

Back when this was laid out the process was done with very little funding. Being released through a small independent record label out of New York city, Go-Kart Records. It was done in a time efficient manner to reduce the costs of studio time for the band. This left them with these anthems sounding as flat as a piece of cardboard. But, when I first listened to this in 2008 I remember falling in love with the whole fact that they’re catchy and melodic but maintain that rough sounding edge to them. This is what caught my attention and what I enjoyed the most about these guys awhile ago. With a couple years passing now being signed to Fat Wreck Chords they threw their sessions to Jacques Wait. A familiar friend who had helped them with their latest release Collapser that came out just last year. Jacques took his defibrillator to them and pumped these full of life. The most important thing to me is how you’re able to finally make out the words of Nick and Nate now. These bass lines aren’t being lost in the mix anymore either, giving all the members a more refined understanding of their parts that are so well deserved for this CD.

These songs are poems, ones about self regret and others of the good old times getting drunk with your longtime friends. Stories about girls and tales of life lessons learnt from past mistakes. Track 6, Milemarking has been bumped up from number 9 for you with two extra goodies. Included is some material from a 7“ split that they dropped in 07. It’s easy to tell they were done in different sessions but it doesn’t take anything away from what they’re all about. It’s refreshing to have these songs on the same level as Collapser now. So, go and pick it up and figure it out for yourself shithead! ~Staff

Score: 4/5

Track Listing:
. Overwinter
2. Cut Bait
3. Speed Trap
4. Empty Your Bottled
5. Saltlash Luck
6. Milemarking
7. Wired Wrong
8. Baltimore Knot
9. Absentee
10. Shell Game
11. No Transfer
12. Barker
13. Spit Out
14. Deadender