Ironically enough, I'm sitting here listening to The Bruisers, a classic Hard-core breed that comes across defiantly angry and ready to let the blood flow… and yet waiting in the wings is this new thing by a band called Five For Fighting that I'll be the rest of my missing teeth isn't nearly the wallop this one is!

Funny, three songs ago, I didn't even remember losing any in the first place… and yet that's the impact The Bruisers will have on you.

Here's a real knuckle-duster… a diamond in the rough for purebred OI followers and "In the Pit" says all that needs be said about the fashionable aggression that first turned the trick for early morning UK stomp and shuffle!

New Englanders that they are, there's no surprise at the olde English vibe that runs rampant amongst the likes of "Bloodshed," "Society's Fool's" and "Never Fall."

Garage tactics immediately add that "classic" element to the music and whether or not that's where it was recorded or in an abandoned warehouse down on the docks, the fact is The Bruisers play like they've got an ongoing score to settle with the entire world and all its relatives!

For those not in the know, the light I'm about to shed on the subject matter won't mean a shit, but for those who remember, start reaching for your combat boots cause you'll wanna run out and grab this one…

"Live & Rare" means just that. The rarities come in the form of several unreleased tracks that scale all the way back to their earliest days like the first three I mentioned.

A re-recorded version of the crushing "Independence Day" falls in somewhere during the first half-the latter half being all live tracks.

And before turning towards the live stuff, catch a face full of flames on "Nation on Fire," originally done by The Blitz and "My Pride," before it, probably the best tune on the entire disc!

Hard to tell if they're really getting into this heavy duty English slang or just drunken rumblings that make it seem that way… most of the time we're dealing with freshly outdated recordings but every now and again, like The Blitz tune, the point is driven home clearly but still noisily!

The live stuff's gotta real rotten edge to it as well, beginning with "Never Fall," it was during a show they did, not very recently actually, back in '92 it looks like, and the pit-like dramatics that go on in a noisy sweat box that must have had to shut its doors right afterward.

They got the name, they got the guts and they got the stamina-over a decade now this groups' been doing their thing and even though Live collections and rarities don't usually mean crap to me, this is pretty important stuff in the overall life of an OI band and its devoted legions of fist-wielding followers!

Released by TKO Records

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]