Ramallah - "But A Whimper" bonus tracks and Dirty Water demos.

Ramallah - "But A Whimper" bonus tracks
Dirty Water @ Bandcamp
I've always been a huge fan of any music Rob Lind puts out. I heard Blood For Blood for the first time when I was in the ninth or tenth grade and I had never experienced anything so unapologetically angry and mean. I also dug Rob and his younger brother Mark's band, Sinners and Saints. Plus most of Mark's work with the Ducky Boys and Dirty Water. But then came Ramallah out of left field and kneed me right in my unsuspecting face. I remember a lot of people making fun of But A Whimper when it was released because Rob's singing voice sounded different. But I loved the record from the get go. The band had the same ferocity of Blood For Blood, but with a bigger emphasis on the metallic hardcore influence. And Ramallah's follow-up LP, Kill A Celebrity, is still one of my favorite hardcore records. Last month, after a long hiatus, we finally got a follow up to both Ramallah's and Sinners and Saints' very limited catalogs in the form of a split EP, Back From the Land of Nod. I've listened to it a few times. My verdict right now is that it's okay. I'm hoping it grows on me because I just don't get the same feeling from this material that I did from the older stuff.
So in the spirit of both bands' return, I've uploaded these two bonus tracks. They come from the vinyl release of But A Whimper. One song is an early version of "If I Die Today" (called "If I Die") and the other is - oddly enough - a Smiths cover. Yeah, you read that right. You can actually listen to "White Trash" Rob Lind sing a Smiths song ("What Difference Does It Make?"). And honestly, I hate the Smiths (well, I hate Morrissey), so to me the cover sounds way better than the original song.
They may not be can't-do-without album cuts like "Oscar Cotton" and "Shock and Awe," but they're a fun listen. Also head over to the Dirty Water Bandcamp page to listen to some previously unreleased demos intended for the band's full-length that never materialized. You can order physical copies of Back From the Land of Nod (as well as digital) from State Line Records' Bandcamp. Be sure to listen to the orignal Dirty Water EP (it's great), as well as the newest Ducky Boys releases (Chasing the Ghost and Chemicals) while you're there.