Fifteen

It’s gotten pretty easy to slide by as a half-assed punk-rocker. Throw down some thickly distorted guitars and lazily attack the usual institutions of government, religion and business, and a ready-made audience pops up, eagerly waiting for the chance to join in the song. There just isn’t much impetus for punks to break away from the conservatism and predictability that pervades their genre. But Fifteen is one band willing to try. With lyrics that feature a decidedly human slant and music that bears a debt to emo as well as to three-chord rock, its new CD, Survivor, strays from punk’s overgrazed musical and thematic grounds.

While barely repressed anger sits at the core of Fifteen’s music, it’s fury fueled by a personal kind of despair. Whether sympathizing with young women who turn to the streets as a reaction to a culture of abuse (“Prostitute”) or musing on the American tendency to vilify victims of crime when they come from society’s margins (“Brian”), the band’s social consciousness is accompanied by a tender desire to make sense of human nature.

That’s not to say that Fifteen will be found making the scene at a love-in anytime soon. “The only thing worse than a stupid American/Is one who gets it and decides to do nothing,” singer/guitarist Jeff Ott howls in “Colorado Song,” a searing condemnation of both the easily duped general public and those who choose to overlook the problems just outside their door. Other times, Ott contemplates killing his landlord (“Landlord”) and rails against complacently upholding punk stereotypes rather than pushing for social change (“Punk Song”).

Sounding at times like a more dynamic version of a young Jawbreaker, Fifteen lays out melodic bass lines, powerful drum fills and a combination of open notes and power-chord guitar picking. The group makes more concessions to pop’s melodies than it does to knee-jerk punk, but its tense guitars hold enough of their own visceral flavor. Fifteen isn’t the loudest band out there, nor is it the angriest; somehow, though, it’s dropped one of the most powerful punk records heard in a while. Bruised souls and trampled hearts are as important to the style as pure rage, a fact beautifully illustrated on Survivor.