Reviews

Submission Hold are the Crass of this generation of punk and musical rebellion. All the members of this East Vancouver agit-punk band are fully involved, heart on their sleeve activists whose musical compositions both inspire and baffle their scene. Like Crass, SH’s artwork is far more than is put into the average album, with symbols and images that will likely be around in the next twenty years. And, like Crass, I know I should like it, that I identify with the spirit which led to the production of such an involved project, but something stops me musically. 
 
Some tracks like Dirt are so catchy and listenable that the next time Submission Hold rolls into town, I’ll be up front sing along with lead singer Jen Throwup’s treatise on environmentalism and feminism. Others however are so experimental and nonlinear that they are off-putting, most notably track five, Sealed June 16, 1994.  Sealed June 16, 1994 is an improvisational disaster by Submission Hold’s alter ego The Din, and it is wisely CD only. Get the vinyl. At times, SH really make their odd sound work as on Woodenhead, which opens with what sounds like silverware being rattled around over a disjointed guitar but a sweetly sung “look at the way they’ve bastardized your name.” It is really hard to pin down the sound of the album when Submission Hold is constantly changing it. Woodenhead is followed by the five minute sonic roadblock that is Sealed June 16, 1994, which is then followed by genre jumping mish mash of Hawks and Dove and Time. This track links Joe McCarthy, Mickey Mouse, the Rosenburgs, and today’s political pundits in a show tune(?) that wouldn’t sound out of place in My Fair Lady. 
 
Submission Hold is the most political band in the world, fiercely independent, intelligent, inclusive (all lyrics are printed in three languages), and definitely not afraid to take risks with their sound. I wish I liked it more. No other band sounds like Submission Hold, so buy if it if you like eastern folk, improv, punk rock, that song that goes “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” or positive female vocalists.