Thirty Seconds or Less - Three Tune Tuesday

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Here is my entry for Three Tune Tuesday (or #ttt), along with my daily HSBI raffle at the end of this post.

As usual, a big shoutout to @ablaze for keeping this thing going strong on Hive!

Today I want to share three tunes that are short, like really short. It’s Ramadan and I’m fasting, so I just want something quick and simple. What else, if not punk rock, would suit that criteria?

Let’s start with some Asian Pride.

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Hi-Standard – Asian Pride

Hi-Standard came out of Japan in the early 1990s and somehow managed to plug directly into the 90s melodic punk. They sang mostly in English, signed with Fat Wreck Chords, and built a bridge between the Japanese scene and the Western skate punk world.

“Asian Pride” is one of their shortest songs. It’s a fun tune that has a good solo guitar and riff despite the short length.

But what makes it stick for me is the attitude. There is a clear sense of identity in the title alone. It is not overexplained. In less than a minute, it delivers. No intro, no buildup. Just a sharp burst of pride and great tune.

Listen to the song:

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The Living End - Ready

The Living End were always a bit of an odd fit for the Fat Wreck Chords world, being Australian and coming from a rockabilly punk tradition rather than the Californian skate punk lineage. But they don't sound out of place. Never.

Ready is one of those short tracks that actually sounds like a full song. I mean it was not a sketch, not a gag, not a band running out of ideas after the first fifteen seconds. Cheney’s guitar comes in with that locked-in, slightly dangerous feel he had all over the late 90s, the upright bass sitting low and heavy underneath it, and the whole thing moves with the kind of confidence that comes from a band who already had a quintuple platinum debut album under their belt and probably found the thirty second limit more amusing than challenging.

In case you have never heard them before, I hope this very short song could make you curious about what a full length song from these guys actually sounds like.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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The Ataris - The Radio Still Sucks

More like The Ataris still sucks! Haha. Just kidding. I really love this band, which makes it all the more painful that when they were supposed to come to Jakarta in 2022, the show got cancelled over some luggage problem. I Bought the ticket and everything. Still bitter about it.

But back to this. The Radio Still Sucks is 28 seconds of The Ataris at their most gloriously petty, which is exactly the right length for what they are trying to say. The lyrics are basically a hit list. Kris Roe sounds genuinely annoyed, which helps a lot.

This is the pre-So Long Astoria version of the band, back when they were still a scrappy Indiana skate punk outfit playing fast and loose and not particularly worried about radio friendliness, which makes the song title even funnier in retrospect. A few years later they’d be all over those same radio stations with In This Diary and The Boys of Summer cover, and good for them honestly, because that album is great. But there’s something really charming about this earlier version of the band, rougher around the edges and very much okay with that.

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Daily HSBI Raffle

If you’re reading this post, I’d really appreciate an upvote, comment, or reblog, it really helps.

Congrats @jessuses1381 for winning 1 HSBI share. The prize has already been transferred.

I’ll randomly select one commenter to win 1 HSBI share. The winner will be announced in my next post. I’ll keep doing this regularly.