I-Spy “Perversity is Spreading… It’s About Time” CD

After literally years of slacking it is about time I fucking finally picked up "Perversity is Spreading... It's About Time" recently in order to condense as much I-Spy material as humanly possible onto one convenient CD. I've been a big fan of this band for about a decade now, and seeing as this collection was released something like eight years ago there's really no excuse for my insolence. I-Spy was from Canada and only existed from around 1994—1996. The band is probably best known these days due to their vocalist/guitarist Todd "The Rod" Kowalski, who later went on to Swallowing Shit and is currently in the almighty Propagandhi (listening back to this stuff you can definitely hear what his writing has brought to 'em since he joined). I-Spy is certainly viewed as a pretty significant band by many, but I still think they're pretty damn underrated and deserve more attention all around.

While not exactly a complete discography due to certain songs being lost (or perhaps intentionally "misplaced") over the years, this is basically everything the band ever put to tape. The end result is 26 tracks from various releases plus assorted rarities. The core of the CD is the "Revenge of the Little Shits" 10", the split 7" with ...But Alive, and the absolutely superb tracks from the I-Spy/Propagandhi split (a true classic in my book). So basically it's a shitload of minute-long songs (some are longer but none hit three minutes) of socio-political hardcore/punk with a really unique sense of dissonant melody and relatively identifiable vocal characteristics. They always had a good blend of fast and borderline harsh material against their catchier side, but the songwriting always comes across with a pretty high energy level regardless, and there's a definite edge of crunchy metal going on with a lot of the picking patterns and stuff, which totally rules (I refuse not to say "progressive thrash" somewhere within this write-up, and now I've done it). And, like Propagandhi, they've got a great sense of humor that doesn't conflict with their undeniable sincerity, which is always a plus. See what you think. "Remain" is easily one of the best hardcore/punk songs of its time. Complete and total perfection.

I-Spy "Remain"
I-Spy "Appliances and Cars"
I-Spy "You'll Never Smash the State"
I-Spy "More Than a Joke"

This is yet another selection that gets me wondering why bands like this don't really exist anymore? Oh well... at least the material's still in print and available, and that's the most important aspect of all. This disc is very much recommended, so vastly improve the quality of your collection and make the purchase if you enjoy the tunes:

@ G7 Welcoming Committee