Don't Forget Your Roots!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...I've never been a big fan of a records worth of cover songs. That said, I've always loved the H2O cover songs...the exception being that Madonna cover...damn, I never need to hear that garbage again. 7 Seconds, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Ice Cube, even that bad boys song from Cops...shit was a lot of fun. So when it was announced that Bridge Nine was going to be releasing an H2O album of cover songs, as the band pays tribute to their influences, I was actually looking forward to it.

Brian Walsby, who did the iconic cover of 7 Seconds Walk Together Rock Together album, gives us the H2O version for the Don't Forget Your Roots cover.

H2O's music covers a lot of styles. They can play solid Hardcore, and they can seamlessly switch over to more of a punk rock sound with a ton of melody. So it is no surprise that their covers album includes a wide variety of bands. They cover songs from some bands that I couldn't give a shit about, like Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, and The Clash (yeah, I said it). They also cover some songs from the best bands ever, and while the Warzone cover is no surprise, Cats and Dogs by Gorilla Biscuits was a great choice, and hats off to H2O for including covers of Embrace and Verbal Assault.

While there is no lyric sheet, it was a nice touch to have something written by the band about what each song means to them.

Prior to the Don't Forget Your Roots LP release, Bridge Nine released three individual 7 inches. Each one is named after the scene that the chosen bands were from...for example, the California 7 inch includes Circle Jerks, Rancid, and Social Distortion, who were all from...you guessed it, California. Again the artwork was done by Brian Walsby, and each cover incorporates different icons from each scene and the bands involved.

I loved that all the 7 inches had a common theme and look running through them, and picked up one of each.

Since Bridge Nine refuses to post the pressing info when they put up vinyl pre-orders, I was left pick blindly on which colored vinyl I would buy. Seems like I picked the most common color for all of them. Damn.

1,000 pressed on yellow vinyl for California.

1,000 pressed on "orange" vinyl for New York City.

1,000 pressed on red for D.C..