Ahh, who can forget the days when being in a band was a pissing competition as to who could play the loudest? When I decided to create this blog, this album was right on the top of the list for me to talk about. A perfectly almost unknown band that could survive in the pop-punk realm of loud repetivity.

Space camp was released in 2002 as Audio Karate’s debut album. I think I stumbled upon this when I was searching for another song with “nintendo” in the title. I downloaded the track (“Nintendo 89″), gave it a listen and I enjoyed what I heard at the young, feeble, impressionable age of 15. I purchased the CD from the local Strawberries and gave it a listen.

I pretty much wore out that track on the CD, with the addition of the next song, “Halfway Decent”. That was about as far as I got, not because I didn’t the rest of the songs, but because I was too young and stupid to listen to anything else. But enough of the past, back to 2008.

Audio Karate’s debute album is just that, a rough (very rough) debut. I’ve come to expect debut albus as a collection of songs that are tossed out there to see how many can be played on the radio ( the musical equivilant of sticking to the proverbial wall) (Also See: Brand New’s “Your Favorite Weapon”). Most of the songs had the same punk 3 note chord mashing that you expect from a high school talent show. Like all good stories, though, Audio Karate had a good ending. Their next release (“Lady Melody”) was much more grown up.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Notable Tracks: “Nintendo 89″