DFL (Dead Flipping Last — although it’s not “flipping” and the album isn’t called “Flip It”) are hardcore punks/skate punks, but with wit and intelligence.
Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz was a founder member back in 1991, so the song about partying — the narrator an arrogant youth who just wants to get drunk — sounds like the sort of track the Beasties’ “Party” was written to laugh at, but probably isn’t. (Michael “Mike D” Diamond also drummed for DFL at one point. Tom “Crazy Tom” Davis and Monty “Monte” Messex, the other founders, are still in the band.)
The title track opens the album. It seems to sum up the band’s attitude, although one suspects they now have nice houses, kids, station wagons out front and barbecues at weekends because they’re all older — but lyrics like: “So much to say so much to do / You’re never too old / You only live once” never date.
The sound is that of a college punk band. If you imagine young men in white T-shirts, jeans and sneakers bouncing around a frat house, banging chests and chugging beer — and later growing up to be stockbrokers or judges on the Supreme Court — then you’ve got the vibe. Not the band’s fault; it’s just the kind of music college kids would dance to without analysing the lyrics. It’s raw, high-speed punk, and its don’t-give-a-flip attitude will appeal to some, showing the variety punk can take when compared with Melonball.
JMC
