Constantines / Shine A Light - SP569

The first pressing of the The Constantines’ self-titled (and Juno Award-nominated) debut (released on Three Gut Records in 2001) was fittingly packaged so that, upon opening the red cardstock booklet, you’d find a single strike anywhere match. In an effort to not ruin the beauty and poignancy of a thing through over-explanation, suffice it to say that if your relationship with rock and roll is not fundamentally a quest for fire (elemental, transformative, consuming), you’ve missed the point. This from Magnet magazine: "They’re young offenders with sharpened teeth who make grinding, literate punk with the elasti-to-explosive guitars heard on Fugazi’s “Smallpox Champion,” the stark lyrical economy of a Vonnegut-penned newspaper obituary…" And: “The Constantines are old souls in young bodies-guys in their early 20s who sound like Joe Strummer backed by Fugazi – making music that wakes the sleeping and the dead.” Shine a Light is The Constantines’ second full-length and first for Sub Pop (Three Gut continues as the band’s home north of the border).

Released: 2003-08-19 (CD), 2003-08-19 (LP), 2009-08-12 (MP3s)